Apr 29 2009
Common Mistakes That Hurt Your Website’s SEO
The ultimate goal of your website is to be found. You want your site to be search-engine friendly. You want your site to be optimized for your goal.
Simple mistakes can hurt your site’s online presence. If you’re a new business owner, these miscues can be especially costly. Taking time to practice good search engine optimization will benefit your site and help you increase your ROI. Here are some common mistakes that can hurt your website.
Not refreshing your content
Search engines love sites with fresh content. That’s one reason why your blog probably does pretty well if you post regularly. The same applies to your website. At the very least, once a month, take a look at your content. The time away from it will give you a better perspective to spot grammar and code errors. Even if there are no errors, still look for opportunities to tweak your content.
Not using alt or title attributes
If you truly want to have a site with valid code, alt attributes are required on images. The alt attribute tells a visitor what the image is if it missing or viewing images is disable. It also makes your site accessible.
The title attribute is used with both images and links. The title provides extra information about either the image or the link. It is also an opportunity to use a keyword within your content. Reasonable, natural use of keywords in the content increases your keyword density. This measure helps to determine how relevant your site is to its use of keywords. With keywords, there can be too much of a good thing. Optimally, you want to aim for about 1-3%, though some experts in the field put the range up to 5-6%.
Missing meta tags for keywords and description
These tags tell search engines what your site is about. Both are used within the header of your website. Not including them is a missed opportunity for better search engine optimization.
These tips are part of what’s under the hood of your website. While the casual visitor may never see the impact of these, you certainly will by miss targeted traffic to your site.
Photo by Szorstki
