Meta Tag Errors

In creating a website, you are given the opportunity to give it a title and a description within the code. This is found at the header part of the coding and is called the Meta Tags. These appear in every page of a website. If used properly, this can really help optimization. However, a lot of people take the effects of these tags for granted and hence, don’t use them at all.

There are two main Meta Tags that you can use for your webpages. The first is the Meta Title Tag. It is the title of the entire page. This is used to describe the entire page in the shortest way possible. It can contain the actual name of the site or business then the slogan, or a quick description of what it is about. Ideally, your keyword should appear here in one way or another. It is important to place it here since this is the first thing that search engines will read in your site.

The next part is the Meta Description Tag. This is a more in-depth description of the entire page. Here you can explain a bit more about the products and services found on the current web page. This is another great opportunity for you to put in a keyword or two.

A lot of people neglect both these tags since they think it will not affect their sites that much. The fact of the matter is, there is an effect. And in a niche filled with competitors, every little bit helps in order to beat out the others in search engine rankings. This is why it is still important to take into account the use of Meta Tags.
Another common mistake related to Meta Tags is the use of the exact same title and description on every page of the website. Simply put, this will hurt your optimization a lot more than it will help you. If you are to use Meta Tags, make sure you go the whole nine yards and create unique titles and descriptions for each and every page of your website. In this way, they will not compete with each other.

Anchor Text Usage

The Anchor Text is the visible representation of a link. In other words, instead of seeing the actual URL of a link, users will see a word or phrase describing the link. This is used all over the internet and it's called an Anchor Text. In doing Link Building, you will most likely use this technique. However, there is a right way and a wrong way to do this; the latter being very common with a lot of beginners in the field of Search Engine Optimization.

The best example of a wrong usage of Anchor Text is to use “Click Me”. First and foremost, the average internet user will no longer be fooled by that tactic. Simply put, it’s been overdone. Next, it is always best to place your keyword as the Anchor Text. This gives the users an idea of what the link is all about and, it is a plus for search engines as well. It tells them that this URL is about the Anchor Text used. In all Link Building efforts, this must be taken into consideration. If not, those links will get a very low grade and thus be next to being useless.

Anchor Text Usage

The Anchor Text is the visible representation of a link. In other words, instead of seeing the actual URL of a link, users will see a word or phrase describing the link. This is used all over the internet and it's called an Anchor Text. In doing Link Building, you will most likely use this technique. However, there is a right way and a wrong way to do this; the latter being very common with a lot of beginners in the field of Search Engine Optimization.

The best example of a wrong usage of Anchor Text is to use “Click Me”. First and foremost, the average internet user will no longer be fooled by that tactic. Simply put, it’s been overdone. Next, it is always best to place your keyword as the Anchor Text. This gives the users an idea of what the link is all about and, it is a plus for search engines as well. It tells them that this URL is about the Anchor Text used. In all Link Building efforts, this must be taken into consideration. If not, those links will get a very low grade and thus be next to being useless.

Web Traffic Analytics

In SEO, you have to constantly adapt to the environment. You have to make adjustments based on news regarding search engines. You have to make adjustments based on announcements by the W3C. Basically, you will always have to adjust something. And one of the main indicators that you have to change something is your Web Traffic Analytics.

The Web Traffic Analytics is a tool that helps webmasters and SEO specialists determine various traffic date for a site. Here you can find how many people visit the website each day. Is there a growth in the number of visitors? Where are they coming from? All of these questions can be answered through Web Traffic Analytics. And based on the data you can gather from this tool, you can make the proper adjustments to optimize traffic.

For example, if a particular page is getting a lot of hits, then maybe it’s time to tweak it a bit to share that traffic with the rest of the website. Or maybe you’d want to market that page a bit more to get even more traffic.

Every move and adjustment you make can be determined by you Web Traffic Analytics. This is a very important tool. Do not take this for granted and make sure you always have it up and running.

Web Page Removal - Website Redesign

One of the main reasons why a top performing website would come crashing down is sudden removal of certain pages. Some webmasters make the mistake of removing a page even if it is getting 20,000 hits a day simply because “it is time to move on”. If there is traffic, capitalize on it. A high traffic page would definitely give a plus for the entire website in the eyes of search engines.

An even bigger mistake to removing a page is redesigning the entire website in one swoop. Unless it is underperforming or not getting any traffic, it is always a terrible idea to suddenly redesign everything. What will happen is that search engines will notice the huge change and thus place your ranking back to zero. It’s a complete restart if you overhaul a website.

Ideally, the only time you will perform a complete overhaul of your website is when it was blacklisted by Google, when the site is underperforming, or when you just bought a new URL with a different business plan in mind. Fact of the matter is, when it comes to sites; if it is not broken then don’t try to fix it. All the hard work and effort you’ve place in SEO will disappear when you do an overhaul. Without any special circumstance, it is not a smart idea to hire a third party company to come in and rebuild your site.

If you really want to improve your website visually, you can do it in a slow, part by part manner. Do not go on and change everything in one go. Work on one part of the site, after it’s done, go on to the next. This will be the best way to introduce a new design without losing much of the SEO work you have done in the past.

SEO Game Plan

Lastly, the most important thing when performing Search Engine Optimization is that you should have a game plan. There are a lot of things that you can and need to do so you need to be organized. So, the first step you need to take is to create a strategy for the website on how you will promote it for search engines. You need to define what you will do, when you will do it and how you will do it before it is actually done. By keeping the entire operation organized, you know what should happen today and what you should be able to accomplish every week.

Now, the next thing you need to remember is when you have a strategy, stick with it. Whether it is immediately showing results or not, since you have a plan or a strategy already implemented, it is always better to stay with it rather than changing the entire thing every now and again.

Search Engine Optimization is a science and an art at the same time. You have to find the balance between the two in order to achieve the best results possible. There are so many things happening at any given time that it is next to impossible to keep up with each one. Know what things are important. Focus on them. Then you have to balance each part of the operation. It can be very difficult, but the rewards from properly doing SEO can be really huge.