TOP 10 SEO MISTAKES AND HOW TO AVOID THEM
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TOP 8 SEO MISTAKES AND HOW TO AVOID THEM
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1. CREATING CONTENT WITHOUT A CONTENT STRATEGY
• Keyword Research is Clutch • Includes:
• Business Goals • Target Audience • Keyword Volume • Keyword Competition • Website Content • User Intent
http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/keyword-research
1. CREATING CONTENT WITHOUT A CONTENT STRATEGY
• Content Gap Analysis • What keywords are we
already ranking for? • What are our
competitors ranking for? • What are some frequently
asked questions we receive from users?
• Can we leverage current events to make our content newsworthy?
2. NOT HAVING A ROBOTS.TXT FILE
PURPOSE OF A ROBOT.TXT FILE
Block Specific Areas of a Website The robots.txt file is designed to allow and disallow search engine robots access to files and folders throughout your website.
• Allowing allows crawling
• Disallowing prohibits crawling
2. NOT HAVING A ROBOTS.TXT FILE
IMPORTANCE OF A ROBOT.TXT FILE
• Decreasing Site “Bloat”
• Discourage Crawlers from Visiting Certain Pages
• Disclaimer for Secure Information
• Search crawlers request your robots.txt by default
• Links to XML Sitemap
2. NOT HAVING A ROBOTS.TXT FILE
SEO Tools Robots.txt Generator: http://tools.seobook.com/robots-txt/generator/
Google Webmaster Tools Robots.txt Tester :https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6062598
SEO Tools Robots.txt Analyzer :http://tools.seobook.com/robots-txt/analyzer/
# robots.txt !User-Agent: * Disallow: Disallow: /search Disallow: /style !User-Agent: Googlebot Disallow: /css !User-Agent: Slurp Disallow: / !User-Agent: msnbot Disallow: /fun !Sitemap: http://www.example.com/sitemap.xml
HOW TO CREATE A ROBOTS.TXT FILE
2. NOT HAVING A ROBOTS.TXT FILE
DON’T DISALLOW YOUR ENTIRE SITE
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# robots.txt !User-Agent: * Disallow: /
3. NOT HAVING AN XML SITEMAP
PURPOSE OF A XML SITEMAP
• Designed for Search Engines
• Provide a detailed roadmap of each page’s
• Location
• Change Frequency
• Priority
3. NOT HAVING AN XML SITEMAP
Example of XML Sitemap: http://generalassemb.ly/sitemap.xml(“view-source:https://generalassemb.ly/sitemap.xml”)
3. NOT HAVING AN XML SITEMAP
HOW TO:
1. Generate sitemap at http://www.xml-sitemaps.com
2. Upload to your directory of choice
• Example: http://www.example.com/sitemap.xml
3. Submit to Google Webmaster Tools
4. Once uploaded, add sitemap URL to robots.txt file
• Sitemap: http://www.example.com/sitemap.xml
4. NOT HAVING AN HTML SITEMAP
PURPOSE OF A HTML SITEMAP
• Navigation Aid for Users
• Help Search Engines Find and Index Content
• An opportunity to increase the amount of keyword-rich links to preferred landing pages
4. NOT HAVING AN HTML SITEMAP
EXAMPLE OF AN HTML SITEMAP - www.Apple.com/sitemap
4. NOT HAVING AN HTML SITEMAP
HOW TO CREATE AN HTML SITEMAP
1. Create an HTML Page for your site map
• www.apple.com/sitemap
2. Add a link to every IMPORTANT page on your site. • Limit to under 100 pages
3. Include keyword-rich anchor text
4. Make sure there’s a link to the HTML sitemap in your footer
5. Don’t forget to update the sitemap when you add new webpages.
5. CONTENT AMPLIFICATION
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
http://moz.com/blog/weighting-the-clusters-of-ranking-factors-in-google-analytics-whiteboard-friday
5. CONTENT AMPLIFICATIONTYPES OF CONTENT AMPLIFICATION:
• Social Media • Manual Outreach Link Building
• Influencer Outreach • Ego Bait • Broken Link Building
• Organic/Editorial Links • Create shareable/viral content • Be newsworthy/current • Create an authoritative blog
http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/growing-popularity-and-links
5. CONTENT AMPLIFICATION
• Include links in all posts • Use a solid link shortener, like
bit.ly (301 redirects, not 302) • Link to homepage in profile bio • Moar social media best practices
www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-seo/
Does social media really effect rankings? http://moz.com/blog/do-tweets-still-effect-rankings
HOW TO DO SOCIAL MEDIA:
6. SKETCHY LINKING PRACTICES
• White Hat • Content • Community • Relevancy
• Black Hat • Trying to “game the
system” • Cloaking • Hidden text • Keyword Stuffing
Moz.com Beginner’s Guide to Link Building: http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-link-building/
6. SKETCHY LINKING PRACTICES
• Buying Links • $$$ Links • Goods/services Links • Sending a “free” product in
exchange for writing about it (and linking to it)
• Excessive Link Exchange • Guest Post Campaigns
• An increasingly spammy practice
Linking Schemes: Google Webmaster Tools: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356
7. DUPLICATE CONTENTProblems with Duplicate Content 1. Which version(s) to
include in indexes? 2. Direct link equity to one
page or separate it between multiple?
3. Which version(s) should rank?
7. DUPLICATE CONTENTCauses of Duplicate Content • www vs non-www
• www.widgets.com/blog vs widgets.com/blog
• If both www and non-www versions of the URL are 200, you’re splitting link equity.
SOLUTION !
301 Redirect!
7. DUPLICATE CONTENTCauses of Duplicate Content • URL Parameters www.widgets.com/blog?ref=123 • Printer-Friendly www.widgets.com/print/blog • Session IDs www.widgets.com/blog?SESSID=123
SOLUTION !Canonical Tags! <link href="http://www.example.com/canonical-version-of-page/" rel="canonical" />
8. IGNORING 404S, ESPECIALLY SOFT 404S
404: Not Found • “Regular” 404
Dude, that page doesn't exist anymore !
• “Soft” 404 = Dead-end pages It should be a 404. But it’s returning a 200. I’m so confused!
Google: “Soft 404s can limit a site’s crawl coverage by search engines because these duplicate URLs may be crawled instead of pages with unique content.”
8. IGNORING 404S, ESPECIALLY SOFT 404S
How to Find These Blasted 404’s
8. IGNORING 404S, ESPECIALLY SOFT 404S
How to Find These Blasted 404’s
TWO BUCKETS ‘O SEO• Technical
• Robots. txt • HTML Sitemap • XML Sitemap • Duplicate Content • 404s
• Content • Linking • Content Amplification • Content Strategy
QUESTIONS?
