Website Design Mistakes You Make and Designers Make

Website design mistakes are made by website design companies and your average person using the web design software. Both are everywhere.

You can even design your own website for free, if you so desire, on many different site builders.

Considering the many options that exist, it’s completely understandable that small business owners often feel a sense of confusion when it comes to building a website. They worry about making website design mistakes, or else ignore them. While there are many extremely desirable elements to website design, there are also some things you should avoid. Remember, too, these website design mistakes are different than SEO mistakes.

Here are five website design mistakes you should be careful never to make:

• Mistake #5:  Using PDF Files Instead of Pages

It might be tempting to scan existing documents into pdf format and upload them onto your website. Give visitors a link to click, and up comes your pdf.

Easy, right?  Wrong!  People hate finding pdf’s on websites. One of the big time website design mistakes. They take a long time to load, and they can be hard to read. Take the time to create a new page that contains the pertinent information. You can build links and backlinks, add great photos, and make your page a pleasure to visit instead of an irritation. Annoyed visitors leave a site and look for a better one – so skip the pdf’s. Rather than using your pdf’s to make website design mistakes, why not post them to pdf sites and get links from them?

• Mistake want to scan your site and see whether you have what they are looking for.So:
  • Do not make your site look like the page of a book.
  • Keep it interesting.
  • Use photos and vary the text size to highlight different areas of your page.
  • Use bulleted lists and quick paragraphs with headers that tell the visitor what they’re going to find under that heading.
  • Make your site interactive.

  The more fun people have when they visit your site, the more successful it will be.

  • Mistake #3:  Building A Flashy Site That Is Too Complicated For Users To Navigate

  You can have the most beautiful looking website in the world, but without elements that are properly built using proven website design techniques, your site will be just more pretty pictures – and the internet is full of those!
  People want to go

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  to a site, find what they are looking for, and leave. The better and faster the internet gets, the faster people expect sites to work.

  • Mistake #2:  Preventing Smartphone Users From Accessing Your Site

  This is one of the relatively new website design mistakes, and if you’ve got a website now, it’s worth looking into. Can people who surf the web on their iPhone, Droid, Blackberry or other smartphone get into your site?  Can they find what they’re looking for, and navigate well?  If not, your site needs first aid. Fast.

  • Mistake #1:  Not Hiring A Professional To Handle Website Design

  You might want to help your buddy who is learning about website design build his portfolio by building you a website, and while that might be OK if he has some experienced guidance… it also might ruin your chances of ending up with a great site that is both user friendly and high ranking. To avoid critical website design mistakes, have your buddy design an extra optin squeeze page, not  your main page.

  These days, website design is about a lot more than looking good.   Hire a professional, and your site will do exactly what you need it to – gain you business, and increase your bottom line.

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  Just avoid these website design mistakes and you’ll be on your way.

Related posts:

1. Common SEO Mistakes To Avoid
2. Use Keywords In Website Headings
3. Submit Your Website to Search Engines

SEO Experts weigh in

Recently there was a survey asking SEO Experts a bunch of different questions. One of them was what they thought was the most important factors they recommended people focus on to get good results for local businesses on Google Places. I thought it was pretty interesting (and not only because these are the same things we focus on when we work on our clients websites.) Notice that some of these SEO factors are not on the Google Places page at all. Some are not even on the client’s website either. The notes in between the SEO recommendations are mine.

Here are the Most Recommended SEO Factors to Focus on for Good Results in Google Places

• Physical Address in City of Search (Place Page)

This is kind of obvious. If your address is in one city, but you want to rank in another, you will not do

as well. Basic SEO says we’re looking to show the most relevant information and Google sees the address in the proper city as relevant. What can you do if you serve more than one city? A few things. One is to make sure the rest of your factors include the city name you want to rank for. Another is to get an address in each city.

