15 common SEO mistakes to avoid

[petermoses]

While Google does credit your website for incoming links, it doesn’t hesitate to penalize you for bad link building & SEO practices. Some of these methods might give you a short-term boost in SERPs, however – the chances of getting penalized is pretty high.

1. Strictly avoid Xrumer blasts – spamming on Forums & Blogs. If your spam links do end up appearing as blog comments or forum posts, they should be among the hundreds of viagra / pills related links. So easy to find & as easy to penalize.

2. Link Wheels. Would Google expect proper well connected link wheels for sites like Reuters, MSN etc? When you build link wheels, you are telling Google “I’m trying to fool you”. If your link wheel has a pattern simple enough for us to understand, Google can decode it easily as well.

3. Reciprocal Linking / Three-way linking. These don’t work. Google is smarter!

4. Directory Spammission. Avoid directory submission using services like 1000 directory submission for $9.95, or automated tools.

5. Avoid sitewide / irrelevant links. It sounds good to get links from PR5 pages. However it contributes little to nothing if the links aren’t relevant. For eg., a site-wide link for a travel portal from a health blog makes little sense!

6. Avoid buying links from Made-for-PayU2Blog type blogs. While generating links from guest posts on blogs is a good idea, sites like Payu2Blog have given rise to a new segment of “bloggers”. People buy dropping high PR domains, install WordPress & start making paid blog posts.

7. Don’t generate too many low quality links in one go. Space out & schedule your link-bulding. Specifically, if you’re in a competitive niche your site might get sand-boxed / penalized.

8. Don’t try to generate links / word of mouth through negative reviews (AKA Decormyeyes case)!

On-Page SEO

9. Avoid Keywords Stuffing - Stuffing keywords with text matching background color, small font, within CSS etc. Easy for the big G to catch!

10. Avoid Stuffing Keywords on Title – Stuffing keywords on the title would reduce the CTR, which would eventually bring down your traffic as well as SERP position!

11. Don’t stuff the Meta Description with keywords.

12. Avoid trying to create a page for each keyword you’re targeting (mis-spells, notations etc). Google understands the context of a page for a set of keywords.

General SEO

13. Never try to use keywords you “think” as right, or may be your competitors are using. Always research keywords, before starting your link-building activity.

14. Don’t build links before having decent content. Content & Site Structure is the king. Many webmasters focus on link-building before having good content. The order is : Keyword Research – Content & Site Structure – Link Building

15. Don’t waste money on : “Submission to 150 Search Engines for $3.95″ kind of services.