Search Articles

Avoiding Search Engine Optimisation Mistakes --Category Navigation--       Publicise Basics (10)      Search Engine Optimisation Tips (8)      Website Strategy and Design (5)      Online Marketing Case Studies (1)           Tie One On (1)      Just for fun (2)

Avoiding Search Engine Optimisation Mistakes Search Engine Optimisation is a basic tool you can use in generating more visitors to your site and more sales in your business. However, it is important to avoid mistakes that can end up costing your business more than you would expect. Becoming familiar with SEO will help you avoid the errors and enable you to reverse any mistakes you may have already made. Here is a list of mistakes that can prevent your site from ranking well in the search engines. Overloading Keywords - Squeezing too many keywords onto your homepage is commonly known as "keyword spamming". This will not increase your search engine ranking, it will actually make it a lot worse. Less is often more when it comes to keywords for your website. Untargeted Keywords and Phrases - Your choice of keywords in the META keyword tags is vital. It is essential that you only use keywords that relate to your business and/or product. There are many services that can help you to find what people are actually typing into search engines to find products and businesses similar to yours. Incorrect use of the Title Tag - What information you use, as well as where you place it in your title, can make or break your ranking for particular search terms for various engines. If you are looking for higher rankings, you must include your most relevant search phrases within your title tag. Search engines generally give more weight to content at the beginning of title tags, so be sure to give your best information at the start of your tag. Duplicating the Header - Each page of your site should have a different header and each page should be optimized for different keywords so that it can be an entry point to your site from any search engine. Never repeat the titles or META descriptions in your website. More flash than content - Most search engines cannot index images, so without text you will not get your site optimised. A site with no visible content basically becomes invisible to both the search engine and the potential customers. When you understand what search engines do and what SEO is, you will be able to use them both to your own advantage when creating your business website. Written by Kate Stewart