Search engine optimization (SEO) is the art and science of improving a site’s ranking on search engines like Google, Yahoo! and MSN’s Bing. Many companies try to improve their sites’ rankings with basic techniques such as keyword rich copy and link exchanges. Some techniques (like link exchanges) are minimally useful, not useful or actually hurt site rankings. Others are effective, but can’t overcome common mistakes. GILL Media is an SEO firm that provides complete marketing solutions. After years of working with businesses, they’ve identified the following five most common SEO mistakes. These are errors that GILL Media’ developers often have to fix to help clients hit the coveted first page of search results.

SEO Mistake #1: Image Headers
Search engine spiders can only read text and Meta data. Image recognition is in its infancy. Unfortunately, many sites persist in using images for headers. Search engines can’t read pictures of words. Even if you have a big, clear image banner that clearly says “welcome to my home page” the spider just reads the file name of your .jpeg or .gif. Switch to real text headers or use them in addition to image banners. Otherwise, search engines can’t clearly associate your site with keywords and categories. Spiders assign weight to text headers using the H1, H2 and H3 tags, so make sure your header text accurately represents the site.

SEO Mistake #2: An SEO Unfriendly CMS

Joomla, WordPress and other content management systems (CMS) can make it very easy to add and change site content – but it can interfere with your SEO efforts, too. For example, if your CMS automatically sets up your headers, URLs and page titles you can’t adjust them to fit your target keywords. Some CMS offer “SEO friendly” items that automatically pick your keywords, but these don’t work very well either. Either go with a pure web design from the ground up or customize your CMS to let you choose every title, header and piece of Meta information. An SEO that never creates a page more than one layer deep is also highly recommended because search spiders index sites more easily when they don’t have to crawl through too many subfolders.

SEO Mistake #3: Blank Titles

Page titles (as listed in the top bar of your browser) are perhaps the single most important Meta information field on your entire page. The title becomes the text for the page’s search engine link, and is given significant weight by search engines when they associate pages with specific keywords. If your page’s title is blank or uses default information it will almost always rank behind a site with any title. If your site has a title that incorporates your keywords you greatly increase your changes of ranking higher.

SEO Mistake #4: Other Blank Meta Data

Titles are only one piece of Meta data. Meta keywords are not as important as they were, but are still useful – they can act as “tie breakers” between two sites with similar authority levels. Meta descriptions often appear in search results. Image alt tags are invaluable; search engines can’t see pictures, so they rely on you to describe them. Leave any of these blank and you’re not doing everything you can to improve your site’s rank.

SEO Mistake #5: No Target Pages

Don’t try to improve rank for every single web page, and don’t use a “cookie cutter” approach for every page on your site. You don’t want your privacy policy or user login pages to rank and when they do, they use up site authority that should be channeled to pages that are designed to attract new visitors. Each site only has a limited amount of authority to spread around, so you don’t want to waste it on pages that don’t drive business. Use commands such as robots.txt and nofollow tags to exclude pages that aren’t meant to generate new business and pick a few pages to be your specific SEO targets. Give each one its own focus and strategy.

By: Chris Gill

GILL Media is a leading provider of strategic internet marketing and affordable web design for small, medium and large businesses. GILL Media’s services include economical search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, e-commerce web design, hosting and internet video. These are only a few of its diverse range of services.