SEO Mistakes – Top 7 Search Engine Optimization Mistakes and How to Correct Them

Many website owners have unrealistic expectations when it comes to optimizing their site for the search engines when they speak with an SEO consultant. They think their site will immediately appear on the first page for a general keyword. For example if I do a Google search for “web design” it currently says there are 583,000,000 results. That means you have 583,000,000 websites competing for that phrase. It would take an extremely long time to rank on the first page.

Top 7 SEO Mistakes and how to correct them

1. Using incorrect keywords

Some SEO companies promise they’ll get top rankings for your website in Google and other search engines. This can be very easy if no one ever searches on that keyword because there’s little or no competition. You may receive first page rankings but see no increase in traffic. Only target keywords people are searching on. An easy way to verify this is to enter your main keyword in the Google Keyword Research Tool and view how many searches it receives. If there are no global monthly searches it means no one is searching on that keyword (no demand).

2. Selecting very competitive keywords

If your keyword is too competitive you’ll waste time and effort trying to obtain good rankings for it. Select keywords that receive a high number of searches and have little competition. Select an alternative keyword phrase if there are too many competing websites. It’s best to focus on “long tail” keywords first. These are phrases which have low search volume and few competitors. Concentrate on these first then go after the more popular terms later.

3. Selecting keywords with no commercial value

Keywords with a high search volume are not necessarily the best keywords to use if they have no commercial value. They may receive thousands of searches but if no one buys as a result of finding your site through those keywords you won’t profit.

Look at how many ads are displayed on the right side of the Google’s result pages for your keyword. If they are full of ads you know advertisers are willing to pay to display ads targeting that keyword. If there are no or a few ads displayed your keyword has no or little commercial value.

4. Improper website optimization

In order for search engines to find your site your main keywords should be included in the meta tags, file names, heading tags, image tags, navigation links, anchor text (hyperlinked text) and web copy. If your website primarily consists of flash pages it will be difficult to obtain high rankings because search engines don’t index flash pages. Make sure each web page targets a different keyword phrase.

5. Bad links

Link popularity determines how fast and and how high you rank in the search engines. The more links you have pointing to your own site and the quality of those links will drastically affect your rankings. Website owners often make the mistake of getting links from unrelated sites or participating in link farms containing low quality links. This may result in lowering your rankings. Only obtain links from sites that relate or compliment your own.

6. Getting links from one source

Search engines can see if you’re only relying on one source for obtaining backlinks and may think you’re artificially inflating your rankings through this method. Ideally they want to see sites naturally linking to yours by providing high quality content. Instead of getting all your links from only one source (e.g. one article directory) make sure you get them from a variety of sites.

7. Too many links too fast

Because people are impatient they’ll find the path of least resistance and use spammy techniques to get 1000s of links at one time. For instance, they’ll write an article then use software to produce 1000 different versions of it using slightly different text then submit those articles at the same time using submission software. Search engines will recognize this as a red flag and eventually penalize that site by removing or lowering it’s rankings.

Avoid these top 7 SEO mistakes by focusing on creating high quality content and building quality backlinks to your website. If requires consistent effort but rewards you with high rankings, traffic and sales.

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