Common SEO Mistakes

Getting good results in the search engines can be tricky business. However, many people make common mistakes that hinder an otherwise good campaign. By sticking to and following some basic principals, you should be able to see your rankings improve. There is obviously a lot more to it than this, but below we have laid out three common mistakes that people make, and with each one comes an explanation of how to try and fix the errors.

For the purpose of this article, we are using a fictional website called dogwalking.com, trying to target the pages for keywords such as ‘dog walkers’ etc.

Bad Meta Data
Getting the meta data right is one of the first things you should focus on when optimising a website. The titles, descriptions, and tags should all be clear and concise and inclusive of you main keywords. Many new webmaster simply aren’t aware of this, and the most common mistake is to just use the website title, or page title with no thought to what keywords should be used.



The picture above shows the common mistake of simply repeating the website title as a meta title. This adds no focus to each page and leaves the search engines confused as to what the page is talking about. Duplicate titles are also bad for the very same reason. This can easily be resolved by using keywords within the titles, and making sure nothing is repeated. See the picture below for a good example:



Broken Links
Links throughout the site act as the passageway in which the search engine’s spiders crawl your website. Therefore it is crucial that there are no broken links that could negatively affect this process. Having broken links will basically mean that the spiders hit ‘dead ends’, and if this happens too often then they just won’t be able to get to the information you need them to.



Always ensure that your website is tidy, and that your sitemaps are up to date. If content is changed or replaced, or new pages added, make sure these are linked to correctly and that there are no dead links pointing at the old content.

Wrong Anchor Text
Anchor text is extremely important in telling the search engines how much authority your website has and in what area this should be counted for. The text that displays a link will give reference to what the linked to website is about. If the link is coming from an authoritative website, then it’s crucial that the search engines are instructed clearly via the use of anchor text. This can have a really strong effect on rankings, and below are two examples to illustrate the point:



Bad anchor text example



Good anchor text example

Simple Steps To Increasing Traffic

Nowadays every man and his dog have a website. However, having a website with a good volume of traffic is a completely different kettle of fish. About 50% of websites that get set up only ever get seen by friends and family…so how can you go about making sure that you website reaches a wider audience? If you don’t have a large budget for advertising then fear not, with a little bit of hard work and a long-term approach you should be able to build your traffic numbers up substantially. Of course, you must first make sure that your website serves a purpose, that it gives your visitors what they are looking for in exactly the way they want it. Too many people simply set up a website and leave it at that. The best websites are constantly tweaked and updated to fit in with the needs of the audience.

Blogs and Content

One of the most common mistakes people make is never to update their websites with fresh, new and interesting content. Why would anyone return to look at a website that is always the same? Blogs offer an ideal opportunity to update your website with regular content, and a well written blog can keep people coming back time and time again. A good blog should contain a mix of news, advice and discussions all aimed at what you believe your website visitors want and need. Also try to add content to your website, and continuously be thinking of inventive ways in which you can help your users. Videos, pictures and other media make a website much more interesting so try to involve these elements into your new content.

Social Media

Website such as Facebook, Twitter and Myspace have revolutionised the internet. And have given everyone the opportunity to reach a wider audience. Since their inception many people have found success via their vast audience; rock bands have been discovered and business have made huge sums of money. So, what’s the secret? Again, it’s all about putting in regular work and trying to be interesting to try and incentivise people to join your groups or view your pages. If your social media content is useful and interesting, your online community should grow and thus the traffic to your main site should also grow. Remember, keep it useful and interesting….and DON’T SPAM!!!

Email Newsletters

Email newsletters are one of the best ways in which to keep your customers returning. The key to running a successful website is to have a good link between you and your customers and or website visitors. Many people over use this and send out way too many emails with the effect of loosing custom, so make sure you keep your news to the necessary bits of information only. Most people find that a monthly news letter, plus the odd one-off special offer works quite well. Email marketing gives you’re the perfect opportunity to shout about special offers and deals. These can be real incentives for your customers so make sure you always make the most of it.

Using Traffic To Help Gain Links

If you’re fortunate enough to have a website with a good level of regular traffic, you may be wondering about how you can harness its potential. Most websites that are built never get to the stage where substantial traffic is coming through, so if you’ve made it this far...well done! As with most things, success breeds success, so if you are getting some good traffic there are always ways in which you can use this to create more. Finding out how to do this is the real gem of internet marketing and SEO and is where the real creative side of the industry comes into play. This article discusses a few ideas as to how you can use your traffic to build links for you.

Content
Creating useful and interesting content is where everyone should start. By coming up with some areas on your website that your visitors will find useful, you should be creating things that people will talk about. ‘Spreading the word’ on the internet usually translates into links, so the more interesting and useful content you can come up with...the more links you should earn. Ideas could include fact sheets, FAQ’s, video tutorials; or anything that will aid your users purpose.

Affiliate Schemes
Affiliate schemes are fantastic as they offer one way links, and also an opportunity for both parties to make money. If you run an online store the idea is simple; if someone places a link on their website back to yours, and in turn a ‘click’ converts to a sale, the website publisher who placed the link will earn a percentage of the sale. Obviously, there is a bit of setting up to do to make sure the ‘clicks’ can be tracked, but once set up it’s win win for both parties. The online shop boosts it’s sales with more advertising, and the website publisher can now earn money from their website.

Social Media
Getting your website traffic involved with you social media sites can be a great way of encouraging return business, and also attracting new traffic. Social media sites such as twitter and facebook can allow you to keep in touch on a regular basis with your customer base, in a non invasive and interesting way. The world of social media is one where things can spread quickly, and if you can build up a vibrant ‘community’ you are sure to attract more business and more links at the same time.

Blogs
Having a regularly updated and interesting blog can be another great way of attracting both return visits and new traffic. The aim is to provide useful bits of information that your users will find interesting. Once you have built up an audience, RSS feeds and other such tools can keep them updated and word should start to spread...and in turn the links should build up. Remember though, make sure it’s interesting and aimed at what your users want!