Common Coding Errors that are Bad for SEO

Sparky — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 06:54:36 +0000

According to Bing Webmaster Center’s Rick DeJarnette some of the most common errors that can tank a site include:

An invalid mark-up code – To make sure that your mark-up code is valid use a validator such as the W3C Markup Validation Service. Of course when validating you should know which errors to look out for by asking the following questions:

* Does your file contain a document type declaration (DTD) statement?
* Are all of your tags closed properly?
* Are your tags written in lower case letters?
* Are all of the tag attribute values, even numerals, as in

, enclosed in quotes?
* Are the tag attributes used in your code valid?
* Are you using deprecated tags?
* Are your tags positioned in the right place in your code?
* Are your tags nested correctly?
* Are you using the escape special character & for the ampersand character in your href attribute URL values?

After validation you should still test your pages on different browsers to see how well they fare and make adjustments accordingly.

Bad links – Bad links include mistyped and expired URLs as well as structural and site design problems that compromises your site’s SEO. Link checkers are available online to help you check your links. Some of the more common link problems also include:
* File Not Found 404 errors
* Missing page elements
* Mixed canonicalized links
* Navigation blockages

Other coding errors that can kill your site include:

* Missing, empty, or duplicate title tag
* Missing, empty, or duplicate meta description tag
* Missing, empty, or duplicate h1 tag

For a detailed discussion on each common mistake you can read Rick DeJarnette post here.

Blog Post Titles Can Be Used For SEO

Sparky — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 13:54:55 +0000

This is not a new topic. It has been discussed many times over in countless blogs, web sites, and books. What you use as a blog post title can ultimately work for you in terms of search engine optimization.

The sad fact, however, is that there are still a lot of bloggers out there who do not really pay that much attention to their blog post titles with SEO in mind. I have a lot of blogger friends who use whatever title that comes to mind. Sometimes, the title is not even really reflective of the post’s content. While this is not really an issue if you are not targeting more hits from search engines, it would still be a good practice to come up with titles that are in direct relation to your post content.

Case in point. I was writing a post on how plants keep dying on me, the latest being some cacti that was given to me recently. As is usual, I had the title in mind from the beginning. It was catchy and it amused me – Dead Again?!

While that title can indeed catch the attention of readers, it is so vague! That is why, after writing the post, I realized that I had to rework my title. It didn’t take me long – because of sheer luck or a stroke of creativity, I don’t know. I ended up with “How the Heck Can a Cactus Die?” It’s more specific and descriptive. I don’t know how many people are looking for info on cactus dying but if there are any out there, I think that they can find my post.

Common Page Title Mistakes: Title Length

Sparky — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 01:00:49 +0000

Aside from the three common page title mistakes listed in the previous post there are other mistakes that’s often committed. The mistakes to be discussed today, unlike those of yesterday where the mistake usually lay in the lack of title, are mostly results from being overly enthusiastic about the page title. Don’t get me wrong being enthusiastic about coming up with a good title is great but not if it leads to:

titles that are too long – Lengthy titles are not good not only because the whole title won’t be shown on the browser tab but also because search engines will also cut it off and not show the entire title in SERPs. When it comes to page titles the rule “Make it sweet and simple” holds true.
keyword stuffing - Yes you need keywords to be in the page title but make sure the page title still ends up making sense. make it straight to the point. If you avoid committing the mistake about (too long titles) then chances are that you’ll avoid keyword stuffing as well. Just get the most crucial keyword(s) in then decide on the title.

In addition to these you should remember that the titles are also there to help your users determine the the contents of the page so always keep users in mind (not just the search engines) by making the titles readable.

Common Page Title Mistakes: Title Relevance and Uniqueness

Sparky — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 01:24:33 +0000

We all know the importance of page titles when it comes to SEO. Even then mistakes that might not seem that important are committed again and again. According to the Google SEO Starter Guide things you should avoid when coming up with a page title include:

using default titles – This would be the biggest mistake. It isn;t too hard to come up with a page title so DON’T ever leave any of your pages with a title like “Untitled” or “Page 1″
titles that are not related to the page’s content – It is great to be witty and creative with page titles but if it means coming up with a title without keywords that are directly related to the page’s content then it is better to stick to a simple not so cool title.
using the same title for different pages – This is usual for websites with lots of pages. If you have several pages for furniture instead of naming the all the pages furniture make it at least “wooden furniture”, “plastic furniture”, etc. This is important because it will help search engines set apart the pages. aside from coming up with unique page titles it will have the added effect of helping you rethink your website’s structure, after all if the site has a jumbled structure it will make it harder to come up with unique but consistent page titles.

to be continued…

Optimizing your URLs and Links (Part 2)

Sparky — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 05:11:13 +0000

It’s almost been a month and we’re finally on the 2nd part of the “Optimizing your URL and links” series of tips from Rick Dejarnette of Webmaster Central. If you didn’t click on the link I provided last time and read Mr. Dejarnette’s post then you will still find my summary pretty useful. If you’ve read it: consider this as your refresher course.

Here are the next three tips from Rick Dejarnette:

1. Use title attribute in anchor tags for internal links – As a rule it is best to use the title attribute for ALL links, whether external or internal, however using it for internal links is emphasized in SEO because you want to help search engines assess the relevance of each page relative to each other.

