Common mistakes in SEO

To make things worse, there are plenty of SEO "professionals" around that don't do the occupation any favours. While many business owners will be tempted to ignore SEO all together, if applied correctly the practice can produce some game changing results.

To help clear up some of the confusion, here are some of the most common mistakes in search engine optimisation.

Not highlighting what makes your business unique

The first step of any SEO strategy should be to identify what makes your business unique. If you offer nationwide delivery or the lowest prices then these points should be at the core of your SEO message and be clearly communicated and optimised for.

Neglecting on-page metadata

Google places a large amount of importance on the way you label your content for search engine spiders. If your on-page SEO is lacking, you'll have a tough time getting the results you desire. Make sure your site has the appropriate metadata so Google knows where you fit in the bigger picture.

Not considering SEO as part of your marketing strategy

Search engine optimisation is part of search engine marketing and should be considered as part of your general marketing strategy. The goals of your short and long term marketing strategies should be considered when creating an SEO strategy. All of your marketing platforms can and should work together to help produce your desired results.

Getting caught up in trends and forgetting to focus on creating quality content

Matt Cutts (http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/), head of Google webspam likes to mix things up when it comes to SEO and it is easy to become obsessed with trying to implement every single change he mentions on his blog.

To avoid losing sleep over the next penguin algorithm update, keep your SEO game plan simple: Create original, engaging and quality content that users will want to share with their networks. Avoid link farming and other black hat practices.

Not staying up to date

Here's a little bit of a curve ball. A huge issue some companies have with SEO is that their practices are outdated. While it's important not to get caught up in all the latest SEO hype, falling too far behind can be even more damaging to your ranking potential.

If you're still using keyword stuffing, posting spammy links in blog comments, ignoring social media or buying backlinks to your site, you need to stop it right away.

Your "tactics" are doing you far more damage than anything else. Fixing a penalised or banned site is a long and tiresome effort that you don't want to be faced with. It's important stay on the good side of Google.

Google wants to put high quality, up-to-date websites with great content in front of the right users, keep this in mind at all times and watch as your rankings soar.