Avoiding the 5 Most Common SEO Mistakes

If you've ever visited SitePoint's Web Site Review forums, you've probably read some of the SEO reviews that are posted there, a few of which I've written. You'll notice that many of the comments in these reviews of search engine-optimized sites are quite repetitive: "Your site is beautiful, but your SEO leaves much to be desired. You've neglected X, Y, and Z. Here are some ideas to fix the problem..."

Since X, Y, and Z are so common, and the solutions to the problems are often the same, I decided to summarize the most common SEO mistakes, and their solutions, in this article. These SEO mistakes are:

1. using a non-standard title element


2. failing to optimize image markup


3. using spider-illegible JavaScript where legible code would do


4. failing to indicate the content hierarchy using header elements


5. poor grammar and spelling

Let's look at each of these problems in turn.

Using a Non-standard Title Element

Fernando Freire Báez wrote an excellent article a couple of years ago about the different places in which the title element is displayed to the user, and it is still just as relevant today as it was then.

First, let's define what we mean by a standard title element. Once that concept is clear, serious deviations from the standard will be obvious, and you'll find it easy to correct errors.

A standard title element should:

1. include one or two of a web site's keywords


2. include a reference to the page's fundamental content within the first three to five words (It's okay to include variations on one of the web site's keywords.)

The logic behind this definition is that spiders only really consider approximately the first 60 characters of a title element. Additionally, they're adept at identifying cases of keyword stuffing, which we'll look at later, and which should be avoided.

Let's consider some examples. For a company that manufactures baby rattles, a standard title element might look like this:

<title>Baby Rattles by Shake It Up Baby Inc.</title>

It's simple. The keywords are contained within the first two words of the title. There's a variation on the "rattles" keywords in the company's name. In total, including spaces, there are 38 characters.

By contrast, many web sites use non-standard title elements that look more like this:

<title>Baby Rattles, Baby Toys, Rattles for Babies, Baby Shaker, Baby Rattle by Rattle Your Cage Inc. </title>

There are four problems with this title. Can you spot them? The title uses obvious keyword stuffing -- a practice whereby a large number of keywords are included in the title in the hope that the site will be picked up for all of those keywords. In fact, this practice could cause the search engines to apply penalties to the site, which could see the site attain a much lower ranking on the search engine results page, or worse: the site could be banned from the search engine, and drop off the results pages altogether.

Adding so many keywords to the title is a waste of energy, since the spiders read only the first 60 characters or so.

The company's name, which appears at the end of the title, is probably being given little or no consideration by the spiders, which makes it difficult for people to find the site if they perform a search using the company's name.

Finally, it looks unprofessional and spammy. Who would trust a web site that resorts to such questionable business practices?

The screenshot below shows a few non-standard title elements that were returned on the second page of Google's Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for Yamaha keyboards. Note the relative positions of Yamaha Canada and of Yamaha Europe. They're both equally relevant to a search for Yamaha keyboards, but one uses "Home" as a title element.

Using correct title elements can make all the difference in your search engine ranking.