Top 5 SEO Mistakes

Top 5 SEO Mistakes

This article covers what could be considered to be the top 5 mistakes businesses make when it comes to their Search Engine Optimization strategies.

SEO is a very complex area and many companies often squander a lot of money with companies who promise a number 1 spot on Google or Bing, but who fail to deliver on that promise. The main reason for this is that it really is hard to achieve that number one spot that we all strive for. However, with some hard work, dedication and plenty of keyword research it can be done. So, first of all, what are those top 5 SEO mistakes?

1. Using the same title/meta tag for pages with different content

When Google, Bing and other Search Engines trawl the web looking for pages to rank one of the first things that gets looked at is the title and meta tags. The title tag appears within the header code and shows at the top of the web page for the end user. The title tag needs to tell the search engine what the page is about. Using a title such as "Home" does not provide the information needed to rank your page appropriately. Try to be imaginative and give accurate descriptions for each page.

2. Keyword stuffing

One of the biggest mistakes people make is thinking that they can load their page with keywords to cover everything their business and website do and offer and even some things they don't do in the hopes that they will still get additional exposure under those keywords.

Sadly this is not the case and in actual fact can work against you. As with the title/ meta tags, your SEO will be greatly helped by choosing a few keywords relevant to each page rather than filling the page with hundreds of them. Do your keyword research and pick the right ones for your pages.

3. Reciprocal Links

A little knowledge can be dangerous and that's certainly the case when it comes to Search Engine Optimization. Another common mistake is learning that inbound links to your site get you better recognition from Google and Bing etc.

This is true up to a point but the inbound links must be quality links from articles or sites that find your website useful. It is no longer enough to ask one company to link to your site and vice versa as Google places less emphasis on reciprocal links nowadays.

4. Duplicate content

Time and again, websites copy content from other sites and duplicate it on their own websites. This is a sure-fire way to ensure your Google rankings go down and it makes your SEO job much harder if this happens. Try to put fresh, original content onto your site and don't copy and paste from others.

5. Flash websites

Flash is a great media tool but is not well suited to Search Engine Optimization. Its perfectly acceptable to incorporate some flash into a site but if your whole website is produced in this format it is very difficult for Google and Bing to index your site and provide an accurate ranking. Where possible stay away from an all Flash website or your SEO results will be poor.

There are many other aspects to SEO that we have not touched on here but this should give you a good foundation for getting Google and Bing to rank your website accurately.