10 Mistakes in Search Engine Optimization

[Fabregas]

Top Ten Mistakes in Search Engine Optimization are:

1. Wrong Keywords are targeted – this is the most common mistake in Search Engine Optimization, even most experienced Search Engine Optimization experts make it. Most of the keywords chosen by the people for their websites are descriptive for their website, but they are too far from average users mind. For example for a relationship website the keyword ‘relationship guide’ won’t work even tough it contains the keyword ‘relationship.’ On the other hand ‘dating advice’ will work easily.

2. Using Java Script Menus – search engine do not read JavaScript, so build your website accordingly. You should go for sitemap i.e. putting your links in a noscript tag. Once doing so all your links will be crawable.

3. Flash website without html as alternate – one thing you should remember is that flash websites are attractive but not to search engines. If you want your Flash based website to be loved by the search engines then provide an html versions. The reason why search engine don’t like Flash sites is because spider can’t read Flash content and therefore can’t index it.

4. Title Tags are ignored – very often people leave < title > tag empty. Instead leaving it empty this is one of the best place to have a keyword, because it not only help you out in optimization but also the text in the < title > tag shows in the search results as your page title.

5. Meta-tags are past – it is a common myth that Search Engine Optimization is all about getting your Meta keywords and description correct. Meta tags are long gone now they are past and don’t except your website will be ranked well because of adding Meta keywords and description.

6. Ignoring URLs – URL plays an important role in your websites promotion. It is possible to have high rank even without keywords in the URL. But if you have keywords in the URL, (file name, domain name as part of the URL) gives you an additional advantage. For MSN and Yahoo keywords in URL are more important. Even for Google weight of URLs with keywords is more than that of the URLs without keywords.

7. Less keyword in content – put keywords wherever it makes sense and focuses more on keywords. It will be better to highlight them or make them bold.

8. Choose backlinks wisely – one of the most common fallacies is that more backlinks are always better. Because of this many web masters go for links with forum, newsgroup, link farm etc. ultimately leading the site to be banned. What you really need is quality backlinks.

9. Images for Headlines – an image in the headline can make your website look unique, but not in terms Search Engine Optimization. For search engines images in menus and headline are big mistakes because menu links and h2, h2 tags are important for SEO. If you are not sure how your h1, h2 tag will look like or you are afraid of that it will look horrible, try improving or modifying them in stylesheet instead of going for an image.

10. Consistency and maintenance – in the last but not least, most important to get rank in search engine is daily updates. To be successful optimize your site permanently and keep an eye on competition.

[harry]

Thanks for sharing, I really appreciate your hard work
Though I would like to amend one point about “ Java Script Menus “ recently Google and other SE’s have updated themselves and now they proclaim that they can read content included within JavaScripts. Thus, you can have SE friendly, interactive java based menus for your websites.

Refer : An Update On Javascript Menus And Search Engine Optimization

[Catherine]

Thank you for the above post Fabregas. I would like to Add that you should make sure that your website does not have Dead links as Dead links can also affect your Search Engine Rankings.

[Merrick]

Nice search Fabregas! It is really very informative post.

One more common mistake is checking the Page Ranking daily. The rankings are definitely supposed to change irrespective of you checking it on daily basis or not. It is always better to spend the time on improving your web site rather than watching it which might flicker up and down the SERPs.

[paul]

Thanks for your post! Also Search Engine Optimization is not one time process because search engines constantly modifying their algorithms so you need to monitor the changes on regular basis and implement the necessary changes in your SEO Process.

[Adrian]

Originally Posted by Merrick

Nice search Fabregas! It is really very informative post.

One more common mistake is checking the Page Ranking daily. The rankings are definitely supposed to change irrespective of you checking it on daily basis or not. It is always better to spend the time on improving your web site rather than watching it which might flicker up and down the SERPs.

