The Five Most Common Seo Mistakes
July 1, 2009 1:40 pm SEOThe Five Most Common Seo Mistakes
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the art and science of improving a site’s ranking on search engines like Google, Yahoo! and MSN’s Bing Many companies try to improve their sites’ rankings with basic techniques such as keyword rich copy and link exchanges Some techniques (like link exchanges) are minimally useful, not useful or actually hurt site rankings Others are effective, but can’t overcome common mistakes GILL Media is an SEO firm that provides complete marketing solutions After years of working with businesses, they’ve identified the following five most common SEO mistakes These are errors that GILL Media’ developers often have to fix to help clients hit the coveted first page of search results . .SEO Mistake #1: Image Headers . . .Search engine spiders can only read text and Meta data Image recognition is in its infancy Unfortunately, many sites persist in using images for headers Search engines can’t read pictures of words Even if you have a big, clear image banner that clearly says "welcome to my home page" the spider just reads the file name of your jpeg or gif Switch to real text headers or use them in addition to image banners Otherwise, search engines can’t clearly associate your site with keywords and categories Spiders assign weight to text headers using the H1, H2 and H3 tags, so make sure your header text accurately represents the site . .SEO Mistake #2: An SEO Unfriendly CMS . .Joomla, WordPress and other content management systems (CMS) can make it very easy to add and change site content - but it can interfere with your SEO efforts, too For example, if your CMS automatically sets up your headers, URLs and page titles you can’t adjust them to fit your target keywords Some CMS offer "SEO friendly" items that automatically pick your keywords, but these don’t work very well either Either go with a pure web design from the ground up or customize your CMS to let you choose every title, header and piece of Meta information An SEO that never creates a page more than one layer deep is also highly recommended because search spiders index sites more easily when they don’t have to crawl through too many subfolders . .SEO Mistake #3: Blank Titles . .Page titles (as listed in the top bar of your browser) are perhaps the single most important Meta information field on your entire page The title becomes the text for the page’s search engine link, and is given significant weight by search engines when they associate pages with specific keywords If your page’s title is blank or uses default information it will almost always rank behind a site with any title If your site has a title that incorporates your keywords you greatly increase your changes of ranking higher . .SEO Mistake #4: Other Blank Meta Data . .Titles are only one piece of Meta data Meta keywords are not as important as they were, but are still useful - they can act as "tie breakers" between two sites with similar authority levels Meta descriptions often appear in search results Image alt tags are invaluable; search engines can’t see pictures, so they rely on you to describe them Leave any of these blank and you’re not doing everything you can to improve your site’s rank . .SEO Mistake #5: No Target Pages . .Don’t try to improve rank for every single web page, and don’t use a "cookie cutter" approach for every page on your site You don’t want your privacy policy or user login pages to rank and when they do, they use up site authority that should be channeled to pages that are designed to attract new visitors Each site only has a limited amount of authority to spread around, so you don’t want to waste it on pages that don’t drive business Use commands such as robots txt and nofollow tags to exclude pages that aren’t meant to generate new business and pick a few pages to be your specific SEO targets Give each one its own focus and strategy .
Source: www.rsstnx.com
SEO For Any Sized Business
There seems to be 3 types of people in the business world when it comes to SEO work Those who love it and live by it, those who think it is a waste of money, and those who don’t know/care about it I would like to take a minute to say those who are in the “Love IT” category, we need to do a better job of letting others know about all the great things that can happen from SEO . .One of our clients can’t stop talking about it For the mere $500-$700 a month that they spend on AdWords (and this is the ONLY form of marketing they do) they see an average of 4-7 new clients a month!! It is not unusual for them to see income double or triple what they spent on AdWords PER CUSTOMER!! So for the $500 that they spent on AdWords per month, they see $10,500 in new revenue Not a bad ROI if you ask me . .For those who don’t know/care about SEO, let me try to explain briefly what you are missing out on In a nutshell, a consumer goes to the Internet looking for a service or product in a certain geographical region So they type in “widget fixer in Kickapoo” and the search engine crawls the web looking for those words buried in content on the web and list the results . .If you have a good web presence, and content that carries those exact words, you might make it to the first page If not, you could be on the second, third, or farther down the line As a consumer, do you research ALL the companies listed? Nobody does, and that is why search engine optimization (SEO) is so important If you used SEO and AdWords, and were the best widget fixer in Kickapoo, we would make sure you are on the first page every time, potentially even the very first (and most often clicked) web listing . .Finally, for those of you who think it is a waste of money, I apologize It sounds like someone took advantage of you, or didn’t work with you well enough to make sure you needs were met .
Source: www.rsstnx.com
Are The Terms Seo And Sem Outdated
Should we still use the terms search engine optimization and search engine marketing? . .Back in the late 1990s, many internet marketing companies focussed only on the search engines There is no denying that the search engines do bring results and hence traffic to a website, but there is life beyond the search engines too! . . .The exceptional, and hence very busy, companies realised that there was far more to marketing than the search engines, and delivered broad and effective campaigns to their clients, using a variety of different strategies and plenty of metrics to assess results It has taken almost a decade for the industry to catch up that search engines are not the be all and end all of internet marketing, and that the terms “SEO” and “SEM” are just part of the mix . .However, most website owners are still stuck in the ‘old school’ way of thinking, believing that, having built a website, all that is required is to be number one on the search engines and that is the end of the game plan This level of thinking has far too frequently been backed up by SEO companies who could see a fast buck in optimising a website and ranking it, often for completely obscure terms, to satisfy the customer without educating either the customer or themselves in the finer points of internet marketing . .Invariably, once ranked on the search engines, the customer discovers that little has changed in the way of traffic, enquiries, sales, brand recognition, and so on, and seeks further assistance to increase the results from all aspects of the website marketing, and generate a return on investment This can become something of a bottomless pit into which to thrown money, particularly if the company being employed to achieve the aims required is only really expert in SEO . .SEO and SEM are just one strategy to deploy in a marketing campaign, and many of the great IM companies take a holistic view to promoting a website, company or product set Not only do they seek to generate valuable and unique content for the client (or advise on how to do this), but they employ a range of strategies and processes in order to deliver consistent, high quality traffic to a website, and increase the number of conversions from each action to maximise the potential results . .When seeking out a website promotion company, you should look for companies which offer that breadth of thinking The services they will offer should include: . .Email Marketing .Forum and blog marketing .Pay Per Click campaigns .Landing Pages .Conversion tracking and metrics .Ebooks and article marketing services .Press release distribution .Optimised content creation .Social networking and bookmarking .Video and audio content and promotion .As well as the good old on and offpage optimisation required to get the search engine rankings . .For every company looking to promote online, there will be a different mix of strategies which will yield the best results, depending on product, brand, target audience and more It is only by understanding your company and the needs of your potential customers that a suitable internet marketing campaign can be designed, tested and deployed . .Just optimising a few pages for some keywords and phrases has never been sufficient to bring appropriate results, but many in the search engine industry have managed to get away with doing just that, and little more, for over a decade Now, with the rise of social networks, and the move away from static to dynamic content, virals, and the rise in popularity of video and audio have meant that any company with too narrow a focus when considering marketing tactics can only achieve so much . .Whether you employ an internet marketing company, or train in-house staff to deliver your website promotion, be wary of any specific focus on the terms SEO and SEM The implication that these are the only methods which will yield results, or the fact that whoever is using them may be unaware of all that is required to deliver an effective online promotion campaign should be fair warning that the person or company using them is still adopting an outmoded way of thinking .
Source: www.rsstnx.com

