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SEO: Mistakes to Avoid

According to a famous line in the film The Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come.” This may be true in the fantasy world of Hollywood, but it’s not that simple when it comes to website design. In today’s post, I’ll examine five different ways in which you can improve the content and presentation of your site to attract visitors, encourage return visits, and boost your ranking.

The ever-changing best practices of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) are hard to keep up with. But, to maintain a website that will attract an audience, it's crucial to implement those practices. Perhaps the most prevalent misconception about SEO is that the content needs to be riddled with keywords in order for it to be effective. This is not true. In fact, high keyword density will achieve the opposite of its intent.

The irony of SEO writing is that the more keywords that are forced into the copy, the more contrived it sounds. Human intuition picks up on such writing. People will be turned off by—and downright suspicious of—awkwardly constructed sentences and leave your site, never to return. Additionally, search engines, utilizing Artificial Intelligence, are beginning to review content and tag unnatural writing.

While it's true that SEO is about improving rankings in search engines, sometimes we get so blinded by the science of SEO that we forget our visitors. You can bring in an expert who “guarantees” results (which, by the way, is impossible), but a website with great keywords, great links, and a great title is still a failure if it doesn’t encourage visitors to browse and return.

So, begin with the end in mind. Why would your target audience want to visit your site? If your website isn’t compelling to begin with, then all of the SEO tips in the world won’t improve your rankings. If it is compelling, then the search engines will find you.

Here are five key SEO principles to help you be found:

  • The content should be relevant to your audience.
    This sounds straightforward, but, if you’re too distracted by optimizing your site, you could be neglecting the most important ingredient: relevancy. Gain the trust of your audience by making the content clear and ensuring that your site remains relevant.
  • The content should be well-written.
    If you’re only interested in infusing the copy with keywords, readers will lose interest fast. Keywords are fine; but use them in moderation. Too many keywords will make the copy sound unnatural to your audience. Using a theme-based formula, search engines like Google are able to measure how well the content on your site reads. If you’re creating a new site, write content with your audience in mind first, optimize later. Also, keep written content typo-free and grammatically sound. Even if you’re trying to sell a product, the copy should sound more like a newspaper article than spam email.
  • The links on your website should send visitors to reputable websites with
    relevant and related content.
    Having good links is a win-win proposition. Your links will factor significantly into the algorithms of search engine rankings, and they will influence the rate of your return visitors. If they like your site and one or more of the sites you link to from your site, you increase the likelihood of their repeated return exponentially.
  • Reciprocal links should travel to as many different pages as possible on your website.
    This tells a search engine that your website has a lot of depth. If all reciprocal links lead to your home page and nowhere else, then it will be assumed by the search engines that your website had little value, and that value will be reflected in the rankings.
  • Hyperlinks and domain names should be named appropriately.
    Inappropriately named hyperlinks is one of the most common flaws of beginning webmasters. Avoid “click here” and instead use a subject appropriate title (eg., Find answers, ask questions, and share your expertise with others in the Google Docs Help Group.) This is yet another factor that intuitive search engines figures into their rankings. It is advisable, however, not to use too many hyperlinks on a given page. It is unattractive and will annoy visitors and discourage spiders. Also, to encourage repeat visits, use a simplistic domain name—one that’s easy to remember and not too long. This is, of course, more for your audience than the search engines.

Once you have a website that is worth visiting (to your target audience, that is), you can get into the intricacies and nuances of other best SEO practices. First, though, make it compelling, and they will come.