High Search Engine Ranking Improve Search Engine Ranking and Optimization

Common mistakes made in search engine optimization, when seeking higher search engine ranking... and other free search engine ranking tips!

It's common to come across websites that have under gone "bad practice" search engine optimization in an attempt to improve search engine ranking. This can be expected when someone new to SEO, not yet familiar with the industry or what acceptable search engine optimization standards are, sets out to optimize a website...

But when you see the same mistakes and worse, being committed by experienced, so-called Search Engine Ranking and Optimization experts… now that's scary!

Learn more... The Truth about Search Engine Optimization.

Ranking Higher in the Search Engines

Could YOU be making the same errors with your website? Let's look at some of the more common mistakes made when striving for higher search engine ranking. Mistakes made by both, the beginner and the experienced search engine ranking and optimization professional alike.

By avoiding these common search engine ranking mistakes when designing or optimizing your own website, you can save yourself a lot of time, you can save yourself a lot of frustration, and you can save yourself a lot of money.

Learn Why SEO Central is the Search Engine Optimization Firm of Choice when it comes to Professional Search Engine Optimization Service...

For a Partial List of Preferred SEO Central Partners go to our Case Studies page.

High Search Engine Ranking and Optimization
Mistakes to Avoid...

Lack of Quality Content
This is the mother of all mistakes when it comes to long term search engine ranking success. Content, content, content... quality content that is highly visible to the search engine spiders (spider food).

How often do you come across a home page that is pretty much all graphics? You know the ones - they consist of an enormous Flash file or company logo. Well they may look very cool and you may think they look professional, but the fact is they're not going to be ranked high in any of the search engines because without text the spiders can't find them.

If you want a website to rank high in the search engines, you need visible content that is optimized. That means adding keyword-laced body text to any page you want positioned well. Search engines can't index images, and some don't even index META tags anymore. So a properly optimized title and META tags just aren't enough, a site must have pages with keyword rich content… simple as that if it's to stand a chance in the competitive arena of the Internet.

Beware you keyword density though, things are not what they seem to be in the world of higher search engine ranking. For more information on what makes for good content and the keyword density to strive for, browse our cache of search engine ranking and optimization tutorials.

Using Hidden Text
In an effort to create keyword rich content, many webmasters and search engine
submission and optimization gurus found their content beginning to sound rather odd to the visitor. In an attempt to maintain the keyword strings and still have the content make sense, they began adding invisible text (same colour as the background). This technique has worked in the past, however today's search engines have long since caught up with this technique, and for the most part ignore or penalize such pages. Some search engines may actually penalize the entire website because a single page contains hidden text.

This is all fine and good, however even ethically produced websites designed using good search engine ranking strategy can find themselves in trouble on not know why. The problem arises when the search engines misinterpret your intentions. An example of this would be if a web page contained a table with text the same colour as the page background… white page background, dark table background, and white text in the table. This type of scenario is more common than you think. In this example, the text is visible and shouldn't be called hidden text. The problem lies with the search engines inability to recognize the background in the table.

Give it some thought… are any of your pages being penalized inadvertently?

Go to our Search Engine Optimization Services Page for information on the services we offer and what it can mean for you and your online business...

Improving Search Engine Ranking
With Good Optimization...

Pages Containing Only Graphics
Search engines only understand text. That's why websites that contain lots of graphics and little text don't get ranked very high in the search engines. The trick is to include keyword rich text for the search engine spiders to feed on.

Remember, it's all about an appropriate supply of spider food!

For more indepth information on Search Engine Optimization check out our Articles and Tutorials Pages...

Not Utilizing the Title Tag
If you want to achieve high search engine rankings, you must make use of your title tag, it can make or break your ranking for a particular search term. If you don't include your most important search phrases within your title tag, you are overlooking a vital opportunity in your quest for better search engine rankings.

It may not be common knowledge amongst web designers, but most search engines index the content of the title tag and put a lot of emphasis on it in their relevancy algorithm. In fact your title tag may just be the single most important element of optimization and search engine ranking.

So the next time you see a competing website with the name of the business, or some other keyword irrelevant, displayed in their title… be grateful and smile.