• Manually Owner-verified Place Page (Place Page)

This seems like it would be something everybody has done, but you’d be surprised how many Google Places pages have not been claimed by their owners. Let’s just say it’s a lot. If you haven’t claimed your page, then it’s a good bet you haven’t added anything else to your Google Places page and for sure haven’t optimized it or kept it fresh.

• Proper Category Associations (Place Page)

Sometimes this gets confusing for many people. It is totally easy once you realize how people search for you. Just make sure you know your keywords and your business. What makes you the most amount of new customers?

• Volume of Traditional Structured Citations (Local Directories, Data Aggregators) (Off-Place/Off-Site)

This definitely is important! And it’s the first one that is ongoing. The first step is to get citations at local directories other than Google Places. Yellow Pages, The key is to make sure that the proper information is at each and that they match. If that happens, the next step is almost never done by business owners. We actually only do it for highly competitive businesses. It takes awhile, but isn’t too expensive to add. We call it the local blitz.

• Crawlable Address Matching Place Page Address (Website)

Easy to do. Just make sure there is text on your website that is an exact match for the way the address is on your Google Places page. You can also add a link to your hcard/vcard on the front page. That looks like it is going to be more important as time goes on and and it is an easy way to get your info crawlable.

• PageRank / Authority of Website Homepage / Highest Ranked Page (Website)

See this is another one of those things that shows you it is all connected. If your website has good SEO and ranks well, it helps your Places page. So many people think I’ll just make this great looking page and then I don’t need to do anything else. Then later they wonder why they get no business from their site.

• Quality of Inbound Links to Website (Off-Place/Off-Site)

Backlinking, getting more links pointing to your site, is key in all aspects of SEO. This is one of those never ending tasks, especially in competitive businesses.

• Crawlable Place Page Phone Number (Website)

It’s funny, but this is so easy to do and yet I find many businesses that get a special phone for different ads and none match. Even some of the Local Directories provide phone numbers. There’s a better way to track and it doesn’t hurt your SEO or your Places rankings.

• Local Area Code on Place Page (Place Page)

For so long we were told that people would be more likely to call an 800 number than a local number, and in some cases that may still be true. But to get local business and be at the top of local search in Google Places, you have to have a local area code in your phone number.

• City, State in Places Landing Page Title (Website)

This is another easy one to do, but also to mess up. The clue in all of this is be sure they match up. If you use “CA” in one, don’t use “ca.” or “Ca” or “Calif” or “California” in the others. Simple for the pages, but also be sure it is the same in the “Title”. Also nothing says that the landing page has to be the front/home page of your website. Hint: think of tracking.

Anyway, interesting survey results from some of the top SEO guys. Especially interesting is that Social Media has not made it yet on this list. Knowing that social influence has entered the Google algorithm, I would expect that if this survey was taken just a few months later Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and perhaps LinkedIn would be important parts of it. It definitely is an important part of our marketing and our SEO. Considering that Facebook and YouTube are starting to get more traffic than any search engine, except perhaps Google (for now) and that Twitter has become a major source for news searches. It will become (if it isn’t already) a major player in SEO for Google Places and for your website.

I would add just one last comment. Make sure you completely fill out the Places page, make sure that your website and Places page are linked, make sure the data is accurate, make sure you get testimonials from happy customers online, make sure your SEO on both your site and your Places page is good and lastly keep adding lots of links.

Related posts:

1. Google Places SEO Tips (Part One)

Google Places SEO can really help your business

Through Google Places, formerly called Google Local, you have the abil ity

to create a high-quality free listing for your business whether you currently have a website or not and doing Google Places SEO will take it to another level.

While it’s relatively easy to create the listing, it can be much more challenging to get your Google Places listing to appear on the first page for the keyword phrases you are targeting.

To that end, I offer the following seven Google Places SEO tips:

• Before creating (or claiming) your listing it is important that you do thorough research. You should know what keyword phrases you want to rank for and what your competition looks like forthe terms you intend to target.

