Lots of beginners make simple SEO mistakes, but there are many more who purposely try to ‘game the system’ which is an approach that is destined to fail. SEO is something you can be highly successful at, but you have to know that it’s something that is constantly working to evolve and change. It’s a fact that if you want to keep up with the search engines, and SEO, then you’ll always need to keep learning and updating your knowledge so you don’t make a mistake in the future. If you’re new to SEO, and want to do it, then keep reading to learn a few SEO mistakes you’ll want to avoid, for sure.

Avoid the use of any images for your headings and site menus as this will be counter-productive to your efforts. Of course people like images, and there are tons of great ones to use, but using them in certain places on your site is not advised for search engines. The problem with images is search engine spiders are unable to read them because they only read text.

So if you have an image in your heading, then you won’t be able to use the ‘h’ tags that add SEO value. Search engines read your site to make the greatest determination about how useful your site is to the reader. You can use CSS or just text in the heading area, and that will be another optimization opportunity you won’t miss. Failing to use the correct title tags on website pages, or not using them at all, is a tremendously large no-no for SEO. It’s always tough to say why people do such things, but the bottom line about it is that the difference it makes is important. Your rankings depend on them, and the search engines use them to know exactly what your pages are about. As far as SEO is concerned, using your intended keyword(s) in your title is one of the smartest things to do. The more competitive your market, the more important it becomes to have optimized page title tags. On a personal note, if your title tag is missing or incorrect, then some people will notice it, and that won’t help the professional image of your site. You could inadvertently be contributing to a negative image for your site and business. So hopefully it’s very clear as to the importance of properly optimized page title tags. As far as stuffing keywords in your page titles, don’t ever do it because it will only hurt you. The search engines will only penalize you harshly for it. So it’s really very simple, and all you do is write a short title tag containing the keywords/phrases that particular page is supposed to rank for in the serps.

Another big mistake is not taking the time to know your target market. Before you can optimize your site for the search engines, you first need to understand what keywords your target market will be looking for so you can add these to your content appropriately. This step is vital to succeeding with your SEO efforts. When you know who you’re targeting, you’ll know what content they want. Knowing these things about your visitors will be the best chance of success for your SEO efforts.

In conclusion, search engine optimization is definitely not child’s play. If you want to succeed with it, then you’ll need to learn about it and be dedicated.



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Filed under: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)