subject: The most common forgotten elements when optimizing a site for the search engines [print this page] The most common forgotten elements when optimizing a site for the search engines
If you have a website, or maybe you're running some other kind of business on the web, you're going to want traffic that's actually searching for what you're offering. If you want this, you must go about search engine optimization for your site. When you have SEO done on your website, you start to get free organic traffic that's not only highly targeted but also converts well.
On the other hand, if you're new to the SEO game, it's important that you learn a few blunders to stay away so that you don't harm your chances for success.
You want to be favored by the search engines, not penalized by them. This is why it's always important to keep in mind what you shouldn't do, so that you don't end up in a soup. It's important to read on for some common mistakes that people often make that kill their chances of getting the traffic they want.
When people first start with a website, they often try SEO by using words that don't specify anything. Yes, keywords happen to be an important element of SEO, but if you go on and stuff a high number of keywords in your content, then it will only get you into trouble with the search engines as they will penalize your website for spamming. This will drop your site with the search engine rankings, and there goes all your traffic, too. The readers of your site will become turned off because they're looking for content that's legible and offers the information they seek.
ATL tags must be on all the images on your site. Alt tags are the description of the picture you get as it loads.
But, ALT Tags used with your images can also put you in better favor with the search engines. When it comes to optimization, this is often forgotten about. So just keep in mind that by having some of the keywords in your ALT tags, you'll be more descriptive to both humans and the search engines.
Another SEO error that many webmasters make is writing an irrelevant site title and a poor site description, which can both be detrimental to your search engine rankings. Search engines use the title and description to try and figure out which theme is predominant within your text content and then rank you accordingly. Search engines have expanded and evolved from just a few years ago, incorporating more complex algorithms to try and please visitors, so it's important to pay attention to the finer details. Above all, your SEO should focus on ethics. It's common for webmasters to have no clue what they could do their sites by using such unethical methods. Don't just stuff keywords in your site or it will be viewed as spam. You should also know that using copied content will turn readers off and the search engines will penalize you, too. It doesn't matter if you're going to do it yourself or you're going to hire someone to do your SEO for you, only use the most ethical SEO methods.
