(Common mistakes and misconceptions about search optimization and
internet marketing)

There is so much misinformation floating through the internet regarding
search engine marketing and optimization that it’s important to
shed some light on a few common errors and misconceptions. The following
list highlights some of the most critical issues involved in determining
the success or failure of a web site’s search engine optimization
and marketing strategies.

1. Lack of “Search Friendly” Content. Every week I review web sites
with no real search engine indexable content. Web pages composed
mostly of graphics, flash and other bells and whistle are commonly
over-looked by the search engines. Search engines determine what
content is of value per web page based on the text used on that
page. A truly optimized site should contain at least 200 words of
keyword-dense text. There is some debate among experts on exactly
how many words should be used, but generally 200 words will suffice.
As a point of reference this paragraph contains about 200 words.
It is equally important for text content to contain keywords that
match the page titles. For example, a site selling peanut butter
owned by a company called “ACME Foods” might have a title of “Acme
Foods, Inc. Wholesale Food Products”. We have to consider how many
people are likely to search for the term “Acme Foods, Inc. Wholesale
Food Products” it is much more likely that people will search for
the term “peanut butter”. Knowing this, we can say with confidence
that it would be a wiser choice to title a page, “Peanut Butter,
ACME Foods” and the page content should reflect this same keyword
strategy.

2. Insufficient Link Popularity. Search engines make every attempt
to qualify the results which are displayed in search results. One
of the ways that they do this is by tracking the number and quality
of the incoming links to a web site. A site with a large number
of incoming links from quality sites is given a higher ranking in
search results. This is an important consideration that is sometimes
over-looked by those attempting to market web sites. Services that
promise to link your site to thousands of other sites are far from
productive; in fact they can sometimes do more harm than good. Most
search engines these days consider services like this to be spam,
so called “link farming” and often give sites with these types of
links a low ranking or drop them all-together from the search results.
Incoming links to a site that compliment it and are relevant to
the site contents are golden and can greatly boost a site’s ranking.
Google’s page ranking system is a good example. A site with a page
rank of 1 if given a link from a site with a page rank of 8 can
see its page rank boost to 4! Link popularity is one of the most
time consuming and difficult aspects of search engine optimization.
It’s no wonder that many of the search engines give so much importance
to this web site measurement.

3. Lack of Keyword Research And Updates So, you have a web site.
Do you know what pages in your web site are generating the most
interest? Do you know what terms people are searching for that result
in them finding your site? Probably not. Let’s use the peanut butter
analogy again. You own a web site that sells peanut butter. You
spend some money on paid search advertising, logically; you assume
that the key phrase “peanut butter” is a prime candidate to target.
What happens? usually one of two things, one, the term peanut butter
is such a popular search term that thirty million other web sites
are competing for the same key phrase. Two, the term peanut butter
is so unpopular that it’s unlikely that it’s searched for more than
once in this lifetime. Proper keyword research can solve these problems.
Let’s say for the sake of argument that keyword research is performed
and that it is determined that a significant number of people are
searching for “organic peanut butter”. It just so happens that our
peanut butter company manufactures a whole line of organic, all
natural peanut butter. We have discovered a niche. The right amount
of people searching for the specific product that we want to sell.
It’s the perfect match. So, what must be done to capitalize on our
findings? First we optimize our web pages for our target keyword,
we change the title, and the content so that they include the term
“organic peanut butter”, then we scrap all of the paid search advertising
that wasn’t working and focus on targeting our “organic peanut butter”
market. The point is, successful search engine marketing relies
on constant research and updates the internet is fluid and evolving.
What works today might not work tomorrow, we have to be able to
identify strengths and weaknesses in our internet marketing campaigns
and must be prepared to research, update and adapt.

4. Designing First, Optimizing Later I have seen this mistake repeated
hundreds of times. Even experienced web designers fail to consider
the results of design decisions on search optimization until it’s
too late. What is the point of spending thousands of dollars for
a well “designed” web site if nobody ever sees it? Consult a search
engine specialist early in the design process. Even if your web
site marketing strategy relies heavily on paid search advertising
a consultation with a professional optimization expert may expose
flaws in your site’s layout. Points in the flow of information that
tend to cause users to lose interest or become confused may become
apparent, better to address these issues early on.

5. Relying Too Heavily On Paid Search Advertising This is a mistake
made by Fortune 500 companies and small businesses alike. The fact
is that most businesses, small and large aren’t getting it right.
The rationale is that since search advertising can be purchased
it isn’t necessary to focus on search optimization techniques. On
the surface this might make some sense, you can buy certain keyword
phrases that people are searching for, so why bother optimizing
your site for the search engines? For a company with a huge internet
advertising budget this means spending huge amounts of money to
drive traffic to their sites, when, if their site had been properly
optimized from the beginning, these costs might be half as much
for the same amount of viewers. For many smaller businesses trying
to compete in the internet marketplace simply becomes overwhelming.
While paid search advertising is a highly effective means of targeting
an audience, organic search optimization greatly increases the chances
of success for any web site. Make sure that the site you are advertising
is one that people can find easily without the assistance of a paid
search campaign.

