3 Deadly Search Engine Marketing Sins

My inbox this week provided glaring examples of three all too common rookie search engine marketing mistakes. What you could call three deadly search engine marketing sins. Starting with

===> Inadequate Keyword Research

Hey! If you're going to spend hours developing a web site, isn't it smart to invest some time to insure you're focusing on the most traffic laden keywords?

Especially when typically the plural form of a keyword phrase generates way more traffic than the singular form. For example "dog dishes" rather than "dog dish".

Yet just this week I was asked to look at a site that had focused on the singular form. Evidently the owner hadn't bothered to do any digging to make sure that was their best keyword move.

Look, you'll never know for sure unless you research it. Besides, you can access Wordtracker, the tool of choice for what? a measly $7 a day.

Even better here's a quick and dirty way to get the most out of that day.

Search for your target keyword in Google.

Visit the top ranking sites. Use the "View Source" feature of Internet Explorer to check out the keyword meta tag of each site. You're looking for a site listing lots of keywords there. Do this with each of the top listings or until you find one stuffed to the gills with keywords. Ah-ha! There's your starting point for your list of likely keyword phrases.

Repeat with a couple of other sites and you'll soon have a long list of candidates to check out in Wordtracker.

Enhance your list further using this tool:

http://www.promoteindia.com/keywordtool-beta.htm.

It will give you more keyword ideas from Google and Overture.

Now you're ready for Wordtracker.

Once you've compiled your Wordtracker results, you could simply sort by KEI and then by searches per day.

That gives you the strongest keywords with the most searches. (And yes, I realize KEI assumes all search engine listings are of equal value. But I did say this was "quick and dirty" didn't I? However if you want another approach that improves on KEI there's a spreadsheet available at http://www.seo-works.com/seo-resources/keyword-effectiveness-rank.html)

An yway, once you're sorted your keywords in some way to highlight the most profitable, simply take the top 25 on the list and create content for those first. No, not every one will be a natural born traffic magnet. But enough of them will be to get the ball rolling.

Repeat with the next 25. Don't stop until you have at least 100 pages of hot content.

Remember, two or three word keyword phrases are usually your best bets. And I really like keyword phrases that are actually several keyword phrases in one. For example "irish setter dog dishes" gives "irish setter", "irish setter dog", "dog", "dog dishes", "setter dog dishes".

===> Site Bloat

Twice this week I was asked to look at sites that would have let me read War and Peace while waiting for them to come up. And no visitor is going to have a copy of that handy.

To avoid losing any precious visitors lose the huge graphics. One of the sites had a graphic 501K in size! No wonder it took nearly two minutes to load up on a 56K modem.

Then too lose the Flash - unless you have a very good reason for using it. Even then lose the Flash.

If you're wondering how your site's download time measures up test it here: http://www.netmechanic.com/toolbox/html-code.htm

It won't cost anything to find out. But a slow loading site can cost you plenty. Because as the Net Mechanics follow up reports says, it's a good idea to keep your page load times under about 12 seconds on a 28.8 modem. Otherwise your visitors will be wearing out the back button trying to escape.

===> Too Few Links

Did you know links can account for up to 80% of your success with Google? Yet someone else complained to me about how much work it took to get them.

Well doh! Ever think that maybe that's why (in part) Google assigns so much value to links? Because you can't quite as easily game links as you can on page content? Meaning you actually have to work to get links. Both by having link worthy content and by actively seeking them out on a regular basis.

It's a given that most niches require you have a healthy collection of links to be competitive. Yet if you're lucky enough to be in a niche that doesn't, but you do, then you can easily dominate those rankings.

Anyway in a nutshell you can easily avoid these three search engine sins. Do your keyword homework. Keep your pages on a strict diet. And don't forget link up with as many other quality sites as you can.

Do all that and you're well on your way to search engine success. Ignore this advice and you're, well you know, your Google goose is probably cooked. Leaving you perpetually stuck in Google purgatory.

