This is going to be short. I promise. I don't consider myself an authority on SEO. I'll leave that to Matt Cutts, Aaron Wall, and the others. The point of my post today is to alert people of the pitfalls of do-it-yourself SEO. It can be done, but it's almost always more beneficial to have a professional do the work. I'll just list these out very simply for you to gander at:
- Content - Content problems fall into pretty much two categories: 1) Duplicate or boiler-plate content, something that came ready-made in that frankensteined template you call a website. 2) No content is almost as bad. You need to have relevant, useful, and readable content so visitors will not only come, but stay. This rule still applies: CONTENT IS KING!
- Incoming Links - A very high priority item here. It must make sense that your site is either new or needed an overhaul and therefore has no "umph" on search engines. It should be glaringly obvious that you need help (i.e., traffic, traffic, traffic) and the only way you can get it is through inbound or incoming links.
- Titles - If you’re building your own site or managing someone else’s site you know that title tags are at the top of the page and are pretty much the first thing that search engines look at. Have a descriptive and unique title for each page.
- Meta Data - If you have the same descriptions and keywords on every page of course the search engines aren’t taking you seriously. You must make sure that to optimize each page that those pages are unique and relevant to the title.
- Keyword Parties - Keywords are just that, "key" and you take away from their importance by flooding your pages with them. Keyword density is crucial. Don't overdo it!
- Flash - Flash has it’s place and is an amazing addition to websites when used with restraint. All flash websites are a no-no if you’re not an expert. Flash elements are fine if you tell the search engines what is contained in that movie. Text links are necessary for a search engine spider to crawl and index your site.
- Bad Internal Links - This is very, very often forgotten. A simple site map can help, but you must remember that using the right titles, content, and anchor text for the page that the link points to is also important.
- Where’s the Blog? - Blogs have been around for a while. Using a blog to create and drive traffic is a relatively new concept. (As far as I can tell it’s only been used specifically for that reason since 2003-2004) If you don’t have a blog on your site, with relevant and useful content you’re doing yourself a real disservice. Don’t wait another minute! Go download and install Wordpress on your server and get started.
- Usability - Poor usability equals horrible conversion rates and hinders your ability to compete. This can be a little more difficult, so just look at other sites and see why a site is so usable and replicate what they’re doing - don’t rob them.
- Time - People tend to think, myself included, that they can do everything themselves. Don’t fall into that. SEO isn’t difficult, but it's time consuming and takes patience. That’s why if you’re inexperienced in SEO practices it may serve you better to have a professional handle it for you. That way you can focus on the things you ARE good at.
That’s it. It’s not a comprehensive list by any means, but it’s some of the more common problems that effect sites today. No one is invulnerable to making these mistakes. That’s why it’s always good practice to have your own checklist to help you as you build a new site or redesign an existing one. Like I said, SEO can be a do-it-yourself project, but be prepared to spend many, many hours making sure you got it right.
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