7 Huge, Yet Common SEO Mistakes

It is easy to make mistakes when doing the SEO for a website. I've even caught myself making stupid mistakes here and there. That being said, it's important for web developers to know what some of the bad things to do are when it comes to SEO. Sites with no mistakes stand a better chance against the big guys. Sites that have many back links, but still have some problems in the html can still climb in the search results when the SEO boo-boos are fixed. Luckily for webmasters, most of these mistakes are extremely easy to fix and can be completely fixed within minutes. For those with search engines regularly crawling their sites, the changes can be made search engine-side almost instantly. Those with slightly lower crawl rates, will naturally have to wait longer, but the changes will have their benefits in time.

Here are the most common SEO mistakes and how to solve them:

The problem:
You've not only put all the possible combinations of keywords that describe your site, but you're halfway through all the keywords that you've ever heard of.
The solution:
The maximum number of keywords a site is allowed is 10. Sites with more than 10 meta keywords can be penalized and pushed to the bottom of the search results. Make sure you site has no more than 10. Even if it's just one over, it's like having thirty over. 10 is the absolute limit. For meta descriptions, the maximum allowance is 150 characters. This really is enough space to give visitors an idea of what a site is about. However, having no meta information is a big killer.

The problem:
Your site title is 230 characters long, and you're on your way to the third run-on sentence describing your site.
The solution:
The page title should be no more than 70 characters long. Some people may think that this doesn't allow enough space for their marketing genius, but to be honest... even 70 characters is too long. You don't have to write a book - save that for your content!

The problem:
Everything on your site is HTML. You love HTML and can't get enough of it.
The solution:
If your site design is in HTML, you're commiting a cardinal SEO sin. What year is this - 1997? Site designs should be written in CSS. Otherwise search engines can't differentiate what is design and what is content.

The problem:
No "alt tags on your images."
The solution:
Add "alt tags" to each of your images. By doing this, you're telling what the image is. You don't have to describe the entire picture, but at least put something descriptive there! Everyone likes to know what's in a photo, even if they can't see it. Many people do not have the time to input alt tags for every single little icon or part of the design. It isn't really necessary to have alt tags on ALL images, just the important ones. The alt tag argument is becoming more and more controversial, but it doesn't hurt to add them and personally, I've noticed a different since adding them.

The problem:
You have 210 days until your domain expires.
The solution:
Search engines like Google put more faith in a site that's going to be sticking around. That being said, domains that are registered for more than a year do much, much better with SEO than sites that will expire in less than a year. Personally, I register sites for two years, but I've registered my most important sites for up to 10 years. The domain expiration mistake is quite common as many people are baffled by the fact that search engines actually consider this as a factor in measuring the importance of a site. But, I guess if you register a site for something like 10 years, then it's important to you and if it's important to you, then it's slightly more important to Google. I mean, anyone willing to put more than just $10 down per year on a domain must REALLY be interested in it, right?

The problem:
Your site has no back links.
The solution:
A site's on-page SEO really helps, but off-page SEO is what's going to bring it to the top. Web sites need back links. In fact, the most important part of SEO is back links. It's important to also put your keywords in your backlinks.It's important for backlinks to be natural... or at least appear natural, so webmasters must take care in not creating too many backlinks right away. This looks fishy and sites have been known to be penalized for this. Take it slow. Add a new backlink here and there. Taking it slow allows you a lot of space to dabble a little - to see what works and what doesn't without a major investment of time or money.

The problem:
You've picked a great keyword, but you have 50,387 back links and still don't rank for the keyword.
The solution:
You've picked some bad keywords. Oh, no, please don't cry! I've done it too! Just do some keyword research... there are still a lot of gems out there, I promise. If you've already got a ton of back links and your wish stay in your niche, you'll probably make a lot more with *ahem* slightly less competitive keywords. Every niche has those extremely competitive keywords, but those with a creative mind can come up with some good keywords - ones that people search for often, but are allow the webmaster the ability to rank for those keywords.