Search Engine Optimization

For many companies that are new to the web, search engine optimization (SEO) is a mind-boggling affair.  There is so much information available out there about SEO that it can be downright overwhelming to figure out what to do and what not to do. Although there is plenty that can go wrong in a newbie’s search engine optimization campaign, the 5 mistakes below cause the most harm.  Fortunately, with minimal effort, these SEO no-no’s can be easily avoided.

1. Targeting Only Highly Competitive Keywords

It’s going to take some time for your site to build authority and climb the search engine results pages.  If you only target highly competitive keywords, it will only take longer for your site to rank, since you’ll be competing with established sites.

When you’re starting out, focus on targeting less competitive, long-tail keywords, which are easier to rank for.  When you target several long-tail keywords, they can bring you a significant amount of traffic.  As an added benefit, long-tail keywords tend to be more specific and therefore bring traffic to your website that converts better.

2. Not Providing Enough Textual Content

As the saying goes, content is king.  Without textual content, the search engine bots that crawl your website won’t be able to determine what it’s about.   Make sure that each page of your site features at least 300 words of original, SEO content.

3. Using Keywords in Your Content Excessively

After realizing that it’s a good idea to include target keywords in their content, some newbies make the mistake of being excessive.  Keyword-stuffed copy may help you rank better initially, but it won’t help you attract readers, which is essential to your success.  Make sure that you write for humans first, and then search engines.  Besides, you have to be careful because stuffing your site’s content with keywords can get your site blacklisted by the search engines.

4. Having a Flash Website with No HTML

Flash is attractive and cutting-edge, but in terms of SEO, it’s an absolute nightmare.  To ensure that the search engine bots can index your website and crawl your site’s content, make sure to provide an html version of your site.

5. Not Using Descriptive Page Titles that Include Target Keywords

Not only are page titles on your website the first thing that search engine bots encounter when they crawl your website, they are also the first thing that searchers will see when they view your listing on search engine results pages.  Make sure that your page titles are relevant to the content and that they contain target keywords.  Each page of your website should have a unique title.