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SEO Bloopers

Description: When it comes to SEO there are plenty of pitfalls you need to learn how to avoid. Here's an insight into some classic SEO bloopers.

When it's done properly search engine optimization can strengthen your website and help you to rank higher in Google, Yahoo and other search engines. But many people think that the most important aspect of SEO is including plenty of keywords in their website copy. They fill their website with keywords, sit back and wait for the visitors to arrive - and then wonder why they aren't seeing the results they want.

The truth is that while keywords are important, focusing solely on using them will mean you are likely to make a lot of other mistakes without even realizing it. For example, the layout of your site plays an extremely important role in search engine optimization; not only do you need to make sure that the search engine spiders can navigate your site easily and without any problems, you also need to ensure that it will quite naturally draw your visitors in and encourage them to browse round.

One big SEO blooper in this respect is not including a site map to make navigation easier. Think of it like this - you wouldn't set off from home for an unknown destination without a map and have the patience to try and find it yourself, so don't expect a visitor to your website to do the same kind of thing. Make the information easy for the visitor - and the search engine spiders - to find.

Links are another area where a lot of sites fall down. There are two main ways of making mistakes here:

• Concentrating on getting lots of dodgy links or links with no value from link farms or similar sites
• Not getting any links at all

Links should be built over time but some webmasters get caught in the trap of thinking that they need to get plenty of links going to and from their site in record time - which in itself can set off alarm bells and on occasion leads the search engines to suspect your site of being a spam site.

In reality even three or four high quality links are better than a dozen or more substandard ones, so be sure to take your time generating them - it will give you a better result in the long run.

All of which leads to another major SEO blooper that a lot of webmasters are guilty of - not taking the time to work on the search engine optimization techniques in a way that will benefit them.

It's understandable; it's only natural to want to get the new site up and running as soon as possible. But if you are doing so at the expense of getting good and worthwhile content on your site, you are not practicing good search engine optimization techniques. If you can provide excellent quality content which makes good use of keywords and phrases while still remaining a good read then your site will be streets ahead of the competition.

Another common error is to exclude meta tags when you are building your web pages. A lot of people don't realize what meta tags are or how important they can be to the overall layout of your site. Your website won't stand or fall on these alone, but they certainly help to strengthen the overall picture.

Normally it's a case of simply choosing the main keywords that best describe your site, and using them as meta tags as well. Think of meta tags as a flag that you can wave to alert the search engines that your site exists. They should be included in html at the top of every page, since there is a very real possibility that the search engine spiders won't crawl beyond the first few lines.

Another common blooper is choosing an obscure domain name. Have you noticed that when you search for a word or phrase on Google, those words or phrases are bolded in the search results - including in the domain name if they are present?

This means you are wasting an opportunity to be found if you settle on an obscure name. Always make sure it makes sense and it doesn't need to be explained to any great degree. If it does you might want to think of something else.

SEO bloopers are alarmingly easy to make, but they are also easy to learn about and avoid. Search engine optimization is a never ending learning process. But as you start to use the right techniques and avoid the mistakes that can be made, you will find you are rewarded with more website visitors as a result.