10 Common Mistakes in SEO

1. Targetting the wrong keywords

This is a mistake many people make and what is worse – even experienced SEO experts make it. People choose keywords that in their mind are descriptive of their website but the average users just may not search them. For instance, if you have a relationship site, you might discover that “relationship guide” does not work for you, even though it has the “relationship” keyword, while “dating advice” works like a charm. Choosing the right keywords can make or break your SEO campaign. Even if you are very resourceful, you can't think on your own of all the great keywords but a good keyword suggestion tool, for instance, the Website Keyword Suggestion tool will help you find keywords that are good for your site.

2. Ignoring the Title tag

Leaving the <title> tag empty is also very common. This is one of the most important places to have a keyword, because not only does it help you in optimization but the text in your <title> tag shows in the search results as your page title.

3. A Flash website without a html alternative

Flash might be attractive but not to search engines and users. If you really insist that your site is Flash-based and you want search engines to love it, provide an html version. Here are some more tips for optimizing Flash sites. Search engines don't like Flash sites for a reason – a spider can't read Flash content and therefore can't index it.

4. JavaScript Menus

Using JavaScript for navigation is not bad as long as you understand that search engines do not read JavaScript and build your web pages accordingly. So if you have JavaScript menus you can't do without, you should consider build a sitemap (or putting the links in a noscript tag) so that all your links will be crawlable.

5. Lack of consistency and maintenance

Our friend Rob from Blackwood Productions often encounters clients, who believe that once you optimize a site, it is done foreve. If you want to be successful, you need to permanently optimize your site, keep an eye on the competition and – changes in the ranking algorithms of search engines.

6. Concentrating too much on meta tags

A lot of people seem to think SEO is about getting your meta keywords and description correct! In fact, meta tags are becoming (if not already) a thing of the past. You can create your meta keywords and descriptions but don't except to rank well only because of this.

7. Using only Images for Headings

Many people think that an image looks better than text for headings and menus. Yes, an image can make your site look more distinctive but in terms of SEO images for headings and menus are a big mistake because h2, h2, etc. tags and menu links are important SEO items. If you are afraid that your h1 h2, etc. tags look horrible, try modifying them in a stylesheet or consider this approach: http://www.stopdesign.com/articles/replace_text.

8. Ignoring URLs

Many people underestimate how important a good URL is. Dynamic page names are still very frequent and no keywords in the URL is more a rule than an exception. Yes, it is possible to rank high even without keywords in the URL but all being equal, if you have keywords in the URL (the domain itself, or file names, which are part of the URL), this gives you additional advantage over your competitors. Keywords in URLs are more important for MSN and Yahoo! but even with Google their relative weight is high, so there is no excuse for having keywordless URLs.

9. Backlink spamming

It is a common delusion that it more backlinks are ALWAYS better and because of this web masters resort to link farms, forum/newgroup spam etc., which ultimately could lead to getting their site banned. In fact, what you need are quality backlinks. Here are some more information on The Importance of Backlinks

10. Lack of keywords in the content

Once you focus on your keywords, modify your content and put the keywords wherever it makes sense. It is even better to make them bold or highlight them.
 

benbob

New Member
There is a direct link between good content and back links. The more high quality content your pages have, the more quality back links you will get. These links will also have a much higher rate of being from subject related websites which will increase the value Google give to them.
 
i do agree with you benbob.. the back links will help drive the traffic to your website while good contents will keep your viewers.. hehehe..
 

sitebuilder

New Member
Thanks very much, I knew all those but even though I knew the first one I have a hard time not falling victim to it. I am always trying to reinvent the keywords I focus on and i cant leave very well alone.
 

merry12

New Member
This is a mistake many people make and what is worse – even experienced SEO experts make it. People choose keywords that in their mind are descriptive of their website but the average users just may not search them.
 

greatar4

New Member
1. Targetting the wrong keywords

That is the mistake that really affects one of my site. When I started I didn't know much about search engine optimization, I selected keywords that were too broad and keywords that were too competitive. I did end up getting in the first position for one of them on Google, but I din't make any profit from that keyword.

