In cyberspace, there is no such thing as "Build your website and they will come." The website needs to not only be made correctly but also have the right content to attract visitors. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a critical aspect to increasing traffic to your site. Below are 3 major no-no's that must be avoided to ensure a successful website.
Wrong Keywords
Searchers will come across your site most often through search engines and within these search engines keywords are used to find what they are looking for. This is why it is important to match your site's content and wording to what users are most often searching for. One example can be that the site is loaded with keywords about "home improvement" but what users are typically searching for could be "house remodel." If these terms don't match up, there is little chance the site will gain any traffic from your target market of those looking to remodel their houses. A great tool to use to find these popular keywords is the Google Keyword Tool.
Make Sharing Easy
Social media has become a large part of SEO over recent years and what will help increase the SEO value of a website is to make things easily shareable. Whether its products, articles, or the like, it makes it easier on the user to share these things if social media buttons are included. The visitor does not even have to think twice before spreading it to their followers and Facebook friends. AJAX and Flash may look fancy on websites but they are terrible for SEO because they are almost impossible to share with others. Old fashioned sharing (copy and pasting) can be done best if each page has a unique URL. This way when you share it, the recipient can go right to the page rather than having to navigate through the site from the homepage.
Functional Web Pages
Every page of the website should be as attractive as the next. It is unlikely that the user will be led to your homepage from the search engines. Based on the given keywords, search engines will bring the user to the appropriate page right away so be sure to include appropriate branding on every page and allow for easy navigation around the site and to the homepage.
