SEO Top 10 List of Things Not to DO!

Posted • June 23, 2007 • Comments Off

Most businesses are often hard-pressed for time and money. If you are a small business, a home based business, or even a medium size business, this statement is even more applicable. There has been a growing interest in search marketing and understanding the benefits of SEO. But there is still a big gap between understanding SEO and actually doing SEO. I have assembled this list to help you whether you are actually doing the SEO your self or are planning to hire a SEO company.

Here is my top 10 list of the most important SEO Don’ts.

1. Don’t reply to the spam you get in your e-mail promising SEO
   Submitting to 1,200 search engines or 800 directories is ridiculous and will get you nowhere. You can’t buy 2,000 quality links for $50. No reputable SEO can or will guarantee a number one ranking on any search engine for keywords that matter. You don’t want a SEO company that sends out spam
2. Don’t wait too long to implement your SEO strategy
   Whether you’re launching a new Web site or upgrading your current site, SEO considerations should be part of the discussion from day one.
3. Don’t waste your time submitting your URL to search engines
   Today’s crawler-based search engines will find your site more quickly as soon as you get a link from another web site already being crawled. Search engine submission died many years ago.
4. Don’t make your web site uncrawlable
   This can can be attributed to an incorrect robots.txt file, having session IDs or too many variables in your URLs, using a complicated navigation menu that spiders can’t (or won’t) follow, or developing an all Flash, all graphic, or all database driven site.
5. Don’t target overly general keywords
   A lawyer and/or law firm in Gresham has no chance at ranking for the word "lawyer," a real estate broker and/or agency in Sherwood has no chance at ranking for the phrase "real estate." Optimize for relevant, specific keywords and phrases that will bring targeted traffic to your site.
6. Don’t stuff keywords in your meta tags, image alt tags…
   This used to work in the dinosaur days of the search engines. Today, it is considered keyword spam and can loose you search engine juice.
7. Don’t use the same title on every page
   Variety is said to be the spice of life and it is on your website too. When combined with relevance, it is extremely important and will help in avoiding duplicate content issues and Google’s supplemental hell.
8. Don’t ignore usability
   Proper site structure, logical navigation, descriptive link text, and so on, are good for both users and search engine spiders. If your potential customers and/or clients have trouble with your site how long do you think they will stick around?
9. Don’t give up on creating great content
   No matter what business arena you’re in, you can add great (link bait) content to your web site. Use a glossary it is an easy way to create a page of great, keyword-rich content. Some more considerations might be, a frequently asked questions page, a testimonials page, how to articles, just use your imagination.
10. Don’t use the same exact anchor text on all links to your site
    The search engines will see this is an obvious sign of unnatural link building. Your link building should look natural, and using varied anchor text will help.

You can download a pdf version of this list.
Stay tuned for my next top 10 list, Top 10 SEO Do’s!

I offer a free 1 hour consultation call 503-616-4SEO.

Late,
Gary Pool

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