The best way someone can select the right keyword is to choose specific and targeted keywords. The level of competition a keyword has is also important when choosing a keyword. The less competitive a keyword is the less difficulty you'll face with regard to getting top ranking. But, the more competitive a keyword is the tougher it is going to be for you to outrank your competitors and the longer it is going to take you to get on the first page.
 

emilywatsons

New Member
That is the mistake that really affects one of my site. When I started I didn't know much about search engine optimization, I selected keywords that were too broad and keywords that were too competitive. I did end up getting in the first position for one of them on Google, but I din't make any profit from that keyword.

The best way someone can select the right keyword is to choose specific and targeted keywords. The level of competition a keyword has is also important when choosing a keyword. The less competitive a keyword is the less difficulty you'll face with regard to getting top ranking. But, the more competitive a keyword is the tougher it is going to be for you to outrank your competitors and the longer it is going to take you to get on the first page.

This is good advice, if you need good results from an SEO campaign which you obviously do, you absolutely must do a proper keyword research and select the keywords according to the competition.
 

Robert-B

Member
Im sorry but where the hell did you pull that list from, a website made about 10 years ago. Here is a common mistake in seo - believing everything you read on the internet!
 

Lou Neri

Member
Read The secret life of links by ermmm Oh yeah .... Me :)

I noticed that you dont always agree on other members post about SEO.
You always brag about that what others doing are entirely wrong.

Then you wrote this article "The secret life of links" :)

That was really an informative post actually. But...

Not to be rude with you @chrishirst , but just a quick question.

How would we know that everything you said in that post is real?

Can you back up you statements?

also this one :
There is NO SUCH THING as an "irrelevant link". That is, unless YOU were the one that placed the link to your own site and in that case those links are ALL irrelevant.

Why would we believe on those statements?

Sorry but I'm really intrigued the way you see SEO.

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
 

chrishirst

Well-Known Member
Staff member
How would we know that everything you said in that post is real?

You don't, I may well be talking complete bollocks, but I do not expect that you take what I say as absolute fact (I leave absolute immutable 'facts' for religion) and I certainly do not want you to accept it 'on faith', all I ask or hope for is that you take notice then test it for yourself.

Why do I say there are no irrelevant links?
(A) Because relevancy or irrelevancy are FAR more complex than being on the same subject or not, so so many things can be "relevant" to something else that goes way, way beyond the topic at hand and 'link builders' only manage to see things in a one dimensional view. ie This 'site' is about 'X' my 'site' is about 'X' so it must be relevant. That is not how it works.
For a start SEO is not about search engines any more, that started to go away when the Internet exploded (c1999 ~ 2003) into the public psyche, from then on Search, (with a capital S) became ubiquitous and every website grew a 'search' feature. Then came the expansion of Search with content pages carrying Google Adsense, Affiliate ads and so on, Forums gave way to 'Blogs' with Search, 'Blogs' moved oved over to give space to 'Social Media' also with Search.

Your pages do not need Google, YahobliveMSN to be on the 'front page' of somewhere, but what you DO ABSOLUTELY NEED is that your pages (not site) and that means ALL your pages not just the 'home' page, MUST be 'optimised' for REAL PEOPLE to read, optimised for converting visitors to customers. SEO these days should really be an initialism for user Site Experience Optimisation, and back at 'link building', that needs to be not 'relevant' but related and aimed at building a relationship with the visitors to page 'A'. A relationship that persuades them to visit your page(s), a relationship that persuades them to 'tell their friends, a relationship that generates real traffic, from real people and real interest from real people.
This way your links are 'relative' to the people reading the page, and if some 'scraper' or 'feed aggregator' republishes a link to your page about Hotels in Budapest on a page for Premier League Football in the UK, there is a pretty good chance that several people reading that page are planning a trip to support "their team" in Budapest, the link might be worth nothing for "Google currency" but it could be the best link you never placed in real terms, and you would have missed it (or 'disavowed it) because it is not 'relevant'.
 