Try to keep your title tag between 60 and 80 characters, as that's what most search engines will truncate it to.

And if you really need to include YOUR company name in your title and you're willing to trade off perfectly good keyword placement to do it, make sure you include it at the very end of the tag, because search engines give more emphasis (relevancy) to content at the front of the title tag.

Free Search Engine Ranking
Optimization Tips...

Too many keywords in the Meta Keywords tag
A particular keyword should never be present more than three times in your Meta keywords tag. If you do, it could cost you… see the section below "Repeating the same keyword too many times".

The Meta keyword tag has pretty much lost its importance as far as search engine positioning is concerned. Simply listing keywords in the Meta keywords tag is not going to get you good search engine position. If you want good positioning, and who doesn't, you'll need lots of high quality, keyword rich content in the body of each page.

Optimizing your site for the wrong Keywords
Choice of keywords can be more difficult than it appears. It requires forethought and experience to come up with the best keywords for the job. Although, judging by some of the examples set by truly experienced SEO people, I sometimes wonder about the experience part.

Because keyword selection is the first step in any search engine optimization project to improve ranking, if you choose inappropriate words, or even mediocre words, the time and effort devoted in trying to get your site a high search engine ranking will be a waste.

It's a common mistake to select keyword terms that are too broad or generic. They can be far too competitive to get good placement, they don't convert well, and you end up dragging a bunch of traffic to your site that really doesn't want to be there. So take your time to target your keyword terms carefully (the first step in achieving high search engine ranking). You're far better off with a few carefully targeted, high converting terms than you are with high traffic producing, low converting, generic terms.

Lets face it, if you're a motorcycle repair shop in Nanaimo, BC, and you use the term "motorcycle" in your META keyword tag, most everyone coming to your site after searching the term motorcycle is going to leave, unless of course you have something that appeals to everyone interested in motorcycles.

Optimize your site for search terms and phrases that are highly targeted to your precise business and you can't go wrong. Use keyword location software, together with the knowledge of your own business, to find terms that people actually use in searching out the types of goods and services you offer, and then focus exclusively on ranking well for those terms within each of The Major Search Engines. After all, the more qualified the visitors, the better the conversion.

Learn how to choose keywords that bring high volumes of targeted, high converting traffic to your site…

More Search Engine Ranking
Optimization Tips...

Repeating the same keyword too many times
It's a mistake to endlessly repeat targeted keywords in the body and in the Meta tags. Modern search engines recognize such tactics as a substitute for quality content in an attempt to trick the spiders into good positioning. It's been done and overdone so much by the practitioners of poor search engine ranking techniques that you run risk of being penalized, so be forewarned.

Simply repeating the keywords endlessly not only makes no sense to the person reading your page, is simply no longer works.

Creating lots of similar doorway pages
Contrary to popular belief, you don't need to create different pages for each search engine. True, search engines all use different algorithms, but you're just going to end up with a bunch of pages very much the same. This can be an administrative nightmare, especially when it comes time to update all the pages.

It's always best to write a single keyword rich content page for a single set of keywords and then submit it to all the search engines. Besides, search engines change their algorithms on a fairly regular basis, and can actually penalize you for having created too many similar pages… so do it once, do it right, sit back and be happy.

Using Frames and not using the NOFRAMES tag
Many search engines can't do frames. These search engines only consider what's present in the NOFRAMES tag. So if your site uses frames, make sure you've got lots of keyword rich text in the NOFRAMES tag.

Page Cloaking
In layman's terms, page cloaking is the technique of delivering different web pages under different circumstances. The two most common uses for page cloaking are:

It's like pulling the wool over the spider's eyes, and the spiders don't like it much. Cloaking prevents the search engines from being able to spider the actual page the surfer sees, which reduces the search engines confidence to provide relevant search result. That's why many search engines will ban websites from their database if its discovered they are using cloaking techniques. So beware the risks…

Search Engine Ranking and Optimization Services... Why You Need Search Engine Optimization.

Ineffective Search Engine Submission and Optimization...

Submitting to Thousands of Search Engines
The truth is, there aren't thousands of search engines. Companies that advertise submission to thousands of search engines are usually submitting to minor search engines and directory services that already utilize the databases of the Major Search Engines (therefore don't require submission), and a large number of Free For All (FFA) sites.

