The following article list some of the ways in which web site owners make mistakes
when it comes to search engine marketing, and getting their pages into the search
engines.
1). Forgetting the Title tag.
Untitled Page returns 2,010,000 results from Google.co.uk at time of writing. If you wish to get ranked in the search engines for "Blue Widgets" it would be a good idea to include this keyword at least once in the title tag. The key thing here is relevancy, if you accurately describe what a visitor is likely to find on the page, your visitor will stay longer on the page when they are referred from the search engines. Also, Forget about your company name, especially if it is unique, people will find your site without including your company name in the title tag, especially if your domain name is www.companyname.com it is much better to include your company function rather than your company name, to gain an extra boost in traffic.
2). Too many images on the page
Page weight is an important factor in search engine optimisation. If your website bears a passing resemblance to Katy Price aka Jordan, and is a bit top heavy, and slow it becomes a bit too much to take seriously, and hard for the search engine spiders to digest. Chances are it will be spidered slower, meaning more infrequent updates in the search engines. Flash content is also a no-no as it means that the images cannot be seen in image search. Remember that textual content should outweigh graphical content.
3). Complicated menu systems
Search engines follow your navigation links to find new pages. If you make this as simple as possible in code, such as using standard compliant lists, changes are they will have no problem parsing your website. Javascript menus on the other hand if done poorly can cripple a website ranking, likewise Flash based menus are a no no if they are the primary navigation method.
4). Ignoring H1,H2,H3 Tags
Heading tags are a brilliant way of accurately determining what your content is about. Its for this reason that search engines pay extra special attention to them, so you should too. Make your headings relevant and eye-catching, so that human visitors will be attracted towards them as well.
5). Forgetting the Sitemap
Google, MSN and Yahoo have all adopted an open standard for the sitemap. (See Webdistortion sitemap file) This is an XML file (text based and structured) which allows the search engines to parse over the top of your website at ease. It also allows you to determine when the website was last updated, and at what frequency the search engines come back to check for new content. This is definitely one thing for 2007 not to miss out on. With more complex websites being released all the time, the search engines are putting in place measures for ease of indexing, faster than before. Sitemaps may be in the future the only way to get into indexes, especially if the web continues to grow exponentially.
6). Designing first optimising second.
Search engine marketing should be the first thing on a site owners mind. How are you going to get traffic to your website. The structure of the website should be built around keywords and keyphrases (that your customers use) to find your business. Many developers build a site without caring how their source code will appear an incoherent mess to search engines just to get the job done. We build on a platform which is search engine friendly.
7). Use of Flash for main page elements
Search Engines hate flash content. Flash is out, standards compliant content is in. The main function of a website homepage is to guide visitors towards relevant content. The same holds true for search engines. There is commonly only one link on a splash page, and thereafter the splash page is not linked to at all. This says to all the major search engines when they are crawling your content that only one page on your website is important.
8). Poor linking structure.
Search engines rely on hyperlinks as the brains behind their entire existance. When you create a website remember that everytime you create a hyperlink the link text should contain relevant text - relating to the search engine phrases you are targetting. Click here is out - Relevant keyword phrases are in. Sometimes it isn't possible to avoid, in which case utilise the title attribute of your link to describe its function. Its also of paramount important to interlink content on your own website, both from a natural visitor point of view and for the search engines to learn about on page content.
9). Forgetting to include meta tags or keyword stuffing.
Meta Description tags still bear relevance in search engine marketing. Remember to include a unique description tag for each page on your website, as well as a keyword meta tag. In bygone years the meta keyword tag was abused, and the search engines which relied heavily on it such as altavista fell by the wayside. Now keyword tags are thought to just help clarify onpage content. Good sites do no abuse meta tag lengths, and do not fill them with rubbish, so you shouldn't keyword stuff them as chances are it will harm your search engine efforts.
10). Failing to URL rewrite.
If you have website pages that look like ?ID=insertjibberish here, then chances are the search engines are considering whether that jibberish bears any relevance to the page. The fact that the content is coming from a database also makes the search engines wonder whether it is genuine, and not just generated from a computer program. It is much better to actively employ URL rewriting methods, using webserver plugins or pure software solutions.
Conclusion
There are a number of different ways to improve your search engine results, but the first place to start is with onpage factors, then move to link building and link baiting tactics. Following simple time-tested methods is the best place to start.
