Mistake 1 - Targeting the wrong keywords. Choosing the right keywords is the single most important step of an SEO Strategy. What you think is the right keyword, might not be the keyword used by your users. E.g. if you market yourself as a Design Institute, be prepared that your users search for you under Design ‘School’ instead of ‘Institute’. Also, don’t target keywords that are too generic, like ‘Design’. This keywords returns 1,310,000,000 search results and it will be hard to compete in such a broad category. Going for the wrong keywords will waste your precious time and money on your SEO campaign, the wrong keywords will bring the wrong customers to your website, which is a mistake you cannot afford to make. Make sure you use Keyword Suggestion Tools and don’t assume you have all the answers.
Mistake 2 - No keywords in the web content If your website content does not contain the keywords people type in to look for you, the search engine will not be likely to refer any traffic to your website and your other SEO efforts will be wasted. Also, once your desired customer lands on your webpage but does not read there what he is looking for, he will click away. When you have found the right keywords you must make sure you include those keywords on your web pages. Ultimately it’s the content that sells your website/product.
Mistake 3 - Ignoring the importance of tags Those same keywords must be put in all the Tags. Tags are where search engines look and if there are no tags they’ll pass right by your web pages. So not putting in the right keywords in your tags is a deadly SEO mistake!
The most important tag is your Title Tag so put your most important keywords here.
Next in order of importance are your Header Tags (i.e. H1, H2, H3 etc.)
Images may look good, but the Search Engine cannot ‘read’ them. So make sure there is always a (keyword rich) text description behind every graphic
Bottom of the pecking order are Meta Tags. Don’t spend too much time on these descriptive texts as your ranking will not significantly go up because of it.
Mistake 4 - Focus on design over functionality Many Web Designers like to build a Flash website. Flash might look good, but is not helpful for your SEO strategy, as search engines cannot index Flash content very well. If you want to rank highly on the search engines you must put equal energy in functionality as you do in your design. Make sure you provide a HTML alternative if you must have a flash website.
Mistake 5 - Not doing any SEO maintenance SEO is not something you can do only once, it’s a moving target. An optimised website will only remain optimised if;
You keep on top of your keyword research. Popular words change regularly and vary per country. New keywords mean you have to update your Tags and content and write new articles!
Search Engines change their algorithms meaning you have to make changes accordingly.
Your competition is also targeting keywords and they may have found a highly converting keyword you have not yet thought about. If you want to be successful with your SEO strategy you must do regular maintenance. Don’t sit back and relax, the goal post will keep moving.
Mistake 2 - No keywords in the web content If your website content does not contain the keywords people type in to look for you, the search engine will not be likely to refer any traffic to your website and your other SEO efforts will be wasted. Also, once your desired customer lands on your webpage but does not read there what he is looking for, he will click away. When you have found the right keywords you must make sure you include those keywords on your web pages. Ultimately it’s the content that sells your website/product.
Mistake 3 - Ignoring the importance of tags Those same keywords must be put in all the Tags. Tags are where search engines look and if there are no tags they’ll pass right by your web pages. So not putting in the right keywords in your tags is a deadly SEO mistake!
The most important tag is your Title Tag so put your most important keywords here.
Next in order of importance are your Header Tags (i.e. H1, H2, H3 etc.)
Images may look good, but the Search Engine cannot ‘read’ them. So make sure there is always a (keyword rich) text description behind every graphic
Bottom of the pecking order are Meta Tags. Don’t spend too much time on these descriptive texts as your ranking will not significantly go up because of it.
Mistake 4 - Focus on design over functionality Many Web Designers like to build a Flash website. Flash might look good, but is not helpful for your SEO strategy, as search engines cannot index Flash content very well. If you want to rank highly on the search engines you must put equal energy in functionality as you do in your design. Make sure you provide a HTML alternative if you must have a flash website.
Mistake 5 - Not doing any SEO maintenance SEO is not something you can do only once, it’s a moving target. An optimised website will only remain optimised if;
You keep on top of your keyword research. Popular words change regularly and vary per country. New keywords mean you have to update your Tags and content and write new articles!
Search Engines change their algorithms meaning you have to make changes accordingly.
Your competition is also targeting keywords and they may have found a highly converting keyword you have not yet thought about. If you want to be successful with your SEO strategy you must do regular maintenance. Don’t sit back and relax, the goal post will keep moving.
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