I recommend that you do not optimize your listing for any keyword phrase that does not currently have a Google Places listing associated with it. If you search Google for a phrase and don’t see a Google Places listing, it’s best to choose another phrase. Until you know it will get you something why even do Google Places SEO?

After you’ve come up with the keyword phrases you plan to target (I recommend 5) it’s wise to study your competitors listings to see whether their listings are complete. Have they filled in every field? What keywords are they targeting? Have they used their maximum allotment of photos and videos?

The answers to these questions will give you an idea as to whether you can expect to outrank one of the listings currently found on the first page.

• Fill out every field completely.

There are approximately 20 fields to fill out when completing your Google Place Page listing. As part of your Google Places SEO, it is imperative that you fill out each and every field as the omission of even one can negatively affect the ranking of your Places Page.

• Utilize every available category.

Google will suggest one category specific to your business and require you to use it. However, you can also add more categories and it is important to do so.

Using your keyword research, use your remaining keywords as the category names until you have used every additional category available to you.

• You’re allotted ten photos — use ‘em.

It may seem basic, but it’s true. Each business owner is afforded the same opportunities when creating their Google Places listings but many don’t take advantage of them. And most do not use Google Places SEO at all. It’s just like most web designers don’t know SEO.

Google allows you to use up to ten photos and I encourage you to use every one of them. You can also enhance your optimization efforts by renaming your images to include your keyword phrases before uploading them.

• You’re allotted five videos — use them too.

As it is a bit harder to create videos than photos, you’ll frequently find that your competitors fail to use their entire allotment.

However, you can create short “slideshow” type videos (which are merely a collection of photos put to motion) quite easily. If you search Google for the phrase, “slideshow maker,” you’ll find a number of tools that can help you make these types of videos online. Comment below and we’ll give you a nice resource.
You’ll need to upload each video to YouTube.com before you can add it to your listing for your Google Places SEO endeavors.

• Understand citations and build as many of them as possible.

A citation occurs whenever an online reference is found for your business and services. In Google’s eyes, it’s a validation that your business truly exists and that it offers the type of services you list on your Places page.

It’s important that your citations closely match the information found on your Places page. You can create your own citations by submitting your information to a variety of online directories including Yellow Pages, Super Pages, CitySearch, Insider Pages, Yahoo Local, Localize and a number of others. We find that this is one of the places where people get their Google Places SEO on the wrong track. Re read this paragraph.

• Get reviews and ratings.

Google will automatically display reviews it finds on sites like yelp.com, insiderpages.com and demandforce.com. Having a lot of positive reviews is not only helpful for your Google Places SEO, it can help you get business that might have gone to a competitor otherwise.

Ask your existing clientele to post a review of your business on the site of your choice and if necessary, offer them some form of bonus for completing the task. Be sure that your review is not the only one they do!

If you spend using Google Places SEO and getting your Places page listed on the first page of Google for a variety of terms.

Just like traditional SEO however, don’t make the mistake of neglecting your listing after completion. While you’ve completed the majority of the work, it’s wise to continually build new citations, get more reviews and ratings and respond publicly to the reviews you receive.

Keeping it fresh is very important to your Google Places SEO efforts.

Related posts:

1. Tips to Increase Ranking and Web Traffic

Facebook Fan Page Changes

The new changes to Facebook fan pages were launched to provide solutions to problems that page owners encountered and to enhance to look and usefulness of fan pages. With many new and exciting features to maximize Facebook fan page effectiveness, now is the time to upgrade your fan page to iFrames.

