Underrated.co.uk – Search Engine Optimisation

Website promotion is not only about what you do, but also what you do not do. Check out the below list for ten things to avoid when promoting your website:

1) Do not launch mirror websites

A mirror site is an exact copy of your site at a different address. If you launch a mirror version of your site search engines may well blacklist or penalise your the site. This will seriously harm your search engine positioning, so beware. The same problem can occasionally come about due to search engines indexing both the “yoursite.com” and “www . yoursite . com” versions of a site. This can be remedied by setting up a   permanent (301) redirect and also by setting a preferred domain in the google webmaster tools area.

2) Avoid using flash, frames, java on your website 

Extensive use of any of these (or even minor use in the case of a site navigation) can can hamper your search engine optimisation efforts. Using frames most likely will result in your site not being correctly indexed and you’ll be right back at the web design drawing board. That’s pretty much why frames are yesterdays news now. Search engines also have problems indexing flash and java, so I would be inclinded to steer clear of those too.

3) Optimise your entire site, NOT just your homepage

Many site owners begin and end their optimisation efforts on their homepage. This is due to their belief that the index page is the gateway to their website. If have have 100 pages of unique content though, why limit your optimisation efforts to one page – it’s insanity. All pages should have a unique title for starters. There would be nothing worst than an interesting article being linked to numerous times, only for it to appear as something non descript or incorrect in search engine rankings. 

4) Steer Clear of Keyword Calamities

It may be tempting to ue a whole host of irrelevant (to the content) keywords on a page and/or metatags in order to achieve high rankings for a certain term. This will very likely fail though, as google, yahoo and co are able to categorise the content and theme of your site, and any deviation from that is recognised. You could even be blacklisted. The same applies to keyword stuffing and the like. Honestly is the best policy. 

5) Avoid spamming

If you have a new site, it’s understandable that you want the world to see it. Spamming forums, blog comment sections, directories, newsletter lists and so on isn’t the way to go though. All it can bring you is a bad reputation. Many services offer to submit your site to hundreds of directories, when in reality if they do this with your site, they do it with thousands of others too. That means that your site will effectively appear in hundreds of link dumps that are next to worthless to search engines and may even count as a negative due to their spammy nature. The scattergun approach doesn’t wok.

6) Do not hound webmasters for link exchanges

Similiar to the above point. If your site is young, do not spend hour after hour emailing webmasters with much more popular sites than yours. Even if they are in the same niche it’s not a useful activity. Instead wait until you have build up a following and have had some successes. In that position you’ll be in a much better position to be accepted for a link exchange.

7) Achieve a balance between content and promotion / optimisation

Website promotion and SEO is an ongoing task. Popularity is not something that can be achieved overnight, do not forget that it goes hand in hand with content though. It’s very easy to get stuck in an optimisation mindset where content and thinking about interesting ideas for articles takes a backseat. In reality this IS central to promotion though. If you have an amusing or unqiue idea for an article this can drive your promotional efforts as it may well have a viral effect. Content is king.

8)  Don’t pay for what you can get for free

Many inexperieced webmasters get suckered into paying big bucks for “we sumbit your website to 20 billion directories” type offers. As stated earlier these are a bad idea. Instead you should look for niche directories that actually relate to the content of your site. Exchange links with similiar sized sites. Post occasionally to digg and such sites. Let your site grow naturally.

9) Do not rush to submit your site

If your site contains dead links of incomplete content, it’s not a great first impression to leave for visitors. Should you submit such a site to a editor reviewed website directory like dmoz, it will almost certainly be rejected for inclusion.

10)  Stop viewing promotion as a short term activity

Promoting a website is an ongoing activity, not something you dip into for a week or two in order to get things going. You have competition and they will always be looking for ways to gain an edge. If you take your foot on the gas, you will be overtaken.

Much like networking in the real world, it’s important to make your presence known on the net. Whilst it’s no substiture for earned inbound links, link exchanges can play a meaningful role in any website promotion process. Exchange links with website in the same niche as yours, or in related topics can really benefit your site in terms of search engine ranking. The below tips link should give you a basic understanding of link exchanges can benefit you:

1) Exchange links with sites in the same niche as yours

Google and co like to be about to present relevant content to visitors. What better way to prove to them that your site is relevant then to be linked to by a series of sites in the same niche as yours.

2) Attempt to exchange links with authority sites

Of course this won’t be achieved overnight. In fact, if you have a new or not so popular site, approaching a site with high in the raking for your keywords of choice will likely not even gain a reply. If you can build your site popularity over time though, this may eventually appear to your to-do list.

3) Scan the top 30 or 40 listings in google for keyword terms you wish to rank well for. These sites may be worth approaching

Similiar to the previous point, but if you’re approaching sites on the top 30 or 40 it may allow you to get a foot in the door ranking wise. From here at least you have a base to build from.

4) Try to exchange links with sites of similiar popularity to your own (check out alexa and extreme tracking if available)

Whilst you’re attempting to work on SEO do not simply discount sites on SEO value alone. It may be useful to you in the short term to approach sites of similiar worth as it should filter some visitors your way. SEO work is a long term project so it occasionally helps to feel that you are moving forward in a short term sense too.

——-

I would suggest that site wide link exchanges are not always the way to go. If a link is sitewide it is not naturally occuring (like a link within an article for instance. Excessive sitewide links may could against you with google and co. I would instead suggest that you either go the route of exchanging links on index pages, or set up a link partner page.