Ten keyword mistakes

[LightKnight]

1. Creating a Flash Website and no HTML Alternative

Many people think others will like a nice Flash website but users and search engines don't care for them. If Flash is what your material works best in, and your sure, then provide a version in HTML as an alternative. Search engines do not like Flash sites because they cannot read it so therefore they cannot index it and you do not want that.

2. Ignoring URLs

Do not underestimate how important the URLs are for a website. A keyword in the URL helps to boost a ranking - even though SEO experts argue it is possible to rank high without a keyword in the URL - a keyword in the URL is more important for search engines like Yahoo! and Bing. Although Google does check the URLs and it may not hold as much weight as the other search engines, it is worth placing a keyword in for an extra level (or two) up on the search results page.

3. Images Only for Headers

Using only images for menus and headlines could be costing a website a high ranking on the search engine pages. Headlines and menus are important to SEO marketing but not in images. If you do not think your headlines look that great in plain text, try copying them and rewriting them in a StyleSheet program.

4. Placing too much Emphases on Meta Tags

Meta tags are, if they are not already, a thing of the past. Search engine optimization is not only about getting your Meta tags and descriptions right, but it's about keyword placement, backlinks and so much more.

5. Title Tags

A common mistake many people make is to leave the <title> tag blank or empty. It is very important to place a keyword in the <title> tag for optimization because the search engines seek these tags out for ranking and the tag shows the title of the page to the search engine. With out this being filled in, the search engine assumes there is no title and no website or no context to search and rank.

6. JavaScript Menus

Search engines cannot read JavaScript. You can still build your website with JavaScript, but you will need to add a lot of other programs the search engine will be able to read. One way to allow the search engines to 'read' or crawl through your website is to use a sitemap or put the links in a no-script tag.

7. Spamming through Backlinks

Many people believe that the more backlinks they have the better and this is not always the case, as a mater of fact, this may never be the case. There are thousands and thousands of websites that farm for individual's information through backlinks. A few good quality backlinks are worth their weight in gold.

8. Maintenance and Consistency

Many website owners are misinformed. They believe that once they have optimized their website and got as close to the top as they think they can, they are done. They believe they can only optimize their website once and that is the end of that. This is so far from the truth. A website owner needs to continually maintain his website and consistently work search engine optimization. Learning what the competition is doing and looking for more relevant keywords is a good way to freshen up the website for the search engine 'feelers' because they are always working.

9. No Keywords in the Content

When a website owner finds out that over use of the keywords can cause them to be removed from the search engines, they tend to do the opposite and use the keywords very sparingly or not at all. This is a bad way to work SEO. Use the keywords where they make sense. You can even bold or italicize them to help readers.

10. Wrong Keywords

A website owner thinks he has the right keyword and it is very descriptive of his products but in actuality, it says nothing about his merchandise. Choosing the correct keyword can make or break a search engine optimization crusade to the top ranking. Again, think about words with the same meanings. Millions of people will look up something that make them better from being sick rather then something from an illness. Sick and illness have similar meanings but more people would use the common word over the proper one.

[eswariseo]

Informative post. Keyword selection is very important for a website. By choosing the best keyword we can get more business and visitors to our site.

[Losille]

Those are excellent rules that everyone should learn.

The first thing I learned check, check and double check the spelling!
I laughed, I'm not that stupid.
A year later I realized I was cut and pasting my keyword as Karen Gilain. Her name is Gillian. Lesson learned.

I hit the Thanks button up there and and +rep was given.

[tadybear]

good informative sharing, thanks

[retrokitz]

Great advice, much appreciated.

[rafijaan]

Keywords are most important factor or a part in SEo with is the main root for all these SEO methods.

[pkfarnv]

Nice and informative sharing.Thanks for sharing.