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Learn to Avoid Basic SEO and Internet Marketing Mistakes
Copyright (c) 2010-2023 Paul Marshall
Frankly, the biggest search engine optimization mistake you can make is not doing any SEO at all. It's amazing how many people believe "if you build it, they will come." Marketing coaching makes one thing clear. Just putting a site up on the Internet won't get you the traffic you want or need. By the same token, building a site and then thinking about SEO after the fact is a bad plan too. SEO needs to be at the heart of your Web plans from day one, and it's a job that's never "finished."
Learn What's Bad For SEO And Don't Do It
If you take a drawing class, one of the first things you'll learn is that it's easier to look at the negative space than at the object itself. That means that as a beginner, you have a better shot at recreating the funky-looking space between the apple and the pear than drawing the fruit the first time you pick up a pencil. And you don't get so discouraged when your results aren't perfect. That's a good concept to carry into online marketing.
Sometimes learning everything that can go wrong is a better place to start than trying to do everything right. Do-it-yourself, affordable SEO is too expensive at any cost if you're constantly shooting yourself in the foot. Some of the biggest mistakes novices make are really the easiest ones to avoid!
Bad Navigation And No Sitemap
It doesn't take a marketing coach to know that the entire point of "search engine optimization" on a site is to get that site crawled by the search engines. If you use images -- or worse -- Flash or javascript to design your navigation, the search engines will ignore you. (Also, any page that doesn't have an incoming link won't be crawled.)
Not having a sitemap is just as bad. Many website owners don't think they need a sitemap because people don't use them. It's not about people! Search engines love sitemaps. They literally crawl all over sitemaps. Even if you have to maintain the sitemap manually, have one and link to it on every page of your site.
Poorly Constructed Title Tags And URLs
There's nothing wrong with building your own website, but pay attention to what your software is doing. Many site building packages and content management systems repeat the same title tag on every single page. Good programs of marketing coaching teach you that the title tag is probably the single most-important SEO element of any page. The title tag must fit the content of the page itself.
But, don't pay attention to the title tag and ignore the URL. This is especially a problem in content management systems and shopping carts. The URLs are full of numbers and letters. You need to be including your keywords in your URLs so the search engines pick up on them. Don't waste the invaluable potential in either the title tag or the URL.
Banning A Search Engine By Accident
It's not unusual for a novice site owner to mess up their robots.txt file. The file exists in your site's root directory to talk to search engine spiders. You can tell them not to crawl pages or sections or send other individual instructions. Since the file is just plain text and is so easy to create, site owners wade in without really understanding what they're doing. If you're not careful, you can ban the search engines from your site altogether. Use Yahoo SiteExplorer or Google SiteMaps to make sure that your site can indeed by crawled.
Vague Anchor Text For Links
Using anchor text like "click here" or "next" is a waste. When you are cultivating incoming links or creating your own links inside your site, use useful, descriptive anchor text. You don't want to repeat the same phrase over and over again. Get two or three relevant, keyword-rich pieces of anchor text and also use your company name. Empty phrases are just that -- empty.
Doing accurate keyword research is fundamental to successful online marketing. It's a huge topic in its own right, but you basically want to concentrate on phrases that are not overly general or that have too much competition. Good marketing coaches will spend a lot of time on keyword selection and you should too. Put that chore right up at the top of your SEO "to do" list.
In reading all the tips available on marketing coaching, you'll find that most articles and courses focus on the things website owners should do. It's also important to look at what you shouldn't do. A poorly constructed site that fails to make good use of readable navigation, workable behind-the-scenes code, solid naming structures, and relevant anchor text will have a tough time online. Consider the fundamentals of basic SEO from the planning stage of your site to maximize your results and get the traffic you want.
Marketing online since 2004, Paul Marshall can help you market on a realistic budget. He's a Marketing Coaching expert offering professional marketing services (and d-i-y Coaching). He also offers Affordable SEO services. Get to know Paul, just visit Strategic Web Marketing.net today!
