: by Dante Monteverde :
10 critical mistakes when optimizing a website and how to correct them
Effective SEO does not happen overnight — it’s a long, arduous task that often takes
months, even years before reaping the rewards for your overall SEM campaign.
Implementing the correct strategy from the very beginning is crucial for overall SEO
success. In order to help you get off on the right foot, I have listed 10 critical errors
many website owners make and how to correct or avoid them.
1. Don’t assume you will be able to optimize your
site entirely on your own or believe you can just hire
an SEO company down the road. Do an analysis of
your business and its major keywords. Are you going
to be able to rank for highly competitive keywords
on your own? Should you hire an SEO company?
This decision needs to be made early in the process,
not later.
2. Don’t begin your website design and development
without considering an SEO plan. Docomplete
a keyword analysis first and determine what kind of
keyword-rich content you will need to develop in
order to rank highly. Make sure your graphic designers
know which keywords are going to be targeted
on each of the pages they will design — it makes it
easier for them to match the overall theme of the
content and keywords to the site’s design, broadening
the SEO impact.
3. Don’t forget about your secondary pages. In
many cases, these pages can rank just as well as your
main index.html page. Do spend ample time developing
these pages.
tag on your secondary pages’
tags. Do spend time developing separate keyword-
rich
tags that match the content to the
keywords you are targeting on your secondary pages.
4. Don’t repeat the keywords you have on your
index.html.
tags. Most likely, you are already ranking
well for your own company or domain name.
Do place your company or domain name at the end
of the
tag if you absolutely need it to appear
in the headline within the search engine results
pages (SERPs).
5. Don’t list your company or domain name first
in the
Tag. List your keyword first Brand/Domain Name last.</p>
<p><b>6.</b> Don’t target general, highly competitive keywords.
Do target keyword derivatives that get traffic
and are not as competitive. It’s better to rank #3 for
“blue soft widgets” than #30 for “widgets” even if
the main keywords get more traffic. In the end, landing
in the top 10 or top 5, even for less competitive
keywords will generate more traffic overall.</p>
<p><b>7.</b> Don’t forget about a sitemap and making your
website search engine friendly and crawlable. Do
submit your website to Google Webmaster Tools and
Yahoo Site Explorer and take advantage of their
resources.</p>
<p><b>8.</b> Don’t make the mistake of driving all your
incoming links to your main index.html page. Do
create a balanced link program that not only generates
incoming links to your main index.html pages
but also to your secondary pages. If you have useful
content or tools on your secondary pages, websites
will link to them.</p>
<p><b>9.</b> Don’t request the same anchor text on all of
your incoming links, as this looks very unnatural to
the search engines. Do offer anyone who wants to
link back to you with a variety of anchor texts. And,
of course, match the anchor text with those keywords
you are targeting for that specific page. If at all possible,
try to stay away from getting incoming links displaying
your domain name. Instead, try to get people
to link to you with keywords and keyword phrases.</p>
<p><b>10.</b> Don’t assume you can complete an initial SEO
campaign and think you are done. Do perform regular
and ongoing keyword research to make sure you
are still targeting the correct keywords; perhaps there
are new keywords to target? Do follow up on your
link requests and maintain an ongoing link campaign.