Facebook’s recent overhaul of Facebook fan pages has caused quite a stir in the virtual world. Some panicked at the thought of no longer being able to enter simple FBML code (Facebook’s own code). Others worried about the cost of hosting their images now that Facebook required outside hosting for all pages. Many were just confused because their Facebook fan page seemed to function well and met their needs. Why fix something that isn’t broken? The answer is simple: Facebook realized the great potential of fan pages and decided that some much needed changes would help fan pages become all they were meant to be.

iFrames Changes Facebook Fan Page Potential

Panic and worry over any change is just human nature and the changes to fan pages may require some adjustment time, but the growth and benefit potential of their new iFrames style far surpasses any growing pains fan page owners might encounter. If you currently operate a Facebook fan page and worry about what iFrames will mean for you, consider the exciting possibilities that are now at your fingertips by making the switch to iFrames:

• Your page can become a mini website. With the new tab features available with iFrames, your Facebook fan page can now be so much more than ever before. Allowing you to enhance and customize your fan page with endless variations, you can now use your fan page as a natural extension of, or in place of, a traditional website. Add multiple pages, videos, links…the possibilities are endless with iFrames!
• Fan pages can now reflect your style. Forget the cookie-cutter fan pages of last year; today’s iFrames on Facebook allow you to create r website style with logos, background images and elements that incorporate your brand’s image. iFrames make it possible!
• iFrames make things fair. In the past, fan page owners were more or less at the mercy of the designers they hired to create their fan pages.
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  These fan page creators held the key to the codes that made up the page and could make changes at their discretion, as well as make money by incorporating links that led page visitors to their own business pages. In essence, page designers had the power to essentially hold page codes hostage and page owners were paying the price. With iFrames, you can now eliminate the middleman and host the code on your own website!

• Less overall cost for professional design. Due to the complexity of design challenges less tech-savvy page owners may encounter, many fan pages are now being designed by professionals who understand iFrames and the marketing potential behind them. Though this additional cost may seem prohibitive to some, the good news is that it is a one-time fee and the designer will plant the code on your website. No more monthly storage fees to page creators make it easy to justify outsourcing design to an affordable graphic design professional.
• Conduct sales transactions right on the page. iFrames now allow what many fan page owners have long desired: the opportunity to conduct sales right from their fan page!
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  Page visitors used to have to click a link to take them to an independent website in order to place an order, but no longer. With iFrames, customers can now browse galleries of images with detailed product descriptions, add what they love to their virtual shopping cart and check out without ever leaving your page! It’s a timesaver for shoppers and a great money-making tool for fan page owners.

With so many exciting options, making the switch to iFrames style on your Facebook fan page is a smart move for every business. Though the changes may include a bit of a learning curve, the benefits are clear: endless customization, easier navigation, less hassle and more money in your pocket! Make the change to iFrames style today and see for yourself why change can be good!

When it comes to Facebook marketing, business owners rely on the knowledge and expertise of the marketing professionals at Influence Engine Marketer who understand small business needs and offer exceptional service at competitive prices. Find out more about what iFrames can do for your Facebook fan page by visiting them online.

Related posts:

1. Reasons to Create a Fan Page for Your Brand or Website
2. Facebook Fanpage Changes
3. One more reason to Like a non-Facebook page

Here are the top reasons to create a fanpage, and to create a community.

If you create a fan page in Facebook, research shows that the person who Likes your page is more likely to purchase from you, more likely to recommend you, more likely to spend more with you. Especially if you take advantage of your built in community. It’s not enough to create a fan page, you need to stay engaged.

• Sending Facebook ad traffic to a fan page is  cheaper and more effective

It not only can be cheaper to send traffic to a fan page, but it is also more likely to result in action. You can create a fan page for a relatively cheap price, too.

• Fan Pages are viral

Every time someone likes your page, it is posted on their Facebook wall in their news feed.

It is estimated that the average person has about 140 friends. So one like can easily become 3 and so on. A viral reason to create a fan page.

• “68% of Facebook Fans Indicate they are very likely to recommend a product.”
  Interaction happens when you create a fan page

You build an asset. It’s just adding another way you can interact with your fans, readers, subscribers, and clients. It allows you to keep a conversation and a buzz going.

• Announcements!

Using the Facebook Events function, you can send announcements when you create a fan page. Now get a free ad on all your fans’ page. Just create an event.

• Totally customizable!

