Top ten Most Common SEO Mistakes

source: http://www.web-hosting-newsletter.com

1. Using Wacky codes – When designing and coding your website it is important that you do not use spider-illegible JavaScript or other coding where legible code could do the same thing.

2. Keywords That Make Sense - Keywords are extremely important. You should figure out what keyword phrases mean the most to your website or offering, and to the people who are searching for your site. Try to focus on a small group of the most important keywords that customers may actually be searching for, and not every keyword combination under the sun.

3. No Smart or Solid Navigation Structure - Most optimal url’s contain relevant keywords with minimal slashes and dynamic characters. Keep the pages and names true to the content, and the engines will appreciate it

4. Title Tags Matter - Thinking that one title tag will work throughout your site won’t work. Each page should have a unique title tag to explain what the page is about. These titles show up in the Search Engine Results and help persuade visitors from clicking your site over the next person’s.

5. Splash Pages - Splash pages can sometimes leave your home page empty without much focus. If you insist on keeping a splash page, be sure to add relevant content and some form of navigation to keep search engines spidering through your site.

6. Thinking all search engines are the same - All search engines are on their own plan so that is why you may rank better with some than with others. Know that the top search engines bring the most traffic, so concentrate on them (ie Google, MSN and Yahoo).

7. I heard that links can now hurt you - Getting links from related (key point) sites is always helpful in the SEO world. You should always be on the look out for good quality links. Trading a ton of links a day with other webmasters is not necessarily helping you. It is NOT good to trade links with sites that are completely unrelated. Many webmasters trade too many links with sites that end up watering down your link credibility and turn into wasted efforts. Choose who you link with wisely.

8. Balancing Code and Graphics - Your site should consist of a healthy balance between code (HTML) and graphics. This is key both to search engine visibility and conversions.

9. The Customer has arrived, now what? - Make sure that your site is set up to provide whatever you are trying to rank for. You need to give the visitor what they are hoping to find to make it worth bringing the visitors to your site.

10. Thinking that SEO is everything - SEO is important but should be one part of a healthy online marketing plan.

Additional Points:

Having a website is not enough, you need a marketing plan - you need to know your customers and what they want. It is useless to bring traffic to a site that is not going to relate to your offering or convert customers.