2. Minimize the number of parameters in dynamic URLs – Dynamic URLs are often associated with duplicate content because of the way affiliate websites work. This is why it is better to lessen the use of dynamic URLs in the first place. However if you are going to use dynamic URLs at least make sure that you minimize the number of parameters so that there will be less chance to for duplication of content using dynamic URLs with the same variables but different order.

3. Avoid using session IDs or cookies – Bots won’t follow links that require session IDs or cookies. So if your DON’T want the search engine bots to access that link then this is another way to keep them out.

Top SEO Mistakes – Continuation

Sparky — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 10:22:24 +0000

5. Not following search engine guidelines. Some “SEO experts” try to use “SEO techniques” that are actually dubious since they are designed to fool the search engine. Of course you always run the chance of getting caught if you employ Black Hat techniques and of course you’ll get a low ranking at the least or even be stricken out of the index. Some website owners also might do somethings on the DON’T list of search engines out of ignorance. But as always ignorance is not an excuse so you’d better read their guidelines. Guidelines apply to every single website.
6. Not using page titles or using poor ones. Titles are as important in SEO as in almost anything else. Search engines give weight to a web page’s title. Make sure your title uses a very relevant and descriptive keyword or key phrase. Using a good title also goes beyond SEO it also helps the users choose among the listed results in the SERPs. If you have a good title the user will be more inclined to click on your link.

7. Choosing keywords simply because they are the most searched for terms. As mentioned in my previous posts keywords on you should also choose keywords that target your niche market. Don’t settle for too general terms use some less competitive but highly relevant terms as well. Your business will surely benefit from the minority that does search for such terms and find only you and a few competing websites as answer to their problem.

8. Overusing keywords. Keyword density has become overated so that some websites force their writers to use the same keywords over and over again at the cost of having an unnatural sounding content. Make sure your content uses keywords but still sound just right.

Top SEO Mistakes

Sparky — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 10:20:28 +0000

Many website owners unknowingly sabotage their page rank by commiting some of the most common SEO blunders listed below. To make sure that your SEO efforts aren’t put to waste read on and correct any of your mistakes if you see some listed below.

1. Not having a solid marketing plan. Although your website might be be SEO optimized and you get a high page rank your business still won’t benefit from it if you don’t have a good marketing plan. You need to know your market and be able to sell your product or service effectively. SEO exists to help you get noticed but are you worth getting noticed? Remember it is a mistake to focus to much on SEO since it is only a tool and not the goal.

2. Thinking your SEO efforts will please ALL search engines. Each search engine has its own algorithm so that your SEO efforts might be more effective for one search engine but not the other. If you aim to rank well for ALL search engines then you’re in for a challenge. If you decide to choose a search engine to rank well in though I would say Google would of course be the obvious choice to aim for.

3. Using too much flash and animations. Yes they look good and catchy but did you know that web crawlers cannot read or interpret the content of images. Employing to much visual content and too little textual content will therefore influence the page rank adversely since the search engine will see your site as having little relevant or useful information.

4. Not using ALT tags on your images. When you do use images make sure you place ALT tags or ALT texts to at least give the search engine an idea of what the image is about. Make sure your ALT tag is precise but descriptive.

More on Keywords and SEO

Sparky — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 14:46:40 +0000

As you are probably sick of my posts on keywords I promise that this will be the last one on the topic…at least for a while. We’ve talked about the importance of keywords in your website content. However keywords are important not just as part of your content but also in your title tags and in links. Furthermore the way keywords are placed in proximity to each other as well in the sequence of words in a key phrase are also important.

When using title tags make sure you use descriptive words or phrases. Your title tag will act as the keyword. The keyword or phrase used as the title tag will get more emphasis or weight and will be taken by the search engines as a central topic in your site since it is part of the title tag.

When adding links to your site make sure you use a words or a short phrase that describes exactly what the link points to. Never simply paste the URL of the link nor use vague words to describe the link. In an attempt to be precise many people often make this mistake and write something like visit this blog. The SEO conscious way of doing it would be to write visit this blog on IT Security to learn more.

When using keywords be conscious about how you place the keywords. Try to scatter keywords an phrases related to each other in your content. Don’t just focus on a single term and try to use that term over and over again. Although term frequency does bear weight it is important that you cover your bases so that your site will contain the varied a lot of the varied search strings that are in demand. Try to change the sequencing of the? words within the phrases too since users tend to differ in the sequencing of words in their search string.

Title Tag Optimization

Sparky — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 07:26:01 +0000

As with all aspects of web site design don’t forget your visitors needs, some keyword phrases aren’t descriptive enough to use alone as a title, what you put in the title element is the text searches will see when they see a listing for your page in a Search Engines Results Pages (SERPs).

If it doesn’t appeal to your potential visitors they will not click through to your sites listing! This is precisely why the title of this page is SEO Blog. This tells a potential visitor this page is part of an SEO blog.

There are exceptions to this loose rule, if you have a very small site and lots of keyword phrases you wish to target, you have little choice, but to double or even triple up.?

Welcome To The SEO Blog!

Sparky — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 18:34:29 +0000

The blog on everything SEO

SEO Blogging » Title Tags