Especially with the new guidelines we can actually make reveal tabs that open into complete websites. As you create a fan page, you decide how it’s going to work, what you show up front and what gets shown after. You can even make two completely different sites. One for fans and one for non fans.

• No limits

For a regular profile there can be only so many people that can be your friend. But when you create a fan page, there is no limit to the number of people that can like you. And speaking of that, click the like button below and like this post.

Hopefully these reasons are enough to get you to want to create a fan page for you or your business.

Related posts:

1. Facebook Fanpage Changes
2. One more reason to Like a non-Facebook page
3. Branding and Facebook Ad Success

Here Come the New Facebook Fanpage Changes

On March 11, 2011 Facebook Fanpage changes take effect, although you can update your page as of right now. So, there are two groups here that need to know about these changes.

• You have a Facebook Fanpage already for your business
• You ant to know what the Facebook Fanpage changes are so you can make the choices to stay current. (If you do not yet know how important Facebook Fanpages are check out our free Facebook Fanpage Report.)If you already have a page for your business, then the Facebook Fanpage changes may affect how your page works, especially if you or your programmer made some or part of it in FBML. FBML was the programming language that Facebook used to let you make all those cool tabs, especially the ones where you could hide part of your information until someone Liked your page.

  One of the new Facebook Fanpage changes is the “deprecating” of FBML. That means they are fazing it out. No more new FBML pages will be available! Even if you have a page now, how long will it take to completely lose it? No one knows the exact date, but we know it is coming. I don’t want to bet my business on it. I’m designing now for Facebook Fanpage changes in my sites.

  Some more Facebook Fanpage changes

  Not all is a loss, in fact, there is much that will be improved. Here are some of the more obvious Facebook Fanpage changes and how it effects you  and your business. Your strategies may have to change to accommodate them.

  • Visual Facebook Fanpage changes

  There are no more Tabs at the top of your page. The navigation has been moved to the sidebar (the column under your profile picture. Another of the Facebook Fanpage changes is the size of your profile picture. It is now smaller. It has now been changed from 200×600 px to 180×540 px. Not a huge change, but it will make a difference.

  With the tabs gone and navigation below, you will want a profile picture that highlights the new navigation. Also where the tabs used to be there are now recent photos. Use this area! It makes it look more like a personal profile. This can be recent photos you post or your fans have posted on your wall.

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  • Facebook Fanpage Changes in Using Your Page

  The Wall has a couple of new filters for your visitors to see: “Everyone” and “Posts by Page” As the admin you will be able to view a couple of additional filters “Most Recent” and “Hidden Posts.”

  You can also log in as your page. This could be huge! You can now go to other pages and be identified as your page, instead of your personal profile.  This is one of the Facebook Fanpage changes that can have a big impact on your strategy.

  You will be able toget notifications for your Page, view a News Feed for your Page, and Like and post on other Pages as your Page. This enables you to interact on other Pages as your Page. One thing you can’t do is interact with personal profiles as your Page.

  This also means you can feature other Pages your page Likes and Feature the Admins of your Page.

  • Facebook Fanpage Changes in Notifications and News

  You can now opt in to get notifications when people post or comment on your page. You will still get the other tracking and news you’ve been getting, although that may get more robust as time goes by. Your page will now also have it’s own news feed.

  So now with these new Facebook Fanpage changes if you already have a page, make sure it is updated and if you do not have one yet make sure when you make your Facebook Fanpage you incorporate the changes as you make it.

Related posts:

1. Branding and Facebook Ad Success
2. One more reason to Like a non-Facebook page

Using a Facebook Ad for Branding

Are you one of those entrepreneurs who is focusing on branding their business or company? If your answer is “yes”, you may want to link your Facebook ad to your Facebook page.

What’s that? Don’t have one

? Well. Let’s have a look at Facebook pages and a Facebook Ad… and then you can tell me why not. Okay?