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Top-Level Category: Business Offline Articles || Related Categories: Business Online Articles and Internet Articles
10 Most Recent Articles Written by Paul Marshall
Online Marketing: Can You Achieve SEO with a WordPress Site?
Written by: Paul Marshall |
Distributed: 2010-04-19 |
Word Count: 810 |
Page Views: 8302
| Votes: 5 |
Rating: 0.80
Online marketing consulting wisdom now recognizes that sites
built with content management or "blog" software like
WordPress are indistinguishable from any other website.
Additionally, the software can provide unique and powerful
SEO tools.
Online Marketing Consultants Say Content is King
Written by: Paul Marshall |
Distributed: 2010-02-11 |
Word Count: 818 |
Page Views: 4298
| Votes: 4 |
Rating: 1.00
Online marketing consultants emphasize the importance of
fresh, relevant content for better search engine placement.
People read differently online, creating a whole new set of
composition and formatting rules for Web copy. Learning to
write good text is the most affordable SEO tool at your
disposal.
Marketing Coaching: Understanding the Basics of Page Rank
Written by: Paul Marshall |
Distributed: 2010-02-04 |
Word Count: 868 |
Page Views: 3965
| Votes: 3 |
Rating: 0.67
PageRank (PR) is a numerical value Google assigns to a site
as a measure of "authority." A marketing coach will
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methods. Understanding PR and using it to craft a
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Link Building in Online Marketing: Tougher Than It Sounds
Written by: Paul Marshall |
Distributed: 2010-02-02 |
Word Count: 871 |
Page Views: 4406
| Votes: 3 |
Rating: 1.00
You probably don't need to read the latest professional
advice...Without links, your site won't develop authority.
Without authority, it won't move up on the search engines.
But even the most savvy online marketing consultant would
have to admit that doing that is just not as easy as it
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Beware of the Online Marketing Minefield
Written by: Paul Marshall |
Distributed: 2010-01-15 |
Word Count: 1067 |
Page Views: 4218
| Votes: 11 |
Rating: 2.36
Many people have used the Internet to become
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ABCs of Article Marketing for Newbies
Written by: Paul Marshall |
Distributed: 2009-12-31 |
Word Count: 928 |
Page Views: 3949
| Votes: 11 |
Rating: 2.55
If you're new to Internet marketing, you probably have a
couple of questions. One, how do you get high rankings in
Google for your chosen keyword search phrases? Two, how do
you do this with as little cost and time as possible?
Do You Really Want Your Site on Page One of Google?
Written by: Paul Marshall |
Distributed: 2009-12-01 |
Word Count: 872 |
Page Views: 3891
| Votes: 4 |
Rating: 2.50
For many online marketers using SEO, first page results in
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Santa Claus is Dead -- But Internet Marketing Get Rich Scams Aren't
Written by: Paul Marshall |
Distributed: 2009-11-10 |
Word Count: 828 |
Page Views: 4879
| Votes: 10 |
Rating: 2.40
Guard your wallet when Internet marketing scammers tell you
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isn't as easy as the scammers try to convince you.
How Online Marketing Consultants Can Supercharge Your Sales
Written by: Paul Marshall |
Distributed: 2009-11-06 |
Word Count: 891 |
Page Views: 4057
| Votes: 11 |
Rating: 2.00
Starting an online business, we all need to spend our money
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Don't Destroy Your Online Marketing Results with Bad Website Design
Written by: Paul Marshall |
Distributed: 2009-11-03 |
Word Count: 1111 |
Page Views: 4178
| Votes: 11 |
Rating: 2.55
Many online marketing consulting firms look at SEO and
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Word Count: 987 |
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| Votes: 6 |
Rating: 0.83
During a recession, most business owners pull the reins on
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Distributed: 2011-11-09 |
Word Count: 945 |
Page Views: 6621
| Votes: 5 |
Rating: 0.40
More than once in the six years that I have been providing
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Word Count: 706 |
Page Views: 537
Medical device manufacturers are always interested in knowing
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Written by: Titus Hoskins |
Distributed: 2011-09-12 |
Word Count: 560 |
Page Views: 542
Online faxing is the new more modern way to fax. If you or your
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Best Effort Essential for the Job Interview
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Word Count: 676 |
Page Views: 632
Interviewing will determine if you are the right person for the
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Distributed: 2011-07-28 |
Word Count: 636 |
Page Views: 5383
| Votes: 4 |
Rating: 0.50
Many of the qualities of green living, like recycling and
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ReCareer in the Second-half of Life
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Distributed: 2011-07-26 |
Word Count: 525 |
Page Views: 5383
| Votes: 5 |
Rating: 1.20
Many of us worked the first half of our life to "fit" the
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Word Count: 678 |
Page Views: 598
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Distributed: 2011-07-05 |
Word Count: 477 |
Page Views: 6156
| Votes: 7 |
Rating: 1.00
Too many salon and spa owners are carrying around a lot
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The Single Most Profitable Day You Spend on Your Spa or Salon!