Do implement an analytics program and track
the amount of traffic you are generating from the
organic search engine listings. Are these visits leading
to sales or conversions? If so, it’s in your best interest
to up your SEO efforts and ride the momentum.<br /><br />
There are many mistakes that webmasters and
website owners make when implementing a new or
ongoing SEO strategy. That’s why it is difficult
garnering and maintaining organic listings on the
major search engines. While this is only a sample of
some of the more common mistakes, this list should
provide you with a starting point of how to begin
and what to avoid.</p>
<p>Happy SEOing.</p>
<hr />
<table id="table1" border="0" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="145">
<img src="/images/blog/dante-monteverde.gif" border="0" width="128" height="110" /></td>
<td>
<p><b><a title="SEO Corner" href="/seocorner/"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">SEO Corner</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><a target="_self" title="SEO Corner" href="/seocorner/"><br /></a></i><br />About the Author:</span></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Dante A. Monteverde is a Search Strategist specializing in Search Engine
Optimization.<br />He founded <a target="_blank" title="Spider Bait SEO" href="http://www.spiderbait.com/seo-expert/">
Spider Bait SEO</a> in 1996 and has over 10 years of SEO experience.</span>
</span></b></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<figure class="visuallyhidden" itemprop="image" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject">
<img class="article-image" src='https://www.websitemagazine.com/images/default-source/thumbnail/websitemagazineminilogo.png?sfvrsn=4' alt='WebsiteMagazineMiniLogo'/>
<meta itemprop="url" content="https://www.websitemagazine.com/images/default-source/thumbnail/websitemagazineminilogo.png?sfvrsn=4">
<meta itemprop="width" content="139">
<meta itemprop="height" content="100">
<meta itemprop="name" content="Website Magazine">
</figure>
<ul class="top-items-slider" data-slick='{"slidesToShow": 1, "slidesToScroll":1, "arrows":true, "lazyLoad":"progressive"}'>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="visuallyhidden" itemprop="publisher" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Organization">
<div itemprop="logo" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject">
<img src="https://www.websitemagazine.com/images/default-source/default-album/logo.png">
<meta itemprop="url" content="https://www.websitemagazine.com/images/default-source/default-album/logo.png">
<meta itemprop="width" content="306">
<meta itemprop="height" content="108">
</div>
<meta itemprop="name" content="Website Magazine">
</div>
</article>
<div class="OUTBRAIN" data-widget-id= "TF_6" data-src = "" data-ob-template="WebsiteMagazine" ></div>
<div class='w_rowcn04w'><div id='rrouter'><span class='rrheadline'>Today's Top Picks for Our Readers:</span><script language="javascript" src="//cts.tradepub.com/cts4/?ptnr=websitemagazine&tm=w_rowcn04w&ssl=1&hicat=&type=all&key=&trk="></script><div class='rrrec'><span>Recommended by</span> <a href='http://www.netline.com/netline-recommends' target='_blank'><img src='//img.tradepub.com/images/rrnllogo.png' border='0' alt='Recommended by NetLine'></a></div></div></div>
<div class="newsletter">
<a href="/newsletter-signup">
<svg class="icon" aria-hidden="true" focusable="false" role="presentation" version="1.1" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><use xlink:href="#icon-mail"></use></svg>
Request Website Magazine's Free Weekly Newsletters
</a>
</div>
<div id="comments-4f25e78e-c5e1-63ac-bc5d-ff0000ff1aaa_en" data-sf-role="comments-wrapper" class="comments">
<div class="comments-anonymous-view" data-sf-role="comments-new-requires-authentication">
<h2>Leave Your Comment</h2><a href='/login' class="btn">Login to Comment</a>
<hr>
<div class="become-member">
<h2>Become a Member</h2>
<p>Not already a part of our community?<br/> Sign up to participate in the discussion. It's free and quick.</p>
<a href="/registration" class="btn btn-secondary">Sign Up</a>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function(){
function hideCommentList(){ if($(".comments-anonymous-view").is(":visible")) { $(".comments-member-view").hide() }; }
setTimeout(hideCommentList, 500);
});
</script>
</div>