Lou Neri

Member
You don't, I may well be talking complete bollocks, but I do not expect that you take what I say as absolute fact (I leave absolute immutable 'facts' for religion) and I certainly do not want you to accept it 'on faith', all I ask or hope for is that you take notice then test it for yourself.

Why do I say there are no irrelevant links?
(A) Because relevancy or irrelevancy are FAR more complex than being on the same subject or not, so so many things can be "relevant" to something else that goes way, way beyond the topic at hand and 'link builders' only manage to see things in a one dimensional view. ie This 'site' is about 'X' my 'site' is about 'X' so it must be relevant. That is not how it works.
For a start SEO is not about search engines any more, that started to go away when the Internet exploded (c1999 ~ 2003) into the public psyche, from then on Search, (with a capital S) became ubiquitous and every website grew a 'search' feature. Then came the expansion of Search with content pages carrying Google Adsense, Affiliate ads and so on, Forums gave way to 'Blogs' with Search, 'Blogs' moved oved over to give space to 'Social Media' also with Search.

Your pages do not need Google, YahobliveMSN to be on the 'front page' of somewhere, but what you DO ABSOLUTELY NEED is that your pages (not site) and that means ALL your pages not just the 'home' page, MUST be 'optimised' for REAL PEOPLE to read, optimised for converting visitors to customers. SEO these days should really be an initialism for user Site Experience Optimisation, and back at 'link building', that needs to be not 'relevant' but related and aimed at building a relationship with the visitors to page 'A'. A relationship that persuades them to visit your page(s), a relationship that persuades them to 'tell their friends, a relationship that generates real traffic, from real people and real interest from real people.
This way your links are 'relative' to the people reading the page, and if some 'scraper' or 'feed aggregator' republishes a link to your page about Hotels in Budapest on a page for Premier League Football in the UK, there is a pretty good chance that several people reading that page are planning a trip to support "their team" in Budapest, the link might be worth nothing for "Google currency" but it could be the best link you never placed in real terms, and you would have missed it (or 'disavowed it) because it is not 'relevant'.


Now I get your point :) .

Thank you the clarification ;)

Just a quick question (quick question again) :D

If you will be given only 5 link building strategy for a certain website (any niche).

What would it be and why? :)


Lou Neri ;)
 

Lou Neri

Member
Also,

I wanted to ask the basic, how much do you think SEO has changed from the old methods of "backlinking, on-page/off-page, social media links, link juice, Page Rank" etc terms we used to hear, do any of the old tactics (I'm talking like 2014 and before) have any strength in todays time, and in your view what are the 3 key ingredients to ranking keywords and websites in the modern age?

Long question, but I think this should help clear up a lot of general questions that other members ask about SEO. :)

Lou Neri
 

chrishirst

Well-Known Member
Staff member
how much do you think SEO has changed from the old methods of "backlinking, on-page/off-page, social media links, link juice, Page Rank" etc terms
Not at all or Immensely, depending on your point of view, none of those were ever really "SEO" they were just brute-force attempts at making search engines 'think' URLs were more 'important' or 'valuable' and as such were only short term 'patches'. Just like all the silly 'linking schemes' that have come and gone over time.
The basics of building a good site, a good reputation and good relationships with visitors by providing what they are after have not changed.

what are the 3 key ingredients to ranking keywords and websites in the modern age?
No idea, haven't looked at 'ranking' for keywords in twelve years or so, "Rank Checking" ceased to be of any use in about 2003/2004 when this ( http://webmaster-talk.eu/articles/1...earch-engines/4-rankings-and-the-google-dance ) happened.
 

jainteq

Member
Many fail in choosing the right keywords and therefore are unable to see good results in the SERP. So one must see to that and take good time to frame right keyword phrases for optimising a website.
 
Top