A Facebook page provides “a customizable presence for an organization, product, or public personality to join the conversation with Facebook users”, according to Facebook. Its main focus is the “stream of content” provided by page administrators. Facebook is a community a social interaction and if you are going to have a Facebook ad it should stay within that community. Most research is showing that you will get more interaction or response from your Facebook ad if it leads to a Facebook Fanpage. That means your Facebook Ad will get more clicks and will get more response (more Likes, more optins, more interaction) if it stays in the social network. Kinda makes sense if you think about it.

Best Facebook Ad and Fanpage: Interactive and Social

In other words, create a page for your company or yourself, providing real-time feedback, updates, screen shots and photos. Then give it a strong voice (yours), give the page a definite, deliberate personality – one you want aligned to your company mission and values. Chances are you will find you’ve created a powerful connection with your visitors. You can also make your Facebook ad more interactive, matching your brand, matching your company mission and values. The content on your page and the feedback from real readers may help convince them to then click on your sales page link or the link to your main site, once your Facebook ad appears and people see that yours is a lively, positive page.

Facebook Ad and Fanpage Should Get Regular Traffic

Another thing a page can do is charm potential customers into regular visits – particularly if they know you are going to:

• Provide them with an “insider” peek into your company’s heart
• Give them inside information
• Provide them with the latest news about your product or company
• Give them a “reward”; perhaps a special discount link, a game against other fans, or the chance to enter a contest or drawing (run the latter two events by Facebook first!)

Regular users are your biggest asset – and a sure sign that you’re doing things right.

Beware of “Selling” (Even in Your Facebook Ad)

One thing that is key to creating a successful, strong Facebook Page: Be honest and up-front with your readers. Avoid anything that even faintly resembles hype or a sales pitch.

This should be the place they go that makes them feel as if you’ve let them slip into your private lunchroom, chatting with them like a friend and sharing things you wouldn’t share with outsiders. (Your posts will also appear in their News Feed, adding to the feeling of immediacy). Remember: Know, Like, Trust. From the Facebook  Ad to your Fanpage, ask yourself these questions. Is this getting people to know me? Is this getting people to like me? Is this getting people to trust me

? If the answer is yes, you are on the right track.

Facebook Ad and Fanpage Features

On top of this, Facebook has provided some great features to enhance your readers’ experience on your page: Options such as…

• Multi-media functional Wall (you can control what content you allow your fans to post)
• The ability to publish or not publish your posts to your fans’ News Feed
• Tabs and functionality that makes their experience on your page similar to visiting a friend’s page
• Photo features
• Status update option
• The Ability to Log in as your page  (don’t underestimate this it is powerful!)

Check Your Facebook Ad  or Fanpage Stats

But perhaps its most exciting option is allowing you the ability to check your stats on viewer engagement. You’ll be able to see stats on comments and news feed use. (This is provided through their Facebook Insights platform.)

The only real drawback? Once you’ve created your page name, it can’t be changed or edited. (Everything else on the page can be adjusted). So make sure you take your time, picking exactly the right name, and putting it in the best category for your ad campaign. (The category also is permanent, although this may be changing)

Go visit your competitors’ Facebook pages (and especially the professionally-produced pages of Big Guns like Nike and Coca-Cola) and see what features and elements you like… and what you don’t like.

Facebook or not. These include:

• Videos
• Photos
• Events
• Reviews

And if these don’t meet your needs, check out the Facebook Applications Directory to uncover further apps that can help enhance your new Facebook page. It can be very fun and profitable to have your Facebook ad pointing to your branded Fanpage.

Related posts:

1. One more reason to Like a non-Facebook page

Search Engine Optimization or SEO Mistakes

Effective Search Engine Optimization is really not that difficult but it does take a bit of knowledge and a keen attention to detail.

Here are three common SEO mistakes to avoid:

• Choosing the wrong keywords.

Each page of your website should be optimized for a handful of keyword phrases. This helps your page get found whenever someone uses a search engine to search for a keyword phrase you’ve optimized for.