<input type="hidden" data-sf-role="comments-settings" value="{"commentsThreadKey":"4f25e78e-c5e1-63ac-bc5d-ff0000ff1aaa_en","commentsThreadType":"Telerik.Sitefinity.DynamicTypes.Model.WMBlog.Blogitem","rootUrl":"/RestApi/comments-api/","isUserAuthenticatedUrl":"/RestApi/session/is-authenticated","commentsPerPage":50,"commentsTextMaxLength":100,"commentsAllowSubscription":false,"requiresCaptcha":true,"requiresAuthentication":true,"requiresApproval":false,"commentsAutoRefresh":false,"commentsRefreshInterval":3000,"commentsInitiallySortedDescending":true,"userAvatarImageUrl":"/SFRes/images/Telerik.Sitefinity.Resources/Images.DefaultPhoto.png","userDisplayName":"","isDesignMode":false,"commentsThread":{"key":"4f25e78e-c5e1-63ac-bc5d-ff0000ff1aaa_en","type":"Telerik.Sitefinity.DynamicTypes.Model.WMBlog.Blogitem","behavior":null,"commentsCount":0,"title":"SEO Corner: SEO Do's & Dont's","language":"en","isClosed":false,"groupKey":"WMBlog_OpenAccessProvider","dataSource":"OpenAccessProvider","author":{"key":"00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000","name":null,"email":null},"dateCreated":"0001-01-01T00:00:00","averageRating":null},"useReviews":false,"hasUserAlreadyReviewedUrl":"/RestApi/reviews-api","createCommentUrl":"/RestApi/reviews-api"}" />
<input type="hidden" data-sf-role="comments-resources" value="{"readFullComment":"Read full comment","commentSingular":"comment","commentsPlural":"comments","subscribeLink":"Subscribe","unsubscribeLink":"Unsubscribe","subscribeToNewComments":"Subscribe to new comments","youAreSubscribedToNewComments":"You are subscribed to new comments","successfullySubscribedToNewComments":"You are successfully subscribed to new comments","successfullyUnsubscribedFromNewComments":"You are successfully unsubscribed","messageIsRequired":"Message is required!","nameIsRequired":"Author name is required!","invalidEmailFormat":"Invalid email format!","ratingIsRequired":"Rating is required!","readFullReview":"Read full review","reviewSingular":"review","reviewPlural":"reviews","subscribeToNewReviews":"Subscribe to new reviews","youAreSubscribedToNewReviews":"You are subscribed to new reviews","successfullySubscribedToNewReviews":"You are successfully subscribed to new reviews","thankYouReviewSubmited":"Thank you! Your review has been submitted successfully"}" />
<div class="comments-member-view">
<h2 class="title"><span data-sf-role="comments-total-count"></span> <span data-sf-role="comments-header"></span></h2>
<a href="#comment-submit-4f25e78e-c5e1-63ac-bc5d-ff0000ff1aaa_en" data-sf-role="comments-new-form-button">Leave a comment</a>
<div data-sf-role="list-loading-indicator" style="display:none;"></div>
<ul class="item-list" data-sf-role="comments-container"></ul>
<a href="#" data-sf-role="comments-load-more-button" style="display:none;">Load more comments</a>
<div data-sf-role="comments-new-form" id="comment-submit-4f25e78e-c5e1-63ac-bc5d-ff0000ff1aaa_en">
<textarea data-sf-role="comments-new-message" placeholder="Leave a comment" ></textarea>
<div data-sf-role="comments-new-logged-out-view" style="display:none;">
<div>
<label style="display: none;">Your name</label>
<input placeholder="Your name" data-sf-role="comments-new-name" />
</div>
<div>
<label style="display: none;">Email (optional)</label>
<input type="email" placeholder="Email (optional)" data-sf-role="comments-new-email" />
</div>
</div>
<div data-sf-role="captcha-container" style="display:none;">
<div>
<img data-sf-role="captcha-image" src="/Frontend-Assembly/Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend/assets/dist/img/dummy.jpg?package=Talon"/>
</div>
<a data-sf-role="captcha-refresh-button"> New code </a>
<div>
<label>Please type the code above
<input type="text" data-sf-role="captcha-input" />
</label>
</div>
</div>
<div><button data-sf-role="comments-new-submit-button" class="btn">Submit</button></div>
</div>
<div data-sf-role="error-message" style="display:none;">
<span></span>
</div>
<div data-sf-role="submit-loading-indicator" style="display:none;"></div>
<div data-sf-role="single-comment-template" style="display:none;">
<li class="item">
<div class="media"><img data-sf-role="comment-avatar" src="/Frontend-Assembly/Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend/assets/dist/img/dummy.jpg?package=Talon"/></div>
<div class="content">
<h3 class="title"><span data-sf-role="comment-name"></span></h3>
<p><span data-sf-role="comment-message"></span></p>
</div>
</li>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<script>
