Search Engine Mistakes To Avoid

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Updated 9 years ago

Hello folks. As the title suggest this blog is all about avoiding the mistakes that I see all too often on member’s sites I’m asked to comment on.

You as WA members taking or have taken the training will have learned about the importance of traffic and driving it to your website(s). It's the only thing that really matters. If you cannot generate targeted visitors to your site, you will not make any sales, affiliate commissions or indeed referrals back to wealthy affiliate.

You will all know that it’s the owner of a website who is the person that’s supposed to drive traffic to their site, and the main ingredient in generating traffic is the search engine. Of course, you can use advertising, but it's going to cost you. Using the search engines to generate targeted traffic is the least expensive method known.

Unfortunately from viewing WA member’s sites many of them still do not understand the importance of search engine visibility, which leads to traffic. They seem to be placing more importance on designing a nice looking website. Not that this is a bad thing, but it really does take second place to search engine ranking.

Below is a list that I have found to be the most common mistakes, made by many WA members. Hopefully you will take these tips on board and they will help to generate more targeted traffic to your site...after all, isn't that what you want?

1. Not using keywords effectively

This is probably one of the most critical area of site design. Choose the right keywords and potential customers will find your site. Use the wrong ones and your site will see little, if any, traffic.

2. Repeating the same keywords

When you use the same keywords over and over again (keyword stacking) the search engines may downgrade or even skip the page altogether, and sometimes even the entire site.

3. Copying from other websites

How many times have you heard or read that "this is the Internet and it's ok" to steal icons, text and images from websites to use on your own site. Don't do it. It’s one thing to learn from others who have been there quite another to copy their work. The search engines are very smart and usually detect duplicate pages. They may even prevent you from ever being listed by them. The message is clear - avoid duplicated content like the plague.

4. Using unrelated keywords (stacking)

During my browsing the internet for information to pass on to my fellow WA members I have seen many sites that have tried to gain search engine visibility by using popular keywords that have nothing at all to do with their website. They place unrelated keywords in a page inside a meta tag for a page. The keyword doesn't have anything to do with the page topic. However, since the keyword is popular, they think this will boost their visibility. This technique is considered spam by the search engines and may cause the page (sometimes the whole site) to be removed from the search engine listing. Do NOT use unrelated keywords just because they are the ‘In’ word or popular phrase. Try to be unique.

5. Keyword stuffing

This is one to watch for inserting text into your Alt for your pics/images. Somewhat like keyword stacking listed above, this means to assign multiple keywords to the description of a graphic or layer that appears on your website by using the "alt=" HTML parameter. If the search engines find that this text does not really describe the graphic or layer it will be considered spam. Your Alt text is important people, don’t waste it and use it to your advantage.

6. Relying on hidden text

This is one that because I’m colour blind I do not like at all.

You might be inclined to think that if you cannot see it, it doesn't matter. Wrong.... Do not try to hide your keywords or keyword phrases by making them invisible. For example, some designers will set the keywords to the same colour as the background of the web page; thereby, making it invisible.

7. Relying on tiny text

This is another version of the item above (hidden text). Do not try to hide your keywords or keyword phrases by making them tiny. Setting the text size of the keywords so small that it can barely be seen does this. (I have found that Font 18 for content text and 24 for headings and Titles is as near perfect as you can make it) However it’s a personal choice but think about it. If people have to strain their eyes to read your pages then they will go elsewhere.

8. Assuming all search engines are the same

Many people assume that each search engine plays by the same rules. This is not so. Each has their own rules and are subject to change whenever they want to. Make sure you learn what each major, and the lesser search engine requires for high visibility.

9. Using free web hosting

I shouldn’t need to include this but, do not use free web hosting if you are really serious about increasing site traffic via search engines. It’s in no way unusual for search engines to eliminate content from these free hosts.

10. Forgetting to check for missing web page elements

Make sure to check every page in your website such as missing links, graphics, etc. There are sites on the web that will do this for free.

This is just a few of the methods and techniques that you should avoid. Do not give in to the temptation and believe that these methods will work for you. They will do more harm than good for your website.

Not only will you have wasted weeks of effort, you may have your site banned from the search engines for good. Invest a little time to learn the proper techniques for increasing search engine visibility and your traffic will increase.

There you have it folks and I hope you will now check the websites you already have up and running and don’t forget these tips for future ones.

If you have the time, please leave a comment.

Robert Allan

I've been asked how do I check my site elements so here is the link for my blog wherein I gave a link to a site analyser tool.

Perhaps it will be of use to anyone who wants to check their site for mistakes.

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/robert-a/blog/fant...