How Lousy Seo Smothers Good Practices
By Michael Murray, Tue Jan 10th
Online marketers may have the best of intentions with theirnatural search engine optimization programs. Yet, they drop theball with their impatience and eagerness to try the latesttricks and fads.
For example, you may know that choosing the right keywords andblending them with the visible text is a critical step. Even ifyou do this well you may still squelch your effort by goingoverboard in other ways. Here are five areas where you shouldtread lightly with SEO:
1. Long Page Titles
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Stick with one, two or three search terms with 70 or socharacters as your cap. Don't make the mistake of cramming in aton of words here.
2. META Descriptions
Strive for 12-15 words. If you go over, it won't hurt. You willcounteract your other optimization efforts
by creating a METAdescription monstrosity loaded with too many keywords.
3. Image Alt Tags
Don't have a field day with alt tags. Often, a web site has manygraphics and each could feature an alt tag. Stay away from thetemptation to keep repeating your keywords and search phrases inthe image source code.
4. Link Title Attribute
Desperate for any edge they can get, some online marketers havediscovered ways to pack too many keywords in the source code.Yes, you can identify a link (the words appear when you hoverover the link), but what can you really expect to achieve byfilling up the link title attribute tag?
5. Domain, Folder and Page Names
Yes, including a keyword in a domain, folder name and page namecan help. But it can also look like spam to the search enginesand leave the wrong impression on visitors. Do you really want ahideous URL with three hyphens in the domain name, several morein the folder name and three others in the page name?
Your best bet is to stick with the basics - effective pagetitles and META descriptions (and maybe a few keywords in thekeyword META tag). Besides that, focus on good content withsearch terms spread throughout the page (with some keywordslinked to related content on the site). Finally, support theseefforts with a robust link building program (getting links toyour site from quality web sites).
Slow down. Pace yourself. And be careful what you read in theforums and hear from your friends. Before you do anything offthe normal SEO path, you need to be very confident about yourchoices and their implications.
If you go at a steady pace and test your rankings as you tryproven techniques, you'll increase your odds of success.
About the author:Michael Murray is vice president of Fathom SEO, an Ohio-based search engine marketingfirm. He recently presented "SEO Overkill" at the nationalSearch Engine Strategies conference. Fathom SEO is a member ofthe Better Business Bureau in Cleveland, SEMPO, SEO Consultantsand OSEOP. Visit our site for our SEO white papers and recentSEO studies on the manufacturing a
