1. DOMAIN NAME SELECTION – (LACKS KEYWORD)

Exact match keyword domains are worth their weight in gold.  It’s the sure thing to acquiring a top spot.  The second best is getting one that has the keyword somewhere in it.  I don’t recommend buying a domain name that doesn’t have your keyword in it.  You will be making things a lot harder on your self.  Many people think they have to buy the domain name of their company?  Why, so people who have never heard of your company can find you? That was a joke.  Unless your company name is Coca Cola or unless your company name already contains your keyword sure buy the domain but also buy a keyword domain related to your business.  This will be the domain your site is hosted upon and you will direct the other domain that is your company name to the keyword domain.  So when all your fans and customers type your business name into the browser “yourcompanyname.com” they will be taken to your site at  “yourkeyworddomain.com”  So those who aren’t familiar with your site/business  ie, YOUR MARKET, can find you easier when they search using keywords related to your industry.

2. SITE IS NOT BLOCKED DURING THE DEVELOPMENT STAGE

I learned this the hard way.  When you are in the developmental stages of your website design it is very important to block all search engine access to it using either a robots.txt file or if using wordpress you can do it from the backend under “privacy.” Failure to do so could negatively affect your performance  long term in the SERPS.  It will make an already difficult project even harder.

3. TARGETING GENERAL  KEYWORDS WITH  MASS SEARCH VOLUME

This is fairly self explanatory and very popular mistake.  Here is an example.  Someone searching for “shoes” probably doesn’t know what they want, or have any intentions of buying, they are “browsers” also known as “tire kickers”, “time wasters” or in this landscape “bandwidth wasters” Sure you may drive more traffic to your site targeting general keywords, but it’s useless traffic and will probably cost you more in the long run, since their presence on your site is not completely cost free.  These tend to be the ones that like to call and ask you thousands of silly questions.  They start eating into your soft costs after a while, and your nerves.  Someone searching for “high heels” is a much more targeted market and maybe still a bit on the general side.  You get the idea.

4. POORLY WRITTEN OR NON EXISTANT META TAGS

I cannot stress enough how important Meta tags are for many different reasons. How they are written can also heavily influence your ranking.  Don’t attempt to do these yourself, and don’t look to the internet for information on how to write them.  It’s an unsolved mystery as to why there is so much inaccurate info on Metas or why no one has stepped up and announced the correct way except for me and maybe one or two others.  Understanding the dual purpose of Meta tags ie what they are used for, will help you to better understand how to write them.

5. FAIL TO DO COMPETITIVE RESEARCH

Chances are your competitors know something you don’t if they have been online for more than a season.  Use that to your advantage.  Mostly, just learn how to do it better.

Yep I know, there is supposed to be 10 critical mistakes….and there is! Stay tuned for Part 2.  Want a reminder sent when the next post is published?  Subscribe to my feed.

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