“SEO isn’t a matter of life and death. It’s much more important than that.”
Ok, that’s not exactly what Bill Shankly said, but that’s because he wasn’t an SEO. Optimising your website might not literally be a matter of life and death, but poor SEO can be fatal to your online aspirations.
If your website is underperforming, and you’re worried that your website might be suffering from potentially fatal flaws, then our rundown of these all-too-common website mistakes (and their solutions) could just save your internet marketing life.
Fatal Mistake #1: “So, what exactly is it that you do?”
Take a look at the copy on your homepage. I bet it’s just lovely. Telling your clients and the search engines that you’re an “innovative purveyor of bespoke manual earth relocation solutions for the agricultural or horticultural professional”. Sounds impressive, doesn’t it?
But do you think that your clients are looking for “manual earth relocation solutions”? No, no matter how innovatively you might be purveying them, your clients are still looking to buy a spade.
Lifesaving Tip #1: “Call a spade a spade”.
The search engines don’t know that when you say “bespoke manual earth relocation solution” you really mean spade. So when it comes for them to put together a search results page, they won’t group you in with the other spade sellers. And they definitely won’t put you in position one.
Fatal Mistake #2: “Spam egg spam spam bacon and spam; spam sausage spam spam bacon spam tomato and spam” “But I don’t like Spam!”
It’s all well and good mentioning your products a few times, but when every third word is the name of your main product, you’ve taken things a little too far. And going too far leads to problems.
First of all, your clients don’t like spam. If they’re confronted with paragraphs that are clogged by keywords, they’re not going to read it and think about buying. They’re going to read it and think about hitting that back button.
And second, search engines don’t like spam either. They’ll drop a spam-filled page quicker than you can quote a Monty Python sketch on the subject.
Lifesaving Tip #2: Organic produce will outsell canned pig snouts
Make your copy organic. Your clients and the search engines will expect to see your products in titles, so that it grabs their attention. They’ll expect to see you mention your products in your body text. They might even expect to see it in your footer – especially if that links through to a product page.
So give them what they expect. But make sure it sounds natural. Make sure it’s organic. Just like product placement in films, your clients should suddenly decide they want a Pepsi. But they shouldn’t have noticed the Pepsi cans liberally scattered across the set.
Fatal Mistake #3: No man is an island. So why is his website?
You’ve built that website. You’ve written it and you’ve released it out into the wild. To bob around happily on the high seas of the internet.
Alone, and ignored.
How exactly are people going to find it then?
Lifesaving Tip #3: “It’s called the web for a reason”
To quote a much wiser man than I:
“Links are what gives a website its power. They surround sites, penetrate sites and bind the internet together”
So make sure that those links are binding your sites to others. So that they can pass on authority and traffic – and so that they can point the search engine crawlers towards that technological marvel that you’ve created.
Fatal Mistake #4: “There’s no such thing as society”
Social Media’s just a flash in the pan, isn’t it?
I mean, Twitter is just full of celebrities and egotists telling you about endangered radio stations or their lunch plans, and Facebook is just the world’s most boring Massive Multiplayer Online Farming Game. Then you get to Bebo and Myspace. But let’s not even go there.
Wasting time wittering away at your “friends” on Twitterbook and Myface isn’t going to turn you into a dotcom millionaire, is it?
Well, wasting time on them isn’t. But neglecting them entirely might just end your dreams of a luxury yacht.
Lifesaving Tip #4: Get by with a little help from your friends
We’re not suggesting you fire up Farmville or hang on Stephen Fry’s every word, but intelligent use of Social Media can make a real difference. Twitter gives you access to data on what your target audience is interested in at that exact moment. FourSquare can be a real revenue generator for local businesses. Facebook is bigger than Jesus Google.
Put simply, Social Media can turn you a tidy profit if you use it as a tool.
So that’s our top four fatal mistakes, and hopefully after reading our lifesaving tips you won’t be making them any more. But we’re always interested to hear what our readers think.
If you want to share your absolute no-nos with us, or let us in on your secrets to success, leave a comment below.
When Andrew isn’t writing for the FirstFound Blog, he’s easily found on Twitter and LinkedIn. Or being a nerd. But you’d know that from all the pop culture references.