$(document).ready(function(){
addthis.update('share', 'url', "https://www.websitemagazine.com/blog/seo-corner-seo-do-s-amp-dont-s");
addthis.update('share', 'title', "SEO Corner: SEO Do's & Dont's");
});
</script>
</div>
<div id="Main_T4BAAA89F001_Col01" class="sf_colsIn grid-4 side-rail" data-sf-element="Column 2" data-placeholder-label="Rail Content">
<div class="adunit" data-adunit="wm_rectangle_1" id="wm_rectangle_1" data-dimensions="300x250"></div>
<div class="clearfix sf-content-block"> </div>
<div class="rail-navigation channel-navigation">
<button class="nav-toggle">View Channels</button>
<ul class="menu">
<li>
<a href="https://www.websitemagazine.com/blog?taxonomy=categories&propertyName=category&taxon=%2fdesign-and-development" id="designanddevelopment" data-title="Design and Development">Design and Development</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://www.websitemagazine.com/blog?taxonomy=categories&propertyName=category&taxon=%2fe-commerce-express" id="e-commerceexpress" data-title="E-commerce Express">E-commerce Express</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://www.websitemagazine.com/blog?taxonomy=categories&propertyName=category&taxon=%2fmastering-search" id="masteringsearch" data-title="Mastering Search">Mastering Search</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://www.websitemagazine.com/blog?taxonomy=categories&propertyName=category&taxon=%2fsocial-media-mavens" id="socialmediamavens" data-title="Social Media Mavens">Social Media Mavens</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://www.websitemagazine.com/blog?taxonomy=categories&propertyName=category&taxon=%2fsoftware-everywhere" id="softwareeverywhere" data-title="Software Everywhere">Software Everywhere</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://www.websitemagazine.com/blog?taxonomy=categories&propertyName=category&taxon=%2femail-experience" id="emailexperience" data-title="Email Experience">Email Experience</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://www.websitemagazine.com/blog?taxonomy=categories&propertyName=category&taxon=%2finsights-on-analytics" id="insightsonanalytics" data-title="Insights on Analytics">Insights on Analytics</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://www.websitemagazine.com/blog?taxonomy=categories&propertyName=category&taxon=%2finternet-advertising" id="internetadvertising" data-title="Internet Advertising">Internet Advertising</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://www.websitemagazine.com/blog?taxonomy=categories&propertyName=category&taxon=%2flocal-matters" id="localmatters" data-title="Local Matters">Local Matters</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="https://www.websitemagazine.com/blog?taxonomy=categories&propertyName=category&taxon=%2fmobile-world" id="mobileworld" data-title="Mobile World">Mobile World</a>
</li>
</ul>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function () {
var currentURL = window.location.href, activeCategory;
$('.nav-toggle').on('click', function () {
var $this = $(this);
if($this.hasClass('active')) { $(this).removeClass('active'); }
else {$(this).addClass('active');}
});
// Set active filtered channel, change title of the blog listing on the fly, and get its respective image as well to place next to the title.
$('.channel-navigation a').each(function () {
var $this = $(this),
$dataTitle = $this.data("title"),
$blogTitle = $('.blog-listing .heading .title');
if ($this.attr('href') == window.location.href) {
$this.addClass('active');
$('.rail-navigation button').addClass('active');
$blogTitle.html($dataTitle).addClass("filtered");
$.ajax({
method:"GET",
url: "/ChannelImageService/"+$dataTitle,
data: { format:'json'},
context:$this
}).success(function(data){
var URL = data.URL
for (i = 0; i < URL.length; i++) {
$('<img src="'+ URL +'" alt="'+ $dataTitle +'"/>').prependTo($(".blog-listing .heading"));
return false;
}
});
}
});
});
</script>
</div>
<div class="clearfix sf-content-block"> </div>
<div class="adunit" data-adunit="wm_largeskyscraper_1" id="wm_largeskyscraper_1" data-dimensions="300x600"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="clearfix sf-content-block"><div class="subscribe-today-callout"><a href="/registration"><img src="/images/default-source/default-album/arrows-wm2c.png?sfvrsn=0" data-displaymode="Original" alt="arrows-wm2c" title="arrows-wm2c" /> Request a Free Subscription to Website Magazine!
