Common SEO Pitfalls
In addition to actively optimizing your site for search engines, you also want to avoid issues that commonly arise while developing and managing a web site.
Here are some mistakes that are often made:
- Page content, meta-tags, and product attributes are not optimized for SEO; they don't contain enough or the right keywords.
- Aspects of site design ("spider traps") prevent robots from
fully indexing the site; for example:
- Pages first require user input to be accessed.
- Pages have excessive dynamic site features.
- No site map was submitted or robots.txt file is in place to direct robots to the right pages on a site.
- Important content is "trapped" in images or rich media files (robots can't read information found in these files).
- Search engine indices contain outdated URLs as a result of site redesigns.
- Search engine indices contain duplicate content (for example, because of site redesigns, multiple domains or merchandising practices).
- Page content and keywords are not regularly maintained to ensure optimal search engine rankings.
- There is no strategy in place to optimize external site links.
