Search Engine Optimization: SEO Blunders

Things you just shouldn’t do in regards to search engine optimization. Well, I guess you can, but I don’t think anyone will really take you serious. I thought I would end the year with a few SEO Blunders that I see alot of webmaster making. Some of them aren’t really that bad, but bad enough to be mentioned here. If you are involved in any of the things  listed below then I would recommend making some changes in order to get better results.

Misspelling Your Main Keywords and Linking to Them.

I know what your thinking. People misspell keywords all the time so I should be ranking for those just in case. I agree, however, don’t go out on a limb building links to these misspellings, chances are the number of searches for the misspelling is a lot lower then the correct one, and therefore all of your link building efforts should go towards the correct spelling. Why waste links on misspellings when you can be #1 for the correct one.

Not Redirecting Landing Pages that are Sitting in the Middle of Nowhere.

Note: When I say landing pages I’m not talking about pages from your main website.

I just don’t understand the whole point of this. Why create a landing page that climbs no higher than the 4th page for even the smallest keywords? Especially if it’s not your main website. I understand wanting to gain traffic through different sources, but isn’t this going a little overboard? First of all, who is actually clicking on this landing page? Is it a real buyer? If it is, will this person really buy from a page that has very little content and just a phone number? Probably not. Of course this doesn’t apply to those who create stunning landing pages that go with the flow of their main website. These are the kind of landing pages that produces sales, not some cheesy looking page that you ranked just because you thought it would be cool to do so. Why not redirect these pages to your main site so that you can actually get the sale and establish more creditably towards your brand name.

Placing Nofollow on Every Link in Your Website or Blog.

You gotta be kidding me Martin, sorry bro, but this is just stupid and totally pointless in regards to search engine optimization, I guess ranking the inner pages and gaining link juice to your main site would be silly. Maybe were sculpting page rank here, ok, where is that page rank being sculpted to, and what keyword is being targeted in the process? It’s amazing how so many websites are sacrificing rankings in exchange for page rank. I guess sites with a high page rank are the only ones that can gain a number 1 spot. If you still believe that then it’s time to go back to the learning table to see what your missing.

Using Keywords As a Brand Name for Your Company.

While using keywords is great for rankings, les face it, they are not very attractive brand names. Moreover, do you think that a potential client like Microsoft, Starbucks, or Target (who outsource smaller seo jobs to smaller companies) really cares that you rank #1 for your domain name? Anyone can do that, they will more likely be interested in how well you can rank without this advantage. If you want to be taken serious then create a real company or brand name, and then dominate the rankings by redirecting those keyword sites to your new brand name domain. And by the way, www.city-whateverkeyword.com is not a brand name (Unless you are the original creator of such a term), creating such  keyword domain names and trying to pass it off as  a  real company is what rookies do when they first start out. If you still think this is the only and best way to get to the top then you clearly haven’t advanced to the next level yet. But hey, if it’s working for you who am I to judge.

Creating Directories and Mini-Blogs But Not Linking to Your Main Website.

I see so much of this all over the place. What’s the point of creating relevant content to your market if your not going to link to your main site. I understand you might not want to leave bread crumbs, but for the love of rankings, don’t cheat yourself. If your under the impression that the search engines are going to punish you because you have to many links from relevant (or even irrelevant) sources then maybe you shouldn’t be doing seo. Don’t be silly, the search engine do not care if you link to your own website from a dozen locations, sites like youtube, myspace and wordpress get garbage links pointing at them every day, and what does that do for those sites in the search engines? Think about it. Just make sure that the way you are doing it is not in a fashion that is only visible to search engines.

Not Linking to Your Main Site from Clients.

I understand that this is something that you will not always want to do, and some clients will not allow it. But for those who do not have a problem with letting you do it then you should be linking to your main site from your clients with the desired anchor text. There is nothing wrong with being credited for your work, there are thousands of  website design and seo firms doing this and ranking pretty good because of it. I have yet to see any site get punished for it, unless those links aren’t visible to viewers.

Conclusion

The bottom line is just be smart about what your doing, playing follow the leader is not always going to help you just because it works for someone else. Find the area in seo that you are the best at and then master it, once you do that then you can start looking at other ways to get the job done more effectively.  Don’t forget to check out our Search  Engine Optimization Seattle website if you are in the Seattle area and need a boost in rankings.

As always thanks for reading and have a Happy 2011 .