Believe It Or Not These Are Common Search Engine Optimization Mistakes

It seems that we have all made similar mistakes when it comes to search engine optimization and ended up with horrendous rankings. Our goal was to build an awesome website with all the right elements that would put it at the top of the page, only to find out we are nowhere to be found. If this has ever happened to you or you simply do not want to repeat the mistakes of others, this article will give you tremendous insight into the do’s and don’ts of search engine optimization.

Fill It Up With Links

Yes, links are definitely a good thing if they are relevant links and the way you go about them is in compliance with the search engine algorithms. Mistake #1: Beware of low quality links that are not relevant to your website. If the search engine detects junk links then you will get junk rankings. It is better to have link to ten highly relevant sites than a thousand sites. Type your keywords into a search engine and try to create link relationships with the top ten search results.

Most people do not realize the intelligence of the search engine bots. Through highly sophisticated mathematical algorithms they can scan your site and who you are to in milliseconds analyzing hundreds of variables. If the bot determines that your site is nothing but a “link pharm”, all the work you have put into the development of your site is for naught. Unless you think you are smarter that a room full of M.I.T math whizzes you should not try to fool the search engine.

Stuffing works in Turkeys, But Not In Websites

Loading your pages with keywords is big no-no #2. One of the easiest equations for the search engine to figure out is total word count of your page and the ratio o keywords. If you have more that 2% of your total text as your keywords your site will get penalized. Your reader will see that you are more interested in SEO and not in what they want. The search engines call this tactic keyword spamming and you don’t want any part of it.

The best advice is to have one keyword in the domain, the title, one in each paragraph and one in the resource box if it is an article. Your content should flow for your reader and not look like something that was written to con the search engine.

More Products Does NOT Equal More Sales

It is true that once a customer buys from you that they will continue to buy from you if you continue to build a relationship with them. Limit your product offerings in the beginning and then expand your customer’s selection once they have bought. It is very true that if you give your customer too much information they will go away dazed and confused which is the opposite of what we are trying to achieve with our search engine strategy. Avoid mistake #3 which is called the “flea market” rule! Your site should be serving a highly targeted audience. If you had twelve products, it might be better to break your site into four mini sites and have specific strategies for each one.

Try Not To Make Your Site Look Like A Star Wars Exhibit

You will lose more than two third of your visitors with fancy sites that are loaded with flashy intros and tons of graphics. Most people are searching the internet for quality information or a solution to a problem. Your visitors are not looking to be impressed by your ability to create fancy animation. In fact most people do not have the plug-ins required to play flashy websites and serious researchers and buyers usually have the images function turned off so the sites load faster. Search engines are really finicky about images so use them sparingly. So, the final rule is keep it simple stupid, The KISS principle is very relevant when is comes to search engine optimization.

If you follow these four rules and answer these three questions; what it is, what it does and how your visitor can get on board with what you are offering you will beat out 90% of your competition. Getting top search engine rank placement is a science with rules that are established by the search engines. Ignore them at your own peril.

Tom McMurrain, the founder of The Lead King provides mentoring through the FREE video series called The Unfair Advantage. If you want to have The Unfair Advantage Click HERE Learn more about SEO at The Lead King's Blog.