This post is primarily aimed at beginners to blogging. If you have been blogging for a while, you may have learnt some of these through practical experiences.
1. Ignoring Google’s own Guidelines
Google’s the boss, if Google says don’t use SEO tricks, there really is little point in doing so. You may be able to fool search engines temporarily, but in the long term they will catch you out. It could even result in getting banned from search engines, which is of course an absolute disaster
Make sure you read Guidelines for Webmasters
2. Duplication of Content.
If you want to rank highly for a keyword, you need to focus on creating original, unique writing. If you have a couple of sites it is mistake to duplicate the same content on each one. Make sure the writing is unique, changing a few words will not fool the search engines See: Writing Tips
3. Unnatural Growth.
Some webmasters are impatient, they want good rankings and high traffic overnight. Therefore, they will do things to try and boost traffic overnight. However, if your site suddenly gets 100 links in one day (and all have same anchor text) it is fairly easy for Search Engines to know these are not natural links. Therefore, they may have little if any benefit. Grow your site naturally and gradually.
4. Concentrating on only 1 SEO aspect.
It is a mistake to focus on only 1 aspect of your site. For example, getting links or traffic from 1 source. If you put all your eggs in one basket, you risk creating unstable growth. Work on all aspects of your site; encourage regular readers, leave comments on other blogs e.t.c. Don’t rely just on search engine traffic.
5. Putting Search Engines before Readers.
If you write spammy posts, filled with keywords and forced links, you will put off readers. If people don’t like your site, it will be difficult to do well in search engines.
6. Buying links.
Some sites with high PR sell links. People buy them in the hope of boosting their PR. What happens is you will get a link from an anonymous link page, and hardly any traffic – who wants to visit a link farm?. At best these kinds of links will give no benefit. It really is a waste of money. If you want to spend money, it is better to buy traffic, e.g. google advertising or stumbleupon.
7. Obsession with Page Rank.
Google say Page Rank is for entertainment purposes only; there is alot of truth in this. Don’t worry about getting links just from high PR sites. See: Does Page Rank Matter?
8. No Page Title.
The title of Page is of great importance in determining traffic. Make sure you have a Page title
and also choose at least some titles with relevant keywords. Don’t use the same page title for every page on your site.</p>
<p><strong>9. No effort to Get links or promote content</strong></p>
<p>It is said content is king. Therefore, some people may feel they just need to write good content, and everything else will be taken care of. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really work like that. As well as writing content you will need to make efforts to promote your site to other people. This doesn’t have to be equated with spam techniques – far from it. If you have good content, people will appreciate learning about it.</p>
<p>See: <a href="http://www.netwriting.co.uk/category/link-building/">tips on link building</a></p>
<p><strong>10. Lack of Diversity in links.</strong></p>
<p>Links are important, but some kinds of links may be of limited benefit:</p>
<ol>
<li>Links from sites on the same server.</li>
<li>All links have exactly same anchor text – need diversity of anchor text.</li>
<li>Recipricol links from unrelated sites. – If you have a site on self improvement, links from a mortgage site won’t help.</li>
<li>links to and from bad neighbour hood sites. Avoid linking to sites with a reputation for bad SEO practices.</li>
<li>When linking don’t use <a href="http://www.netwriting.co.uk/2007/05/08/does-page-rank-matter/">click here</a> use some useful anchor text <a href="http://www.netwriting.co.uk/2007/05/08/does-page-rank-matter/">writing advice</a></li>
</ol>
<p>Additional tip at no extra charge<br />
<strong>11. Content that cannot be spidered.</strong></p>
<p>Makes sure you have text that search engines can read. Search engines can’t read images, and flash e.t.c.</p>
<p>Also use navigation that can be spidered, don’t use bad coding or flash</p>
<p>More: <a href="http://www.netwriting.co.uk/category/seo/">SEO advice</a></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-most-common-seo-mistakes-big-brands-commit">SEO mistakes big companies make<br />
</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.websitepublisher.net/blog/2006/11/23/top-5-worst-seo-mistakes/">5 SEO mistakes</a></li>
</ul>
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