Search engines will often penalize websites that are submitting to FFA pages because they consider them to be of low quality, and FFA sites also use spamdexing to inflate a sites link popularity which is what we call link farming.

Studies show that 90% of search traffic comes from the Top 10 U.S. Search Engines and directories, so why even take the chance… I've even read about sites being banned from search engines for having their pages listed on FFA sites by ill-informed webmasters without the site owner's knowledge.

The bottom line… Get your site listed in The 10 most popular Search Engines and Directories and you will have the major worldwide traffic sources covered.

If you're targeting specific geographic markets, you might like to submit your site to the Most Popular Regional Search Engines and Directory Services in those countries, but the fact is that most people worldwide continue to use the U.S. versions of Search Engines and Directories such as Yahoo, Google, and Alta Vista despite the fact that there are local versions of these Search Engines available.

Resubmitting Too Soon and Too Often
Resubmit, or not to resubmit… that is the question. You've optimized your site and you've submitted it to all the top search engines and directories, now... how long before it's appropriate (beneficial) to submit again?

Even if weeks have gone by and you're not seeing traffic, don't be too quick to resubmit. Each search engine and directory works on its own time line, and some will take as long as 12 weeks to index a website or include it on their directory pages. So, check the Average Search Engine and Directory Indexing Times and be patient.

Once you are listed with a search engine or directory, it isn't necessary to resubmit your site. They know you're there and they'll be back regularly, on their schedule, to re-index your site. In fact, resubmitting is a waste of your time unless the URL changes or you drop out of their database entirely, and besides, unnecessary resubmissions can, if you do it too many times, get you permanently removed from the search engine or directory database for spamdexing.

So, now you have it. A drop in ranking or new content is no excuse for resubmission. Only resubmit if you're nowhere to be found in the search engine or directory index, which can happen from time to time. Even search eEngines do spring and fall cleaning, so it's necessary to monitor your rankings on a monthly basis.

For more on submitting to search engines go to Search Engine Submission Basics.

Using Automatic Submission Tools
Manually submitting your site to the search engines and dDirectories takes a lot of time and automated submission tools can help. The problem lies with the fact that the search engines and directories don't like automatic submission tools and often will ignore pages that used them.

The Major Search Engines are simply too important to risk penalty with. Submit your website manually or you could pay the ultimate price.

Too many pages Submitted in a day
If you have multiple Search Engine and Directory Submissions to make for a single domain, understand that some search engines accept only one page per day within a domain. Submitting more than that can often result in some, or all of your pages being ignored. So, as a rule of thumb, stick to submitting one page a day within a single domain and you can sleep at night knowing you're within the limits of all the search engines and directories out there.

Too much time spent...
Improving Search Engine Ranking and Optimization
It is possible to over do it. By that I simply mean you can spend too much time fretting over your ranking in the search engines. Sure it's the most cost effective way of driving traffic to your site and you do need to spend time every day learning "How the Search Engines Work" and learning "The Secrets of Good Search Engine Optimization", but you also have other important things to pay attention to… like the quality of the products and services you are selling, customer service, and your site content.

Last word on...
High Search Engine Ranking and Improving Optimization

There you have it… the most common mistakes made in SEO. No doubt some of them sound familiar right? Not a problem, now you know what to pay attention to to ensure you have an edge over the competition. You're even in a position to go back and correct some of the mistakes already made.

Learn Why SEO Central is the Search Engine Ranking and Optimization Firm of Choice when it comes to Professional Search Engine Optimization Service...

Go to our SHigh Search Engine Ranking Services Page for information on the services we offer and what it can mean for you and your online business...

Or, go directly to our SEO Programs and Pricing page for details on the specific search engine optimization services and programs we have available...

For a Partial List of Preferred SEO Central Partners go to our Case Studies page.

For more indepth information on Search Engine Optimization check out our Search Industry and Internet Marketing Articles Center and Search Engine Ranking and Optimization Tutorials Pages...

Most Frequently Asked Questions about search engine ranking...

Contact the SEO Central team of search engine ranking and optimization experts today for seo information and to learn more about the search engine optimization strategy that is right for you...

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