Copyright 2004 John Gergye

About The Author

John Gergye shares more ideas like this in his just updated eBook "Traffic From Google in 35 Days". Find out more here:

http://www.traffic-test-tube.com/j/tfg35cl.shtml

Or test your search engine IQ by taking his seo quiz

http://www.traffic-test-tube.com/search-engine-quiz.shtml

and get the free special report "Coming Out On Top".

In The News:


pen paper and inkwell


cat break through


SEO and Google Indexing - Why It Requires A Complex Blend of Skills

If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. Getting... Read More

Optimizing For Visitors Not Search Engines

Most people feel that optimizing is to target the search... Read More

What Is Search Engine Marketing?

It's in our genes, we're driven to seek. We 'hunt'... Read More

Get a Number One Google Ranking With This Simple Technique

You probably do this already - complete regular searches in... Read More

Would You Like More PageRank?

The higher the PR of your site the higher will... Read More

Google Loosing Fan Base?

"Nothing last forever but the Earth and sky." - from... Read More

Search Engine Traffic: Winning With Content

Targeted traffic is the lifeblood of any online business. The... Read More

How to Succeed with the Search Engines

The Cold Hard Facts?..One of the most important factors in... Read More

SEO Made Easy!

Search engine optimization remains a minefield of old advice, outdated... Read More

Basic Search Engine Optimization For Dummies

OK, you published your site, now you just sit by... Read More

How to Make Better Use of Web Site Page Titles and META Data

We got down to the basics with web site page... Read More

How To Write Effective And Unique Articles That Are Optimized for the Search Engines

It is a well known fact that writing, distributing and... Read More

The Truth About Search Engines: Playing A Game You Cant Win

If you go strictly by the numbers, Yahoo, MSN and... Read More

The Search Engine Optimization Secret that Everybody Ignores

Search engine optimization is a very critical task in the... Read More

Surviving the Search Wars ? Local Directories

The pursuit of online information has become an increasingly dynamic... Read More

Search Engine Wars - Quality Searches Vs Quantity!

It is no secret that Google and Yahoo are on... Read More

Whats All This Hype About Links?

What's all the talk about links we hear about? Reciprocal... Read More

Google Patent Application - User Data As Part of Ranking Process

In this third article, we continue to dig into the... Read More

Reciprocal Links to Boost Link Popularity ?

Link popularity means the number of incoming links pointing to... Read More

How to REALLY Profit from SEO

I want to give you a few more things to... Read More

SEO Trade Secrets - 8 Great Tools for Search Engine Optimization

About 80% of website traffic comes through search engines. And... Read More

The Changing Face of Search Engine Optimization

With the ever evolving internet market for just about anything... Read More

How to Make More Money with Your Mambo 4.5.1 Site

For those of you who are not familiar... Read More

Build Link Popularity The Smart Way

A Brief Introduction To Link PopularityAs webmasters research various ways... Read More

HTML Title Tags Dictate Your Rankings

There are a lot of things in Search Engine Optimization... Read More

Site Maps: Let Search Engines Find Your Pages

With 40 million websites in existence, and more than 3... Read More

London Bombings and Number Patterns

Firstly, let me say that I am sure all our... Read More

Search Engine Position Report

Since search engines are the first stop for people on... Read More

Increase Web Site Sales with a SEO Proposal - Part 1

You can easily get confused by all the search engine... Read More

You Have More Web Sites Than You Think You Have: The Importance of Deep Submission

If I ask you how many web sites do you... Read More

How To Get Listed in Yahoo!

Getting listed in Yahoo! (The Very Top Search Engine/Index) is... Read More

Google Rankings ? Achieving a Top 10 Position in Google ? Part 2

Achieving a top ranking position in Google is every webmasters... Read More

Monitor Your Visibility in Google, MSN, and Yahoo with these DIY SEO Tools

This is the second part of an article series in... Read More