Written by: Dan Lok |
Distributed: 2011-06-30 |
Word Count: 470 |
Page Views: 6473
| Votes: 5 |
Rating: 0.20
Salon and spa owners need to combine their marketing plan
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| Votes: 8 |
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Word Count: 1522 |
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From time to time someone asks me to recommend marketing books.
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Word Count: 930 |
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Word Count: 635 |
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Since Xerox first invented and sold the first commercial
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Word Count: 971 |
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| Votes: 22 |
Rating: 2.09
When I was in graduate school, I had a friend who interviewed at
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Distributed: 2007-10-11 |
Word Count: 333 |
Page Views: 14496
| Votes: 22 |
Rating: 2.27
Newly released IRS regulations impose several new requirements
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Word Count: 690 |
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Enhance your talent management and development programs
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Word Count: 427 |
Page Views: 13205
| Votes: 12 |
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Word Count: 413 |
Page Views: 11727
| Votes: 27 |
Rating: 1.74
Want to send a gift to the baseball fan in your life that's sure
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Word Count: 629 |
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| Votes: 10 |
Rating: 3.60
With online ordering, your menu and restaurant suddenly become
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Word Count: 1826 |
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| Votes: 19 |
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Distributed: 2009-01-28 |
Word Count: 638 |
Page Views: 3897
| Votes: 15 |
Rating: 3.33
Do you build your business around your family or your family
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Distributed: 2007-05-08 |
Word Count: 366 |
Page Views: 3621
| Votes: 24 |
Rating: 3.29
To achieve business growth, you need to focus on your strengths
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successfully.
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Distributed: 2007-07-09 |
Word Count: 640 |
Page Views: 4988
| Votes: 7 |
Rating: 3.29
What is so significant about Pizza Hut's latest TV commercial?
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Distributed: 2007-08-08 |
Word Count: 866 |
Page Views: 7187
| Votes: 7 |
Rating: 3.29
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business.
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Word Count: 707 |
Page Views: 2580
| Votes: 7 |
Rating: 3.29
If you have ever stayed at a nice hotel, then you have probably
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assist guests with information and service to enhance their stay.
What would happen if you took the idea of the Concierge and
applied it to the way you service your agency clients?
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Written by: Melissa Mashtonio |
Distributed: 2008-04-15 |
Word Count: 423 |
Page Views: 5100
| Votes: 7 |
Rating: 3.29
I’m a journalist. I spent a lot of my career in the news
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about. They used acronyms as if they were a foreign language.
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Written by: Scott Bywater |
Distributed: 2009-12-03 |
Word Count: 480 |
Page Views: 5037
| Votes: 7 |
Rating: 3.29
This is what people miss when they try to simply "swipe"
sales copy from another advertisement.
Why 'Closing' Is Not The Most Important Part Of Making A Sale
Written by: Scott Bywater |
Distributed: 2006-08-29 |
Word Count: 553 |
Page Views: 6253
| Votes: 31 |
Rating: 3.26
If you ever thought that 'closing' was the single most
important key to sales success, then pay close attention, because
what I'm about to share may surprise you. Let me explain:
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