SEO

The Most Common SEO Mistakes To Avoid

The Most Common SEO Mistakes To Avoid 8 Comments

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Seo mistakes to avoidThere’s no question that search engine optimization is an invaluable tool for boosting a business’s web traffic and overall visibility. The thing is, Google is getting smarter, and so without employing techniques with moderation, you may find yourself in worse position than when you started. Top SEO companies know that to get the best results, though, you have to avoid a few common errors that many SEOs may find easy to overlook. Take a look below to ensure that you avoid the pitfalls of the overaggressive SEO.

Keyword Stuffing

This mistake might seem basic, but it’s a tempting one to commit and it’s easy to do. If your site is for a flower company, including the word “flowers” in every possible sentence can seem like an easy way to increase site visibility, right? Wrong. Using a keyword too often (known as stuffing or spamming) can sometimes have a site register as spam and won’t be effective at all. Try to manipulate your keywords into different versions of the same concept—“flower shop” or “daffodils”—your site will appear much more legitimate and you’ll still get the visibility you want.


Keyword Assumptions

Along with keyword selectivity comes smart keyword choices; never assume that one keyword is the best one to use without doing extensive research to make sure the words you select will positively impact your site. Programs like Google Adwords Keyword Tool or Google Insights can provide you with detailed, seasonal and locational keyword information that is vital to creating the most successful SEO campaigns. Find keywords that have a reasonable chance of being successful, and never stop doing keyword research so that you can update your keywords based on new trends. This will produce the most effective results.

Failure to Link (Well)

Linking can pose a potential problem to SEO in a variety of ways; you can either not link enough or you can link too much. Not linking to other sites simply does not give your site the opportunity to reach its potential visibility and won’t do anything to help increase web traffic. The more you link, the wider an audience your website has the potential to reach. But choose your links wisely, because too much linking is another common SEO error.

If you are getting links from sites without checking their credibility, you could see negative effects on your site’s traffic and visibility. Obtaining links from irrelevant or spam sites may hurt your site’s credibility, too. Linking aggressively, but thoughtfully, is an effective way to boost your site’s traffic. Keep in mind that Google has entire teams devoted to improving their algorithm, and once they fix one problem, they aren’t just going to lay everyone off, it’s inevitable that they will set their sights on another. Be skeptical of where you are acquiring links; don’t spend time getting links from the type of site that’s next on Google’s naughty list.

Appearance over Effectiveness

Resist the urge to overwhelm your site with JavaScript, Flash animations, or too many images. Oftentimes, search engines have trouble reading the text or other information within these extras and subsequently skip over them, so think about reducing or eliminating them from your sites altogether. Adding extraneous items to your sites for appearance’s sake can hurt site visibility in the long run, so make a decision about what is worth more: how your site looks or how it runs. Running smoothly and easily should always be a priority, and appearance extras can always be worked around a logical, streamlined site.

Tweaking your SEO strategies to avoid these easy-to-make errors is simple and won’t force you to change your entire SEO system. Making small changes can help you avoid potentially big problems, which will hopefully make your sites achieve even bigger results.

Image Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

This post was written by a guest author, if you are interested in contributing on Opportunities Planet visit the write for us page!

8 comments

  1. Good post Adam, u are right the algo keeps getting smarter. For long term success in rank need to avoid the short term fixes like keyword stuffing, etc.

    1. Thanks Charles. It seems like every time people find a way to game the system, there’s an update from Google right around the corner punishing them for it. If only people used honest practices from the beginning, they wouldn’t have to worry about getting dinged later.

  2. Right defined post Adams. SEO is something marketers are finding scary in these days of different ‘slaps’ but their is always hope if only marketers will do it the right way.

    Choosing and making an extensive keyword research is something that guarantees success – SEO-wise. Long tail keywords when researched out well can do exploits for any careful webmaster.

    1. Thanks Louis! While I think we’d all be hesitant to use a word like “guarantees” in SEO, if you start with proper keyword research, at least you know that your efforts are moving in the right direction.

  3. I write articles without paying any attention to keywords density. Just use them few times and those articles are listed on first page of SERP.

    1. Hi Alexander, that’s definitely the way to go. If your page has the proper focus, there’s really no reason to even have to engage in keyword stuffing – it should mention the keyword a few times anyway.

      Glad to hear that it’s working for you.

  4. Sometimes we can’t avoid some mistakes. You have to avoid a few common errors that may find easy to overlook. Be smart enough to avoid errors like keyword stuffing, keyword assumptions and failure to link to achieve a higher rank in the search engine. Thanks for this post Adam Bayard..!!

  5. Hi Adam, you selected an awesome title for your blog post which we bloggers always have a look specially when PR update is about to come. We must know about SEO myths and SEO mistakes so that we can avoid them for better ranking.

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