6 SEO Mistakes to Avoid on Your Website

Many people who are just starting an internet marketing business have very basic knowledge of search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. Too many beginners want their websites to achieve ranking in the search engines without realizing that some of problems of doing so lay within their own site. This article presents 6 SEO mistakes to avoid on your website.

1. Frames – Many web pages are formatted using frames, especially if a novice page builder built them. The problem is that search engines have a hard time tracking content inside the frames. The search engines cannot distinguish which frame contains the main content, so they could be tracking something not conducive to SEO for your website.

2. Flash – A lot of websites use Flash to make their sites stand out. This may be visually appealing, but in terms of SEO, Flash is like having a frame with no picture. Search engines cannot read Flash files, so you should avoid using Flash unless you are certain that your website can generate massive traffic by word of mouth.

3. Keyword Stuffing – Using too many keywords on your website can have a negative effect on your page ranking. If search engines find too many keywords, they will assume that your page is being spammed or that your page is bot created. Search engines like to know that there was a human touch creating the content on your site, even if it is just entering keywords.

4. Keyword Hiding – This goes along with the previous mistake. Attempting to make keywords that are colored the same as your background, and effectively “hiding” them, will cause the search engines to downgrade your page ranking. This again has to do with the search engines seeing too many keywords as spam. Search engines are sensitive, and do not like to be tricked in any way.

5. Text Inside Images – Sometimes marketers post images with a caption that is already embedded into the image. It is better, however, to post the image by itself and have the caption be written in HTML. The reason is that search engines use something called “spiders” to extract information from your web page. These spiders, however, will assume that any text that is embedded into an image is simply part of the image and simply ignore the text altogether. If the caption is written as separate HTML, the spiders will read that caption and include it for SEO purposes.

6. Javascript Links – If you use links on your side, you need to make sure to use simple HTML links instead of Javascript controlled links. The spiders will include those links when they are extracting information for ranking.

When an internet marketer is just starting out, search engine optimization can be a daunting challenge. By taking these mistakes into account, however, an internet marketer can be confident that he or she is getting a good start. As these mistakes are avoided and other techniques are implemented, a quick page ranking is sure to follow.