6. Not Supporting the Conversion Process A few weeks ago my wife
decided that she wanted to buy some Australian made baby clothes
that we can’t find here in the states. So being the internet savvy
father to be, I decided to have a look on the internet for the particular
brand she was interested in. I surf to a search engine and type
in the brand name. A few seconds later I’m greeted with a list of
web sites that supposedly have what I’m looking for. I click on
the first site in the list. I find myself at the site of a clothing
importer based out of California. There are links to several categories
of clothing, none of which seem to have anything to do with babies,
eventually after a lot of searching I find a link on the children’s
clothing page for infant garments. The infant garments page has
a few images of clothing but not the brand I’m looking for. I look
to see if there is way to search for clothing by brand name. There
isn’t. I look to see if there is a list somewhere on the site of
brand names carried by this distributor. There isn’t. I look to
see if there is a toll free number to call. There isn’t. The internet
optimization part of my brain is boiling by this point, so to add
insult to injury I go back to the children’s garments section of
the site. I click on a link to purchase a bright green jacket. I’m
confronted with a page that is requiring me to fill in a bunch of
personal details. Ok, so I fill in the details and click submit.
Now I find myself back at the bright green jacket page. Apparently
now I’m qualified to purchase something. I click the “check out”
button. The web page goes blank. I know that this is the result
of bad programming. I know what’s going to happen next. “Error 404
page not found”. Has this type of thing happened to you? If you
have ever tried to purchase something on the internet, I’m sure
it has. This is an illustration of a web site that is well ranked
in the search engines but has not taken the time to create a site
that is designed for its users. I was forced to hunt through the
web site to try and find what I was looking for. The flow of information
was counter-intuitive. There was no online support. All-in-all the
whole site was a joke. I would be surprised to learn that the site
in question made any sales at all, ever. There were several points
in this online experience that I felt like giving up. In the industry
this is known as ”abandonment”, This is a critical point in what
is known as the “conversion process”, the act of turning web site
viewers into online purchasers. This is an issue that should never
be underestimated. In fact it is the number one factor that determines
a web site’s success or failure. A web site with a million dollar
marketing budget and millions of visitors will not succeed unless
it serves to understand its user’s needs and anticipate its viewer’s
questions.

7. Graphics Used For Text Links. Web designers often use graphics
to represent a link in a web site. There are many reasons for this
choice. Unfortunately for web designers, the major internet browsers
display web pages in different ways. Since fonts display differently
on individual computers and in different browsers, it is a much
simpler proposition for designers to create graphic links than it
is to attempt to create cross-browser text links. The downside to
this work-around is that search engines have no idea if a graphic
link relates to a specific web page or a link to download the latest
Britney Spears MP3. For search engines to understand what a link
is truly representing, they need to find words in plain, good old
fashioned text. If a web site must use graphics for navigation it
is important to include a set of plain text links somewhere on the
web page, usually at the bottom of the page.

8. Use of Frames. Search engines have a hard time indexing sites
that are created in frames. Framed sites use several html files
to display one page. Search engines are often confused by the frames
method of creating web sites, usually only indexing the first html
file within the framed Pages that aren’t indexed will never show up
in search engine results. Also, many people that use the internet
regularly for research and purchases, so called “power users”, tend
to avoid sites built with frames, especially those sites which require
the user to scroll content in separate frames. Simply put, frames
are bad.

9. Splash Pages. Entry pages that instruct the user to “Enter”,
usually decorated with a large graphic or a flash animation. The
index page of a web site is the one that search engines read first.
More often than not the only readable content on this type of page
is a link that says, “skip intro” Splash pages lack indexable content,
usually contain no links and often contain a “redirect” to the real
home page. Search engines do not like redirects, they want the real
thing. Avoid splash pages unless you aren’t serious about being
found by search engines.

10. Submitting To 10,000 Search Engines I sometimes have a difficult
time believing that these services are still making money, more
importantly that people still think that they work. The fact is
that a handful of search engines account for about 90% of all the
web traffic generated and the rest comes from people typing in a
web site’s URL indirectly into their browser’s address bar. The
amount of viewers generated from these Mega-Search Submittal services
is so negligible that it’s hardly worth consideration. Don’t waste
your time or your money.

11. Not Clearly Defining Action Points Another mistake that is repeated
quite is often is the failure to clearly define what the objectives
of a web site are. What are the main goals of a site? Who will the
primary audience be? What actions are desired of the site’s visitors?
If these questions aren’t answered prior to designing a site they
will reflect a poor user experience in the final result. Action
points or calls to action are a terminology handed down from the
traditional marketing world. They serve to define a desired action
and are often supported by persuasive sales copy. Though the basic
concepts are the same as traditional marketing, calls to action
can take many different forms on the internet. Often they appear
as links or as part of a shopping cart. The nature of a web site
determines its type of action point. The most important thing to
consider is that without them, viewers have little or no idea what
the purpose of your site is. Imagine an infomercial running a half
hour long advertisement on television, yet the commentator says
nothing during the whole ad, just stands there holding a cardboard
box, you are left trying to guess what’s inside, the advertisement
offers no explanations or means of contacting the company involved.
Pointless isn’t it? This is exactly what a web site without clearly
defined points of action accomplishes; nothing. It’s an exercise
in futility.