Every business strives to achieve the top ranking on popular search engines like Google and Bing. As the prime piece of Internet real estate, the process to achieve this placement can be long and difficult. When time is of the utmost importance for search engine optimization (SEO), there are some mistakes that are all too common.
Primarily focusing on SEO tactics
Don’t let the importance of being placed prominently on search engines cause you to overlook the key elements of your website. Focus on what your site is supposed to do: inform, provide services, or sell. This is exactly what Google and potential visitors are looking for.
It is best to concentrate on the essentials of a Web presence and adopt a reasonable SEO Strategy. After all, 1,000 faithful visitors per day is better than 10,000 who will leave quickly.
Forgetting the quality
The traditional SEO techniques do not offer as much impact as they once did. Now, search engines long for quality content. Writing articles is one way to create rich content that is valuable to visitors and search engines. Within those articles, it’s best to avoid heavy use of backlinks and keywords. To keep your audience engaged in what you offer, develop an interesting topic and original style of writing while trying to find out which article length suits best.
One thing to note: Matt Cutts from Google identifies that a page of less than 150 words will not be taken into account by search engines so be sure to exceed this number.
Keyword stuffing
Do not try to flood your site with keywords. While these unique terms can help explain your business, industry, and expertise, they should be strategically placed throughout your site. When done correctly, you can clearly organize your website’s information so that search engines can easily identify its purpose.
As much as keywords can help, they can hurt too. If terms are used excessively on pages, search engines like Google will flag the site as spam and refuse it in results. Ensure that your keywords are used in valuable contexts. Remember, “Content is King.”
Duplicating content
Focus on unique, original text throughout your entire online presence. Too much redundancy and duplicate content, especially for eCommerce sites, can prevent your pages from being ranked highly by Google. Or even worse, it can become “de-indexed” in which case your site completely vanishes from search results. Quality is definitely more important than quantity.
Wanting it immediately
SEO is a process. Many people expect the results of a change to be reflected in their search ranking immediately. In fact, it takes time for Google to find the pages and to determine their value. While the benefits are more stable and less expensive than advertising, it may take up to six months to see its impact.
Algorithms put in place by search engines are changing daily so it is difficult to keep up. Continuously focus on a combination of qualitative Web content and SEO best practices and you will reap the benefits.
Photo Credit: ©iStockphoto.com/nevarpp
