How To Avoid One of the Biggest Website Mistakes

LongIsland.com

ADVICE FROM ANGELA KAMBARIAN What is the worst possible mistake you can make when optimizing your website for the search engines? The answer may surprise you. It's using too many keywords on a page and ...

Print Email

ADVICE FROM ANGELA KAMBARIAN

What is the worst possible mistake you can make when optimizing
your website for the search engines? The answer may surprise you.
It's using too many keywords on a page and in the meta-tags.
Actually, it is worse that not using them at all. Besides,
"keyword stuffing" can be either ignored by search engines
or penalized (in the worst case scenario). On top of that,
your pages will read very strangely to your visitors. And you
don't want this to happen.
So, a few pointers below will lead you in the right direction.

1. Remember, if a search engine "spider" finds the page,
it doesn't need a keyword repeated frequently in order to find it.

2. In most cases, keyword density should not exceed 2%-5%.

3. Stuffing keywords on a Web page takes the focus off where it
needs to be. That focus should remain on your customer.

4. While search engines are important, having a good and
compelling website that sells effectively, is far more important.
You should focus all your energies on writing strong copy and
communicating your offer.

5. One well-known marketer suggests the following: "When
writing Web sites, it's more important to put keywords in
meta tags and descriptions that are only used by spiders, and
not seen by the average person reading your page." You should
also give your pages titles in html that truly reflect the page's content.

6. Place your keywords carefully in the beginning, middle or end of your
page. Otherwise, you risk being penalized by Google.

To make a long story short, stuffing keywords is a gimmick
that fails to trick the search engines and might seriously damage
your overall communication effort. Keep in mind that good
web writing is a balance between satisfying the spiders
and the humans. But it's the humans who buy
your products and services.