</a></div></div>
</main> <footer id="site-footer" class="footer">
<div id="Footer_T0D6B76F3051_Col00" class="sf_colsIn outer-container" data-sf-element="Div" data-placeholder-label="Div"><div id="Footer_T0D6B76F3052_Col00" class="sf_colsIn container" data-sf-element="Container" data-placeholder-label="Container"><div id="Footer_T0D6B76F3078_Col00" class="sf_colsIn contact-container" data-sf-element="Div" data-placeholder-label="Div"><div class="container" data-sf-element="Row">
<div id="Footer_T0D6B76F3053_Col00" class="sf_colsIn grid-3" data-sf-element="Column 1" data-placeholder-label="Column 1">
<div class="clearfix sf-content-block"><a href="/"><img alt="Website Magazine" src="/images/default-source/default-album/wsm_logo3ebed48ec5e163acbc5dff0000ff1aaa.png?sfvrsn=0" title="logo" /></a></div>
</div>
<div id="Footer_T0D6B76F3053_Col01" class="sf_colsIn grid-3" data-sf-element="Column 2" data-placeholder-label="Column 2">
<div class="clearfix sf-content-block"><div itemprop="address" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/PostalAddress"><span class="street" itemprop="streetAddress">999 E Touhy Ave</span><br /><span class="city" itemprop="addressLocality">Des Plaines,</span> <span class="state" itemprop="addressRegion">IL</span> <span class="zip" itemprop="postalCode">60018</span>
</div></div>
</div>
<div id="Footer_T0D6B76F3053_Col02" class="sf_colsIn grid-3" data-sf-element="Column 3" data-placeholder-label="Column 3">
<div class="clearfix sf-content-block"><span>Toll Free: 1.800.817.1518</span><br /><span>International: 1.773.628.2779</span></div>
</div>
<div id="Footer_T0D6B76F3053_Col03" class="sf_colsIn grid-3" data-sf-element="Column 4" data-placeholder-label="Column 4">
<div class="clearfix sf-content-block"><span>Fax: 1.773.272.0920</span><br /><span>Email: <a href="mailto:info@websitemagazine.com">info@websitemagazine.com</a></span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div><div id="Footer_T0D6B76F3079_Col00" class="sf_colsIn nav-container" data-sf-element="Div" data-placeholder-label="Div"><div class="container" data-sf-element="Row">
<div id="Footer_T0D6B76F3054_Col00" class="sf_colsIn grid-12" data-sf-element="Column 1" data-placeholder-label="Column 1">
<nav class="footer nav-bar" role="navigation">
<ul class="cm-menu">
<li class="">
<a href="/about" target="_self">About</a>
</li>
<li class="">
<a href="/resources" target="_self">Resources</a>
</li>
<li class="">
<a href="https://www.websitemagazine.com/blog/mobile-the-future-of-digital" target="_self">Current Edition</a>
</li>
<li class="">
<a href="/archive" target="_self">Digital Archive</a>
</li>
<li class="">
<a href="/channels" target="_self">Channels</a>
</li>
<li class="active">
<a href="/blog" target="_self">Daily Weblog</a>
</li>
</ul>
</nav>
</div>
</div>
</div></div></div><div id="Footer_T0D6B76F3055_Col00" class="sf_colsIn container copyright-container" data-sf-element="Container" data-placeholder-label="Container"><div class="container" data-sf-element="Row">
<div id="Footer_T0D6B76F3082_Col00" class="sf_colsIn grid-4 push-8" data-sf-element="Column 1" data-placeholder-label="Column 1">
<div class="clearfix sf-content-block"><div class="tw-follow"><a class="twitter-follow-button" data-show-count="true" data-show-screen-name="false" data-size="large" href="https://twitter.com/WebsiteMagazine">Follow</a></div><div class="fb-like" data-action="like" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/WebsiteMagazine" data-layout="button_count" data-share="false" data-show-faces="false" data-width="168"></div></div>
</div>
<div id="Footer_T0D6B76F3082_Col01" class="sf_colsIn grid-8 pull-4" data-sf-element="Column 2" data-placeholder-label="Column 2">
<div class="clearfix sf-content-block"><p>Copyright 2019 Website Magazine All Rights Reserved | <a href="/sitemap">Sitemap</a><a href="https://www.americaneagle.com/" rel="nofollow" style="color:#000000;" target="_blank"></a></p></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="clearfix sf-content-block"><div id="fb-root"></div></div>
<script type="text/javascript">
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');
</script>
</footer> <div id="ScriptWrapper"> <script src="/Frontend-Assembly/Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend/assets/dist/js/all.min.js?package=Talon" type="text/javascript"></script>
</div> </div> <script src="/Frontend-Assembly/Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Identity/Mvc/Scripts/LoginStatus/login-status.js?package=Talon" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="/Frontend-Assembly/Telerik.Sitefinity.Frontend.Comments/Mvc/Scripts/comments-list.js?package=Talon" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript">
</script><script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=ra-57878fd71a98c841"></script> </body> </html>
