How not to do SEO

Oct. 18, 2010

Under: SEO

how not to do SEO Here at Marqui, we get tons of requests from people who need or want help with their Search Engine Optimization. Some people have a pretty good idea of what they should be doing and just want a little bit of advice on how they can make the appropriate change. On the other hand, we also get a few people who come to us for help who either have very little idea of what they should be doing, or, are doing things actively wrong.

SEO can be tricky if you don’t know where to get started and it seems to be a fairly common issue among many of the people who turn to us for help. There are so many different aspects to an optimized SEO strategy and for many people the concept of developing an SEO process seems daunting to say the least.

While there are many things you can do that will help you get on the right track for better rankings, there are also quite a few things you can do that will almost immediately have a negative effect on them.

Today, instead of going over the things you can do right, we thought it might be helpful to try looking at SEO from another angle and telling you all the things you definitely shouldn't do. That way, even if you’re confused about what you can to do improve, you can hopefully say with assurance you’re not making any of these mistakes.

So--without further ado--here’s our list of the best ways not to do SEO.

Optimizing your website for the wrong keywords and ignoring long tail opportunities. This is definitely one of the most common mistakes that we see people make when they’re getting started with SEO. If you’re optimizing your website for common (and really popular) keywords, then it’s highly unlikely that you will ever rank for them. Remember, the keywords that you choose are the foundation of your SEO strategy and if they’re weak the chances that your SEO strategy won’t be are pretty slim. The second part of this point is to not ignore the opportunities for long tail search when you’re doing your keyword research. Long tail search is an important aspect of your SEO strategy because it allows you to rank highly for a large volume of highly specific keywords.

Using generic URLs. If you don’t have a CMS that allows you to control and change the URLs that are produced when you create a page, then you need to get one. Your URLs are an important way for search engines to tell what your page is about and they should be dynamic and contain your keywords.

Developing your SEO strategy after your website is already built. For some reason, a lot of people seem to believe that SEO is a process that should begin once a website is already up and running, when this is in fact that opposite of what should really be taking place. Would you go on a trip before you pack? Would you wait until you were sun burnt before applying sunscreen? Well, maybe you would, but I think we can both agree it would be a poor decision. The same goes for SEO.

Repeating, ignoring or not optimizing title tags. You’re Title Tags are one of the most important on-page SEO elements you have when creating a web page. Make sure that you’re choosing unique keyword phrases that are relevant to each page and give a good description of what that specific page is about.

Relying on stale content. This is the easiest and quickest fix for your website’s SEO. People get overwhelmed with the other on-page and off-page SEO factors, but if you want to get your SEO strategy on the way to being optimized fast, the best thing you can do is start creating fresh, unique content on a regular basis. Not only do search engines like new content, but it’s one of the best ways to make your website a popular resource for internet users.

Employ keyword stuffing tactics. While it’s important that you have your targeted keywords in the right places, over-filling your website copy with multiple instances of them to try and rank higher is a bad tactic. Not only does this make your copy read poorly (which won’t encourage repeat visitors) but search engines will also start to actually degrade your content because of the abundance of keywords.

Forgetting about social media. Social media and SEO are very intricately connected, although many people don’t realize to what extent. Social media has an enormous effect on your SEO because it helps drive targeted, relevant traffic to your website and whether you like it or not, it’s going to be around for a while. If your company isn’t currently incorporating social media into its online strategy it may be missing out on a large SEO opportunity.