subject: 10 Costly Search Engine Mistakes To Avoid [print this page] The most important part of any website is traffic. The best website without traffic is worth nothing. It is in the end the only thing that really matters. Traffic means sales. The main source of free traffic is through Search Engine Optimization Of course the easiest way is by advertising but that will cost you money. SEO remains the least expensive way of driving traffic.
Unfortunately many web-owner and webmasters don't realize the importance of search engine visibility and concentrate on lesser things like flashy banners, bold red text, hyped copy,etc. Not saying that that is wrong but it must be utilized in the correct manner. Here is a list of common mistakes many web owners and webmasters make and therefor they are leaving a lot of money on the table.
Not using keywords effectively.
One of the most critical mistakes in site design. Do your research and choose your keywords correctly and wisely. Remember this is the foundation of any website. If you are weak in this area your whole structure will be weak. Using the wrong keywords can drive traffic but the traffic will not be targeted and therefor your sales will suffer.
Repeating the same keywords.
Using the same keyword over and over again, may cause the search engines to downgrade or even skip your page completely. (This is called keyword stacking).
Robbing pages from other websites.
Often you hear this is the internet it's ok to use photos and text from other websites on your's. Nothing can be further from the truth. Don't do it. The search-engines are very smart and they easily detect page or content duplication. This can do irreversible damage to your website and is not worth it. They may even prevent you from ever being listed by them in future.
4 . Using unrelated keywords on your website.
It is common practice among unethical website owners to use keywords, that has nothing to do with the content of their website, to gain search engine visibility These guys will take a word like sex or a celebrity's name, the hot topic of the day and place it in the mete tag of a page. The search-engines regards this a gross spamming and the page or even the whole website will be removed, if caught using this technique.
Keyword stuffing
This is using the alt= HTML parameter to assign multiple keywords to the description of a layer or graphic, somewhat like keyword stacking. If it discovered by the search-engine that this text is not descriptive of the layer or graphic it is considered spam.
Relying on hidden text.
Hiding your keywords or keyword phrases by making them invisible Setting your keyword color to the same as the background and thus camouflage them. This will hurt you if caught. Guaranteed.
Using tiny text.
This is in some way the same as the point made above (relying on hidden text). Setting the text size so small that it is invisible or barely visible will get you penalized.
All search-engines are the same....Wrong.
Each search-engine has its own algorithm and valuates websites differently It is good practice to keep up with new developments and changes on the different search-engines. They can change there rules any time and you might be left in the dark.
Using free web-hosting.
If you are serious about traffic and internet marketing then do not use free hosting when doing SEO. There are many spammers using free hosting and search-engines are reluctant to index pages from a lot of these services.
Checking for missing page elements.
Always check your links and functionality of the site and do so often. Broken links or incomplete projects is a very bad reflection on the professionalism of your service. The best way to do this is to ask a friend to check it for you because you might overlook something very easily.
These are just a couple of things to avoid. If some of these tactics renders a temptation, resist it because it will hurt you seriously It takes a lot of time, effort, and sometimes money to create a decent website. By falling for one of these techniques you can put your whole website in harms way by being banned from the search-engines. It really is not worth it.