If you optimize for intelligent keywords, you’ll likely get an increase in website traffic from those looking for the types of products and services you offer. However, if you optimize for the “wrong” keywords, you may not get an increase in traffic or may be found by the wrong audience altogether.

Using a keyword research tool, you can determine how many times per month a p

articular keyword phrase is searched for. This is important because it won’t benefit you to optimize your web page for a term that no one cares about. This is one of the biggest SEO mistakes.

Also, you should type each keyword phrase into Google (or your search engine of choice) to see what results you find. If the results show you pages that are related to your own, you are on the right track.

If the results are completely unrelated, you should avoid optimizing for the keyword phrase and look for more targeted terms. And then you get to avoid this one of the SEO mistakes.

• Forgetting to include a page title.

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Each page of your website should have an intelligent page title… also called the “meta page title.” This information is added to the html code itself and can be found at the top of the page. You’ll notice this page is titled “Common SEO Mistakes To Avoid.”

The page title serves a few different purposes. First, it is displayed at the top of the browser window to let the visitor know what kind of information to expect on the page. It also  helps the search engines know what kind of content to expect.

This is why it is crucial that your page title include the keyword phrases you are optimizing for. Make sure you watch out for this one of the SEO mistakes, it is easy to miss.

The page title also appears whenever someone finds your page through the use of the search engine. The page title information is used for the blue, clickable link that will take the searcher to your page.

Forgetting to include a page title may cause the search engines to add the term, “Untitled Document,” to your page. This looks quite unprofessional and can hamper your ability to  be found for important keyword phrases the same page title on all pages.

While effective SEO needn’t be difficult, it does take work. All too often, I see webmasters using the exact same page title on every page of a site and this is cause for concern. Many times I find that it is because they are using a template and forget to change it not even knowing they are making another one of the common SEO mistakes.

Remember that the search engines index pages of your site, not your website as a whole. Your “meta page title” should include the keyword phrases you want to optimize a particular page for, and each page should be optimized for a unique set of terms.

While there is more to effective search engine optimization, avoiding these three common SEO mistakes will help you outrank the many sites that employ them.

If you are careful to do thorough keyword research, you should find a set of keyword phrases likely to bring you targeted traffic and new business. And then make sure you avoid these SEO mistakes and you will be on your way to success.

No related posts.

Good SEO Just by Having it be a WordPress Blog

WordPress is a great piece of CMS/blogging software. You can create wonderful websites with it and they don’t have to look like a blog or even include common blog elements. There are even some really nice themes that have built in SEO. This web-essentials blog is using one called Thesis.

While most search engines love WordPress run websites, there are a number of things you can do to improve your ability to rank well in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). Here are three tips to improving the SEO of your WordPress run website:

Permalinks

Each time you create a new page on your site or write a new blog post, WordPress will create a specific page (and corresponding website url) for this content. The url is generated dynamically by WordPress and by default, it’s not that great.

Here’s an example…

Let’s say you create (and publish) a post named, “Welcome To Our Website.” If this was your very first post, the generated url would look something like: YourDomain.com/?p=1

Do you see that “?p=1″ portion after the main domain name?

That bit is called the “Permalink” and like I said earlier, is generated dynamically by WordPress as soon as you publish the content. The problem is that “?p=1″ looks a bit strange to human visitors and tells the search engines nothing about the content.

So, it’s best to change your Permalink structure to something that looks better to humans and is meaningful to the search engines. Although there are a variety of choices to choose from, I prefer using the custom “/%category%/%postname%/” structure.

With this change made, our “Welcome To Our Website” post would now get a website url structure like this: YourDomain.com/category-keyword/welcome-to-our-website

Isn’t this a lot better for SEO?

You bet it is! And it’s better for your visitor. The url now makes sense to anyone visiting the website and tells the search engine more about the content that is to be found on the page. That’s good SEO, but  also good marketing and sales.

If you are careful to include your Primary Keyword Phrase in your Page/Post Titles, you will improve the “on page” optimization for that particular term.