Is Your Company Website Making These Fatal Mistakes?
16 Apr2010
This post was written by Andrew Nattan
Ok, that’s not exactly what Bill Shankly said, but that’s because he wasn’t an SEO. Optimising your website might not literally be a matter of life and death, but poor SEO can be fatal to your online aspirations.
If your website is underperforming, and you’re worried that your website might be suffering from potentially fatal flaws, then our rundown of these all-too-common website mistakes (and their solutions) could just save your internet marketing life.
Fatal Mistake #1: “So, what exactly is it that you do?”
Take a look at the copy on your homepage. I bet it’s just lovely. Telling your clients and the search engines that you’re an “innovative purveyor of bespoke manual earth relocation solutions for the agricultural or horticultural professional”. Sounds impressive, doesn’t it?
But do you think that your clients are looking for “manual earth relocation solutions”? No, no matter how innovatively you might be purveying them, your clients are still looking to buy a spade.
Lifesaving Tip #1: “Call a spade a spade”.
The search engines don’t know that when you say “bespoke manual earth relocation solution” you really mean spade. So when it comes for them to put together a search results page, they won’t group you in with the other spade sellers. And they definitely won’t put you in position one.
Fatal Mistake #2: “Spam egg spam spam bacon and spam; spam sausage spam spam bacon spam tomato and spam” “But I don’t like Spam!”
It’s all well and good mentioning your products a few times, but when every third word is the name of your main product, you’ve taken things a little too far. And going too far leads to problems.
First of all, your clients don’t like spam. If they’re confronted with paragraphs that are clogged by keywords, they’re not going to read it and think about buying. They’re going to read it and think about hitting that back button.
And second, search engines don’t like spam either. They’ll drop a spam-filled page quicker than you can quote a Monty Python sketch on the subject.
Lifesaving Tip #2: Organic produce will outsell canned pig snouts
Make your copy organic. Your clients and the search engines will expect to see your products in titles, so that it grabs their attention. They’ll expect to see you mention your products in your body text. They might even expect to see it in your footer – especially if that links through to a product page.
So give them what they expect. But make sure it sounds natural. Make sure it’s organic. Just like product placement in films, your clients should suddenly decide they want a Pepsi. But they shouldn’t have noticed the Pepsi cans liberally scattered across the set.
Fatal Mistake #3: No man is an island. So why is his website?
You’ve built that website. You’ve written it and you’ve released it out into the wild. To bob around happily on the high seas of the internet.
Alone, and ignored.
How exactly are people going to find it then?
Lifesaving Tip #3: “It’s called the web for a reason”
To quote a much wiser man than I:
“Links are what gives a website its power. They surround sites, penetrate sites and bind the internet together”
So make sure that those links are binding your sites to others. So that they can pass on authority and traffic – and so that they can point the search engine crawlers towards that technological marvel that you’ve created.
Fatal Mistake #4: “There’s no such thing as society”
Social Media’s just a flash in the pan, isn’t it?
I mean, Twitter is just full of celebrities and egotists telling you about endangered radio stations or their lunch plans, and Facebook is just the world’s most boring Massive Multiplayer Online Farming Game. Then you get to Bebo and Myspace. But let’s not even go there.
Wasting time wittering away at your “friends” on Twitterbook and Myface isn’t going to turn you into a dotcom millionaire, is it?
Well, wasting time on them isn’t. But neglecting them entirely might just end your dreams of a luxury yacht.
Lifesaving Tip #4: Get by with a little help from your friends
We’re not suggesting you fire up Farmville or hang on Stephen Fry’s every word, but intelligent use of Social Media can make a real difference. Twitter gives you access to data on what your target audience is interested in at that exact moment. FourSquare can be a real revenue generator for local businesses. Facebook is bigger than Jesus Google.
Put simply, Social Media can turn you a tidy profit if you use it as a tool.
So that’s our top four fatal mistakes, and hopefully after reading our lifesaving tips you won’t be making them any more. But we’re always interested to hear what our readers think.
If you want to share your absolute no-nos with us, or let us in on your secrets to success, leave a comment below.