Well, I don't think checking the page rankings of your website on a Regular basis is a waste of time or something like that. Infact, checking the page rankings of your website on the Search Engines will guide you to do the Search Engine Optimization of your website properly and also tell you the status and the kind of work you are doing. It will also help you to know the Mistakes you are doing in Search Engine Optimization of your website so that you do not repeat the Mistakes and do the Optimization work properly.

[paul]

I think instead of regular monitoring of page rankings ( which generally change after 3 months or so) it would worth more if you keep track on your daily performance in SERPs.

[harry]

@Adrian
Do you still believe and give importance to Page Rank ? rather i would suggest to concentrate on writing helpful/unique keyword rich content for your website which will help you in SERP.

[Adrian]

Originally Posted by Adrian

Well, I don't think checking the page rankings of your website on a Regular basis is a waste of time or something like that. Infact, checking the page rankings of your website on the Search Engines will guide you to do the Search Engine Optimization of your website properly and also tell you the status and the kind of work you are doing. It will also help you to know the Mistakes you are doing in Search Engine Optimization of your website so that you do not repeat the Mistakes and do the Optimization work properly.

Actually, I have made a mistake and I would like to apologize for it. I wanted to say "you should keep a track of SERP of your website regularly and not Page Ranking of your website". I hope I have cleared the confusion now.

[Merrick]

Originally Posted by Adrian

Actually, I have made a mistake and I would like to apologize for it. I wanted to say "you should keep a track of SERP of your website regularly and not Page Ranking of your website". I hope I have cleared the confusion now.

Yes, you have cleared the confusion

Well, even if you say that checking the page rankings of your website on a Regular basis is not a waste of time, it's your opinion and not confusion

[Adrian]

Originally Posted by Merrick

Yes, you have cleared the confusion

Well, even if you say that checking the page rankings of your website on a Regular basis is not a waste of time, it's your opinion and not confusion

Even I agree to it that Checking Google Page Ranking of your website on a Regular basis is not worth it as Google updates Page Ranking in 3 months or so but checking the SERP's of your website is certainly not a waste of time and one should make sure that you keep on checking it for Main keywords so that you get an Idea of the Search Engine Optimization work of your website and find out ways to improve SERP's of your website.

[ronaldo]

Thanks for sharing such useful things

[Fabregas]

Originally Posted by constantinum

That's a good article.. missed on few points.. but it was comprehensive

We will be thankful if you please explain the missing points

[Merrick]

Originally Posted by constantinum

That's a good article.. missed on few points.. but it was comprehensive

I have tried to find out Common Mistakes in Search Engine Optimization on many SEs, however, all are similar to what Fabregas and other forummates have posted. I do not think that there might be any other mistakes which have been missed in the above post.

We would like to know the other "missed" mistakes in Search Engine Optimization. May I know what are they?

[jamesmilner]

Hello Fabregas,

Thanks for sharing such useful info about search engine optimization, I also have made some of the mistakes which you have mentioned but after reading your post i will never repeat my mistakes

[magicweb]

Just to add to the list of mistakes. NEVER repeat your keywords more than twice in the first 500 words of the page.

[AndreyW]

and the biggest mistake - stopping doing Search Engine Optimization... Soon as the Internet is very dynamic phenomenon, the website must be developed constantly. Otherwise the effect will be temporarily. Everything changes, so nothing is true.
To find out - look for this:
"website promotion articles by shulman"

[promote2612]

It was allready in 3.0.5 but because of a bug it did not work correct in that version. The bug has been solved in 3.0.6.

[Adrian]

Originally Posted by magicweb

Just to add to the list of mistakes. NEVER repeat your keywords more than twice in the first 500 words of the page.

Well, I think the density of keywords on the page should be limited, generally, 5-7% as recommended and if you think that you need the keywords to be written more than 2 or 3 times in the first 500 words, you can do that. However, the keywords placed should look natural to the visitors as this will create a good effect on the visitors as well as the search engine rankings of the webpage.

[princeahmed]

Hi dear all members

I'm new in the field of Search Engine Optimization and in learning process. The article shared by Febragas is very useful and will helps a lot.