SEO Basics for Google - Past, Present & Future

There are a few basic functions that SEOs around the globe have been doing for past several years and are still required to do. These constitute the basis of the new personalized search launched by Google. And whether we like it or not, these have quite a good chance of remaining just as important in the future too.

So if you are an SEO, here are the SEO Basics you must still do for a website:

1) Tiresome Keyword Research
2) Tedious Industry Analysis
3) Boring Competition Research
4) Creating Meta Tags (page titles, descriptions and keywords)
5) Producing a Website Usability Methodology

Can the SEO Basics go Stale for Google any time soon?
With the latest developments many have started to question the significance of these SEO basics. Most wonder if it's time to throw the traditional search out of the window. I'd say, not yet and I'd give you 3 reasons as to why...

First, because you need to go through these basics if you want people to believe that your site is authentic.
Second, because it still helps to get your site in the search results where users notice.
And Last and most importantly Google has worked too hard and too long to instill these basics in their search algorithm. They've made an empire out of these basics, so to say and there is no way that they are letting go of this any time soon. So all this said and done, there is really no need to worry, at the present or in the near future, about the SEO basics going stale ;)

Website Essentials - 3 Must Haves

When implementing tricks of the trade on your website there are 3 things you just can't ever go wrong with. Big or small, every website deserves these 3 essentials:

Implement SEO >> Upgrading your website or working on launching a new one from scratch, consider SEO. It's never too late to implement SEO and the sooner you do it, the better. So start today!

Creating Quality Content >> Whether you own a website or just a blog, you can never be too big or too little for quality content ever. No matter how much traffic you get (or don't get), no matter what business you're running, you would always need good content. Even when you think that your visitors don't read it or your services aren't popular enough... Quality content on your webpages can just never be enough. So keep updating good content every now and then!

Link Sharing >> Link sharing is good. Distribute some of the content from your website to others on a free-reprint basis. This helps in not just earning links but will also increase your visibility chances and bring more traffic to your website.

Easy, isn't it? ;)

10 Most Common SEO Mistakes - Stone Age to Present

SEO offers business owners a significant way of promoting their products and services online. While SEO is easy, it is also generally misunderstood as something that requires major capital. True that SEO can provide your business some major benefits, but if mis-treated it can also go in the opposite direction... leaving you and your business in a lurch.

Search engines have their own rules and guidelines set to be followed. Ethical SEO firms and SEO experts make sure that they follow them to a large extent, if not completely. And while some of us are on the go, following these set of rules, we tend to make some common mistakes that can lead us into the deep dark ditch of penalization.

So here's a look at some of the most common SEO mistakes made from times past to the day present:

1. Copy Cats: Copied content, either plagerized or otherwise will simply not do. Unique and original is always better. Be it short or long, just make sure that the content on your website or blog is originally yours to begin with. Otherwise... well, face the consequences!

2. Linking Softwares: Trying to link your website automatically to various websites and search engines via some software can get you banned forever.

3. Duplicate Meta Tags: Using the same titles and descriptions throughout your website is... well... wrong!

4. Keyword Stuffing: Don't try and increase your keyword density by over using the keywords throughout the page. You should know by now that this will get you penalized.

5. Link Farm Programs: Participating in link exchange and link farm programs will possibly lead you into bad neighborhood, might link you to scam websites and will surely get you penalized... need I say more?!

6. Cloaking: As old as SEO itself... cloaking text using same color as the site background and hiding keywords just doesn't work anymore. Will make you zero instead of a hero.

7. Flash-based Website: The search engines refuse to crawl flash-based websites, so avoid making it completely with flash. Also try using images and graphics that take less time to load to keep both the visitors and search engines happy.

8. Doorway Pages: This one's from stone age too and must be avoided at all costs. Try the Landing page instead, its healthy and profitable.

9. Over-Optimized Web Pages: Too much of everything is bad. So is the case with SEO. Don't over optimize your web pages, instead keep them fresh and easy to read.

10. Duplicate Content: Like duplicate meta tags, this one's a goner too. Only spread duplicate content across several pages of your website or various domains if you're looking for some penalized fun ;)

So there you have it... 10 most common SEO mistakes from the SEO Stone age to the present day. And with this we end the Murderous March series for now. Until next time, Happy clicking! :)

10 SEO Suidical Attempts - The Hangman's Noose!

Despite the fact that there are many SEO firms and experts out there who claim to be following the ethical practices and seem to know what they are doing, there seem to be hitches and glitches everywhere. While SEO can lead your website to the best of places, some basic mistakes in it can also become the hangman's noose for you, leaving you and your website stranded.

So today we take a look at the most common SEO mistakes or as I'd rather call them...
The Top Ten SEO Suicidal Attempts:

1. Hiring the Vigilant: When choosing to hire a SEO company for your business, make sure that you pick out only the best. Since SEO has the capacity to make or break your business, it is best to choose an experienced company after much research and questioning. Remember to question as much as you can and even meet a couple of their clients if you can for maximum satisfaction. You will be paying them so its your job to understand and know about them as much as possible, because if you don't then you might end up paying a high price for their mistakes.

2. Website Usability: Do not avoid things like logical navigation, simple structure, good linking and quality content. These are considered by both, the visitors and the search engines, so rest assured that it will not be overlooked. Even the smallest downloading issue or complication with these can make a visitor lose interest.

3. Generalized Keywords and Phrases: Opting for keywords that are too general will lead you nowhere. Chances are that these keywords will also be competitive and the higher the count there is for these keywords, the lesser the chances are of your website getting ranked anywhere on the top for these. Specific keywords/phrases tend to work well and these are possibly something that potential customers will possibly use when trying to find the services/products you offer.

4. Duplicate Content: Having the same content, not just on your web pages as text but also in the meta title, is a no-go. Before you know it, your site will start appearing in the supplemental index and will be caught for duplicate content issues.

5. Same Anchor Text: Try using different anchor texts when linking your website. Using the same text every time for linking is considered unnatural and doesn't really help your link building in anyway.

6. Stuffed Up Web Pages: Stuffing your meta tags, page footer or the page header with keywords is called spam. Same as with hiding text in the background or anywhere else on the page. You will get caught, so don't do it!

7. Domain Name Issues: Always be careful with your domain name. Search engines consider www.mydomain.com and domain.com as 2 different websites, so you can imagine what that could possibly mean. You will get caught for duplicate content for sure.

8. Too Much Link Usage: Using your website link over and over in your guest books, blogs or comments is not good SEO. This will be taken as spamming.

9. Restrained Spiders: Incorrect robots.txt files, having an all-flash and full of graphics website that the spiders can't crawl, various session IDs and a number of variables in your website URL are capable of restraining search engine spiders to crawl your web pages and hence prevent it from getting properly indexed.

10. Disturbed Link Trade: Trading links with every website is not the very best of ideas. Although reciprocal linking is good but it is best to trade links with quality sites only and with those related to your industry.

The list can continue well beyond where it stopped. Your additions and comments are welcome :)