SEO Plugins

There are literally thousands of WordPress plugins to choose from and hundreds related specifically to Search Engine Optimization. It would be impossible for me to tell you all about each of them in this short article so I won’t even try.

Instead, I’ll just tell you a little about the most popular SEO Plugin for WordPress, called the “All In One SEO Pack,” by Michael Torbert.

After installing and activating the All In One SEO Pack plugin, you will gain a number of benefits including:

• Full control over the  “meta title” for your homepage and for every Page/Post you create.
• Full control over the “meta page description” for your homepage andfor every Page/Post you create.
• Full control over the “meta keywords” for your homepage and for every Page/Post you create (if you’re one who still enters meta keyword information).
• The ability to reduce the chances of duplicate content occurring on your site.
• And many more benefits as well.
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I use that plugin on blogs that aren’t using Thesis as the theme. Thesis has built in SEO benefits just like the plug

in.

On-Page SEO Plugin

One of my favorite plugins (and I use this on pretty much every site I have) is SEOPressor. It gives you a score of your post SEO and tells you what you need to add or subtract to get a better SEO score.

I’ve found that it helps SEO quite a bit.

No related posts.

Building Backlinks

Most novice SEOs know the importance of building backlinks, but knowing how to

build them on a regular basis is hard for most. While there are hundreds of techniques to build backlinks, I’ll list five simple strategies.

Five Easy Methods for Backlinks

Here are five simple ways to build backlinks that point to your site/web pages:

• Article Marketing

Short articles (or posts), like the one you’re reading now, are written and submitted to a variety of online article directories. As most directories allow you include 2-3 links inside what is called the Author’s Bio Box, you can build multiple backlinks per article. In addition to building anchor text links, it’s wise to build a direct “web url” link as well.

• Online Press Releases

Like articles, you can write a short press release about your business and submit it backlinks you are allowed to include will depend on the specific distribution site and whether or not you are paying to have your press release distributed.

• Website Directories

There are many online directories that will allow you to list your website. You will generally be able to link to your website from the directory listing. Some of these directories are free and some, like the Yahoo Directory, charge for their listing services. Here is a resource that lists many online directories: DirectoryCritic.com/free-directory-list.html

• Blog Commenting

Some blogs (like this one) allow you to leave links when you comment on a post. The effectiveness of this strategy will depend upon whether or not the blog assigns the “no follow” attribute to the links you leave. There are tools available to search for blogs relevant to your business. Some of the tools will even tell you whether or not the blog is assigning the “no follow” attribute. Web Essentials does not have the “no follow” attribute. But like most that have “dofollow” backlinks, make sure your comments are relevant to the page and topic, or your comments will not get approved.

• Buying Text Links

This topic is a bit controversial, but it needs to be addressed. Some will tell you that buying text links will do more harm than good but I have not found this to be the case. It likely depends upon where you are buying your links from and ultimately, where they are placed online. It is wise to avoid “link farms,”which are sites that typically feature hundreds of links per page and not much else. These types of sites are frowned upon by the search engines and may harm your SEO efforts. You can buy links from a large supplier, or you can buy them direct

from an individual webmaster.

Active bloggers frequently sell “text links” and this can be a great place to start. When building links it is important to remember a few things. You should attempt to build links from a variety of sources and concentrate on using the keywords and key phrases you are specifically trying to optimize for.

Backlinks for the whole site

Remember to build links for each page of your site and not just the homepage… this is frequently misunderstood. For the first year I was trying to get links for my own site, I made that mistake and only linked to my homepage. Oops.

Lastly, it’s important that you continue to build links over time. It would be great if this was a “once and done” chore, but this is not the case. The search engines routinely scour the internet looking for links and if yours seem to come to an abrupt halt, they will assume that the popularity or relevance of your page is diminishing. Another easy way to keep adding backlinks is to be sure you post them on the Influence Engines. So keep adding backlinks regularly.

Related posts:

1. One more reason to Like a non-Facebook page
2. Submit Your Website to Search Engines