Top 10 SEO Mistakes
Here is the top 10 biggest SEO mistakes. Simply put, fixing these issues will skyrocket your positioning every time. Search engines base your ranking from popularity to content. There is 200 factors that are between you and the top 10 according to Google. Most importantly are people looking for what you have on the internet? And if they are, how much competition do you have for that keyword?
1. Webmasters -Sign up for www.google.com/webmasters. People that are not familiar with Google webmasters do not have as much a chance. GW will tell you if you have crawl issues, if you have been crawled or index and you can tell them do not crawl or when to crawl and a ton of other information. They also give you guide lines! YES GUIDE LINES. It is the fastest way to get indexed as you can upload your site map directly to them. It tells you what they see and it tells you how you rank for your top keywords!
2. Title Tags- These are the tags at the top of every page in the web browser. The upper left hand tab will tell you what the page is about. This is crucial it matches every single page. DO NOT use the same title tag for each page! The title is just like the title of a book. It tells the reader what the book is about. The same applies to a webpage.Do not use more than 3 Keywords in your title tags! Try and keep it at one, maybe two.
3. Description Tags - Description tags are what tells search engines what the page is about. If a search engine does not know how will it index your page? It won’t! Make sure each and every single page has a normal description tag.
4. H Tags - H tags are simple and old school techniques. H1/H2 tags are usually the first part of the paragraph on a page. When going to the second topic use a h2 tag. You can also use a H3 and so on, however if you have that many just add a new page. This will give you an edge as you now have more pages to get indexed. A perfect example of a h1 tag is the first part of this page "Top 10 Seo mistakes". The code will look like this <h1>Top 10 SEO Mistakes</h1>
5. Content- Start your content about the title/description as you see on this page. Talk about your main keyword and move out to other keywords relevant to the main keyword. Never copy other peoples content. Google keeps a record and if you copy your competition Google will move them up and you back as you are making them more popular, and your content with a keyword. Google reads left to right just like most of us.
6. Keywords - This is big. One of the biggest mistakes ever made. Do not spam on your keywords. Google does not even care about keyword meta tags. I still feel you should use keyword meta tags, many search engines still use them. Google guide lines say you should not use more than 10 keywords per page. We say you should not use more than one keyword per page. Think about it, if you have more than one keyword make an entire page about it! The more pages the better.
7. Keyword Research - Important! Do your homework. If you are going to spend time and money on a website and marketing, spend the time to see what competition you have. If you are going after the keyword Money, you may want to look at a less traveled approach to Money, for example: if the keyword insurance gets 150,000 searches a month and you have 200,000 other websites with that particular title tag, you might want to consider something else. It would cost too much money and take too long to beat the giants already there. Is it possible to make it to the top ten? Yes, practical no. I would rather take a side approach, For example the keyword "Best place to invest money" gets over 10,000 searches a month and only has 13 competitors with that exact title tag! Use 10 words like this and now you have 100,000 unique hits a month and you are now ready to steer the boat at the main keyword "Money".
8. Out bound links - Google says, more than 100 outbound links per page is not good. This applies to any page. If you have more than 100 links you are cutting yourself short. In some cases it maybe a smart move. For example: www.123lift.com sells lifts all over and has lift some have never heard of. They want to market to every major city and as we did so for them it created more than 100 links. The con is they will never be number one for the keyword Liftgate ( they settled for number 3 which took a long time) the pro is if you search for "lift gates in Miami" they will be in the top 5 if not number one. This goes for all the other major cities as well. So in this case it is a plus to have more than 100 outbound links on a page.
9. Page Packing - Do not put your entire website on your home page! I see this all the time! Your home page should have what you do and have links to the pages about what you do. If your site is about money, don’t cram all of your keywords on the home page. Instead make a page for each. You will be glad you did!
If you are consistently redoing your home page and you are not a “news” site you will look like you are under construction. Wait till you rank to redo your site. Also people get familiar your with site by looking at it, changes all the time leaves them guessing if they have the correct website. Google will think it is under construction and deduct points. Never use under construction words either!
10. Back Links - Consistent daily or bi daily back links. A few a days is more than enough. Any one or company that gets you major links in a week or day might get you to the top just long enough to feel the gold, however you will be sent to the end of the line as soon as they find out or someone snitches. (Remember 1st mistake) As a Google webmaster you can blow the whistle on cheaters. Make sure you know what you are doing as they track your IP and if you falsify it can back fire on you) .Make sure you build back links on a normal consistency. 1 here, 3 there, skip a few days, and then add 2, then 1 here. Do not just add 5 links every single day. This will set you back.
Learn more! Let me consult with you and fix your site! I will show YOU how to do it over the phone and via email. I will improve your overall score and if your site has been on the internet for a long time you will move up fast! If your site is new you will learn exactly what to expect within a given time frame. You need to be in the driver’s seat and I will explain it to you in simple terms. Affordable seo starts here! Take the necessary steps to improve your ranking today. Do you think your site might be a waste of time? Just ask!