The Worst SEO Mistake You Can Make

[cbscreative]

Rudy, I think we'll be having a lot more interesting discussions, and have several here already. We have the best members from the old SBF, and there's a few we still hope will find us, but the members here make this a great forum.

[vangogh]

Funny what happens when you eliminate the noise and have mostly signal. I know in time as search engines start sending us traffic and we grow some of the noise will creep back in, but I think we're all committed to limited the noise as much as possible.

[cbscreative]

And when trouble comes, they will find out they're not welcome here. My noise squelching artillery is ready to make an example out of them and send unwanted noise to a fiery grave. Bwah haa haa haa haa.

[KristineS]

We definitely have a good group here and the quality of the discussions is really amazing. I'm very proud to be a part of this forum. I think a lot of others are too, and I think the pride shows through.

[Bill Slawski]

Biggest SEO Mistake?

Not knowing who your audiences are, and not creating content for them.

As Dave wrote earlier in this post, it's much more rare that someone considers SEO at the start of development than after the fact. While that's a mistake, it's a pretty common one.

When you do everything right from an SEO stance, but you focus your site on what you have to offer, instead of focusing upon who you have to offer it to, you're going to miss out on a lot of the searches from people who may actually want what you offer because they will look for you, but never find you.

When you create pages, when you select keywords, when you write blog posts, when you consider your site structure and information achitecture, that's when you need to know things like:

What problems do my goods or services solve?
What benefits do my goods or services bring to people?
What industries would be interested in my site?
What interests do my intended visitors have that I can match?

If I sell exotic woods, I could fill a site with information about the different types of woods that I offer.

Or, I could fill a site with information about which woods are best for people who make guitars, violins, cellos, fine furniture, bowls, statutes, automobile dashboards, clocks, and jewelry boxes. I could include a number of craft guides for woodworking, information about woodworking tools and machinery. I could discuss which kinds of finishes work best with what kinds of woods.

I would want to create enthusiasm and desire with one of my audiences - hobbyists who like to make stuff with wood, and expand the range of keywords with which they could find me.

I would want to excite and interest another one of my audiences - manufacturers who need large stocks of woods to make their products.

I might engage another audience completely, by describing the efforts made by my company to replenish the sources that I sell, with my efforts to harvest what I use in an earth friendly way, my attempts to preserve rainforests, my use of fairtrade practices, my efforts to plant new trees.

Or I could just describe the kinds of woods that I sell.

SEO is just a tool. You can use it as if it were a sledge hammer, or you can use it as if it were a much more finely tuned instrument. Using it as a sledge hammer is the biggest SEO mistake you can make.

[vangogh]

That's a great point and I think it's one of the harder things small business owners have to determine. I remember when first going into business as a web designer trying to decide who my market was. At first I thought anyone who didn't have a website was my market, followed quickly by everyone who had a website and might want a redesign.

That left my market as pretty much everyone, which was no market at all and gave me no direction toward finding a unique selling proposition.

A few years later, a better understanding of my skills and who I really wanted to work with, and comments from clients about why they like working with me, and I have a much better understanding of who my site should appeal to. It's led to changes in the way I write copy and the content I decided to include on the site.

Bill, your example with exotic woods is a perfect one to illustrate the point. Once you understand who your market is everything else, including SEO follows more easily and more successfully.

[theGypsy]

Nice to see you out and about monsieur Bill ;0)

I like the analogy - as someone that plays a few instruments as well as many years in the martial arts, I think the term 'those skilled in the art' within patents always appealed to me and as with many arts one finds it more natural a task after many hours of seeking to learn more...

It is funny when one finds themselves telling clients to create/offer something of value that appeals to their end user/market. Search engines seek to please the end user and websites that do so also often tend to have qualities that make a search engine happy.

Funny how that works...

I am all about the quality content as it is great for end users who in turn create signals that search engines like... as long as the fundamentals are down architecturally and strategically on the site.... quality content/offerings do much of the work from there..

Anyhoo... always nice to see U out and about ... still enjoy forums (old dog alas) as I can go on more than 140 characters and like to be able to reference things easily later on.... pleasure having U around :0)

[KristineS]

SEO is just a tool. You can use it as if it were a sledge hammer, or you can use it as if it were a much more finely tuned instrument. Using it as a sledge hammer is the biggest SEO mistake you can make.

This is a great point Bill.

I am constantly amazed by the companies that will spend time and energy and money building a web site and completely miss or bypass the fact that people come to a web site for information. The more targeted and relevant information you can provide them, the more likely they are to use your site. Fine tuning your information and your content can be of such benefit, yet so many companies take the firehose approach. My theory is that they think that if they spray a large enough audience there are bound to be some of their customers who are getting wet.

[Bill Slawski]

Hi Steve and Dave,

My pleasure to be here.

I do really like rolling up my sleaves and delving into the inner workings of a website, and delving into the technical and architectual issues involved with those pages. If your foundation is strong, you're definitely capable of doing good things, and that is important.

It is funny when one finds themselves telling clients to create/offer something of value that appeals to their end user/market. Search engines seek to please the end user and websites that do so also often tend to have qualities that make a search engine happy.

Sometimes when you tell a client that, they get a look of fear in their eyes. With other clients, you can see the lightbulb go on over their heads, and the excitement on their faces. It can be a lot of fun when they get it, and start spitting out ideas faster then they can write them down.

Once you understand who your market is everything else, including SEO follows more easily and more successfully.

Absolutely. It's like writing or telling a story - it's a lot easier when you know who you're telling it to.

Anyhoo... always nice to see U out and about ... still enjoy forums (old dog alas) as I can go on more than 140 characters and like to be able to reference things easily later on.... pleasure having U around :0)

Thanks. Forums can be a lot of fun. Keeping a message down to 140 characters is hard.

[Bill Slawski]

Thanks, Kristine

I share your amazement.

Make it easy for your customers to make an informed decision, make it easy for them to learn about what you offer, make it easy for them to understand how what you offer can benefit them, and then make it easy for them to order. It may not be easy to do that, but it's worth the effort.