Top Mistakes Made When Optimizing Web Pages

Cloaking and Stealth Technology

Dont jump into cloaking before you know SEO and design. In some instances (which would be beyond the scope of this interview), cloaking is a logical and ethical choice for SEO.

But until the search engines adopt this point of view, cloaking will always carry with it an inherent risk. Additionally, beside the additional cost associated with cloaking, the process of cloaking itself requires more of your time. And as we know, time equals money.

So before you jump into cloaking, make sure that you know that cloaking is right for your situation, and make sure that you also have the technical expertise to handle it.

Cloaking is not a magic bullet. It simply serves an alternate page. If you can not rank highly without cloaking, the odds are that you can not rank highly with it.

Content

One of the biggest mistakes Ive seen is Web site copy thats written with *just* the search engines in mind -and a strong marketing message is nowhere to be found.

Savvy search engine optimization writing satisfies two very demanding masters - the search engines and your prospects. If you write your copy *exclusively* for the search engines, and your text reads like a laundry list of keyphrases, you'll lose your customers the moment they hit your site.

Why spend thousands of dollars in money (or time) for great rankings, when your site doesnt convert buyers into sellers?

Yes, its crucial to create keyphrase-rich copy for the search engines. But, dont forget that your copy should blast your benefits, build rapport, and immediately tell your prospects, 'whats in it for them.'

This winning combination of spider happy and prospect-friendly text will help you get the high rankings you want - and convert that targeted traffic into paying clients!

Creating Web pages that are void of artistic quality or meaningful content is a mistake.

This is seen most frequently with machine-generated doorway pages. The problem with these pages is that while some of them may rank very well, they are often so visually unappealing or so lacking in content that when a surfer reaches one of these pages, they simply use the back button on their browser to return to the search engine results.

To be successful in search engine optimization, you must not only be able to achieve high ranking for your clients, but you must also be able to develop Web pages that will retain a viewers interest when they reach the site.

In all of our efforts to write well for the robots, we must remember to also write well for the human brain. Remember that the human brain likes the appropriate use of colour.

The human brain likes text broken down into manageable chunks or clusters that are easy to read and absorb. Write your copy using all of the important SEO principles but be sure to strike a balance. With practice, you can build pages that are content rich and compelling to read.

You can create projects that are pleasing to look at and still score exceptionally well.

Conversion to Sales

Remember to try and look beyond SEO. I learned early that it is not enough to simply have massive traffic coming to your clients pages. You must also deliver value to your visitor and compel them to take action.

Although this has more to do with getting action from your visitors than traffic-building itself, I think it is still an important issue or error that is far too easily overlooked. My clients business does not really begin online until a visitor responds to their online experience.

Building traffic is wonderful, but dont forget to make the most of the traffic you already have by giving visitors a 'non-threatening reason to act now.'

Converting visitors to customers may not be on the agenda as an SEO (were always so busy thinking traffic), but once you start examining methods to convert your clients visitors to customers, youll start to deliver additional value to your clients and youll find a full consultancy approach does not go unrewarded.

Doorway Pages

Believing doorways dont work or will get you banned is a mistake. The fact is that every page on your Web site that ranks well for any reason is acting as a 'doorway' to your Web site.

Many people mistakenly believe that everyone will arrive at their site through the home page. Do a focused search on Google, AltaVista, or another major engine, and youll almost always find matches that are not home pages.

In addition, each search engine ranks pages differently. Therefore, you may have a page about Product X with 400 words on it. That page may rank well for 'search engine A' that likes to see 400 words on a top ranking page, but it isnt going to do well for 'search engine B' that is looking for 800 words on a top ranking page.

Lastly, some of the same search engines that condemn the term doorway page include tutorials or FAQs on how to create a page to rank well in their index.

True, these tutorials are often too non-specific to be of great help. However, it confirms that optimizing each of your pages to rank better is not something the engines inherently object to.

Do not allow pages that you are in any way paying for to be on anything other than your own URL. If you do not own them then the traffic is only being rented and can be taken away very quickly. Technology is not a valid reason to have pages remotely hosted, the motivation is control.

Keywords

Dont go after generic keywords. Generic words are not how the average person really queries a search engine.

I have found a user will type in a generic or single word like 'animals,' then realize what they asked for was too broad in scope. They have to narrow it down, like 'animal pictures,' 'baby animal pictures,' and the list goes on.

If you can just focus on very specific key phrases, you will have more success in the long term, hold a position longer, have less competition for focused phrases, and find that users will stay on the site longer because your site answered their questions.

Dont optimize for the wrong search phrases. At least optimize for phrases that you know people are using to find your site, even if they arent the most popular ones.

Failing to 'identify' and 'theme-base' your most promising keyword phrase(s) is a mistake.

All keyword phrases are not the same. Perhaps the best way I can explain this is to use a hypothetical example. Lets say that you are an attorney who practices only appellate law. As you build your Web site and establish its 'theme,' how will you define the Web sites identity?

Here are just two keyword phrase possibilities that you might consider for a lawyer who only handles appeals:

appeals lawyer

appellate attorney

Both of these phrases are right on target, and you would naturally have pages optimized for both combinations. But when deciding your Web sites theme, which one do you focus in on?

The phrase 'appeals lawyer' is about 7 times more popular than 'appellate attorney.' But if you failed to do your research in advance before building the site, you probably would not know that.

I hope this helps in your future marketing decisions.