2. Untargeted Keywords.
The people who use search engines are 'normal' people who
are not likely to use words used in advertising brochures.
Get to know how your customers ask for your
services/products and use these in your content. Often
times, actual keyword research will surprise you.
3. Excessive Graphics and Flash Content.
This looks good on a web page, but to search engine
crawlers it means little. Search engines are looking for
content, keywords, and relevancy to the search terms. By all
means have some graphics, but don't forget the meat. This
doesn't mean Flash designed websites are bad necessarily. In
fact, some big businesses do use it. For most webmasters
though, Flash sites are best avoided. Unless your Flash
designer does high-end websites and knows how to integrate
the content and keywords within the Flash, hybrid sites
combining Flash headers with HTML content will be a good
option.
4. Believing all search engines are the same.
What pleases Yahoo might not necessarily please MSN or
Google. Optimize your content, keywords, inbound links, and
internal linking structure so that there is something for at
least one of the three top search engines.
5. Multiple Search Engine Submissions.
In the very early days of search engines, this technique
may have had some success, but now it can lead to slower
indexing and rankings. A site with inbound links from other
sites will get indexed naturally and search engine
submission is not necessary. In fact, multiple submissions
may be construed as an attempt to spam the search engines.
The top 5 engines account for more than 90% of all activity
so it is wise not to ruin your chances of ranking naturally
in the search results. (comScore Media Metrix qSearch data,
August 2005)
6. Incorrect Use of Title Tags.
Most people consider the title to be for their company
name or product. Not so. You must include your most
important search phrases within your title tag and if you do
want your company name there, keep it for the end. Keep the
title tag to less than 65 characters long to avoid the
appearance of title tag keyword-stuffing.
7. Use of 'Black Hat' techniques.
Techniques such as doorway pages, hidden text, and
overstuffing keywords may have had success in the past but
now they will earn you penalties and could even get you
banned. Avoid them altogether if you are seeking long term
success. Some black hat techniques can work on a short term
basis, but in the long run prove very costly.
8. Expecting Immediate Results.
SEO is an ongoing process and should be treated as such
by your SEO company. Good optimization will involve building
good links with quality sites and this takes time.
9. Use of Unethical SEO Consultants.
Beware the consultant that guarantees rankings with no
past clients to back it up with or claims of special
relationships with search engines. Many such "consultants"
or "experts" will probably take your money and run. Choose a
reputable SEO consultant, one who will keep in regular
contact with progress reports and updates.
10. Decide to do optimization in-house.
Probably possible in the past, but now with ever
increasing sophistication of search engine algorithms, this
is an area best left to an expert. Furthermore, the good SEO
experts usually have other income streams from their online
marketing activities and a regular paycheck to work
full-time simply doesn't justify their time invested. We've
yet to meet a good SEO who doesn't have virtual real estate
bringing in a nice chunk of cash.
