3 SEO Mistakes That Are Easy to Make

Let’s face it, SEO can be hard when you’re not sure what you’re doing. Here are just 3 SEO mistakes that can be easy to make:

(Check out my post on what is SEO first if you’re not sure)

1 – Trying to Optimize for Misspelled Keywords

I know, I know – you’d thought you’d pull a fast one on Google and grab all that extra traffic that’s *trying* to search for your keywords but they just need a little spelling help! So you optimize for “candels” instead of “candles” and the like.

Not a good idea.

But why, you ask? This trick used to be something you could get away with to grab some extra traffic but it’s not something you can get away with anymore for two reasons:

• Google is getting better at detecting misspelled words and just returning the search results for the word the searcher intended to spell – no secret bonus traffic to gain here.
• Think about what you’d have to do to optimize your page for misspelled keywords. (Not sure? Check out my onsite checklist) Misspelled words in your headlines, your URLs, in your copy – how does this make you look? Does it help your visitor with the know, like, and trust factor? Unfortunately it does the opposite. Even the best of us make the occasional spelling mistake, but intentional, multiple & obvious spelling mistakes all over your page are going to hurt your pro factor.

So keep your SEO smart and put your user first. Spell it correctly (when you can)

Sidenote: Where could you still grab opportunities from misspellings? With PPC. Making you say hmmm, yet?

2 – Over-optimizing

I know – this is hard! Optimize, don’t optimize – Google just tell us what to do!

There is such a thing as an *over-optimized* penalty. If you have Google Webmaster Tools set up, Google can sometimes give you a warning about things like that.

So what to do? The key here is to stay natural. If you’ve found a *golden* keyword phrase that will get you 1000s of hits a month and has little-to-no-competition, you STILL shouldn’t only use that exact phrase in your optimization process. Do this instead:

• Come up with at least 2 other ways to say your keyword phrase – plurals, mixing word order (for example, “new york bakery” could become “bakeries in new york” and “new york city bakery”)
• Use these variants (not just your golden keyword phrase) when optimizing your page for SEO
• Don’t ignore your brand name keywords – having zero links with your domain name or brand name as the blue text is a red flag to Google that you’re over-optimizing

Does this mean SEO is spam? Nope, Google has gone on record saying that SEO is not spam. Bad SEO is spammy, just like bad snail mail and bad phone calls are spammy. SEO is just SEO – it’s just a matter of how you implement it.

3 – Relying too much on Google Keyword Tool

The Google Keyword Tool is an awesome tool for keyword research – as I’ve explained here. It gives you monthly search numbers for certain phrases as well as how much competition there is for the phrase in the Google Adwords auction.

Sounds pretty great, right? It is – except, Adwords competition does not necessarily equal SEO competition. Some of the *best* SEO opportunities I’ve found for clients have come from phrases that have really high competition in the Adwords auction but actually very little competition in the organic search results — which is of course, the dream.

So how do you go about getting organic search results competitive ideas? Well you can do it ‘by hand’ a bit by installing a browser plugin like SEO for Firefox or SEOQuake for Chrome and look at the scores they give alongside the individual search results.

But that will take a looooooong time. My suggestion? Be happy with good-enough Adwords competition data – not perfect but will give you a pretty good idea most of the time; hire a pro who has access to better tools; get shoulders-deep in SEO yourself and start using awesome paid tools like the like of SEOmoz.

What Do You Think?

Have you made any missteps with SEO in the past? Would you add anything to the list? Did you find this post useful? Let me know in the comments!

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