Common SEO Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

There are no shortage of websites out there with badly written seo meta-tag data. Just because Google no longer places as much weight on meta data as it used to, does not mean that you should not pay any attention to it either, or you could find your search engine optimization campaign grinding to a halt.

Generally speaking, I find a lot of these SEO mistakes with search marketing beginners or SEO DIY’ers. If that’s you then I have compiled a shirt list of SEO mistakes and how to avoid them.

1) Do Not Stuff Your Keyword tag with Keywords

Your keyword tag will look something like this;

The purpose of the keywords tag is for you to accurately describe / tag the nature of your page. Therefore do exactly that, don’t stuff the keyword tag with non relevant keywords or keywords from other parts of your site. Your tag must reflect only the keywords on that page. Keep your tag no more than 20 words and do not repeat any word more than 3 times

2) Use the Description tag to Describe Your Page and Stoke Interest

Your description tag will look something like this;

The purpose of the description tag is to describe what the page is about in the search results so that human searchers can decide if they want to click on the link to find out more. You should therefore use the opportunity to write a good teaser description that will stock curiosity and encourage a click.

google-search-results-description-tag-seo

Keep your description to no more than 20 – 25 words and do not stuff with keywords, instead use your keyword no more than twice in the description.

3) Don’t Put Your Web Address in Your Title Tag

Your title tag will look something like this;

You title in here

Arguably the most important SEO tag out of all the other meta tag data as I is the first tag the engine will read and it tells the search engine what the page is about. It is also displayed at the top of the browser. You should not put your web address in here. Try and subtly include you keyword in here without keyword stuffing and if you can, include your company name at the end. For example if your keyword was “prestige cars” your title could be as follows;

Quality prestige cars from Prestige Cars Ltd

Your title tag should not exceed 60 characters

4) Optimize your Content for Your Keywords

Just as you need to optimize your SEO meta tags based on y our keywords, you also need to ensure your content is optimized for your chosen keyword(s).

Current guidelines are that the keyword should not comprise more than 2% of your content, for example if your content includes 500 words, each keyword should not be more than 2% of the 500 words. Further SEO content optimization includes using keywords in your H1, H2 and H3 tags, bolding of keywords in your copy and including keywords in anchor text links, to internal or external pages.

SEO or search engine optimization really isn’t black magic, stick to this simple and easy to follow guide and you shouldn’t go far wrong. Or if in your in doubt consult a qualified SEO expert.