The 5 Most Common SEO Mistakes - Keyword Flooding
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The Error:Trying to optimize a home page for all possible keywords. Often you will see <Title> tags for example loaded with 12+ keywords, where a webmaster is attempting to squeeze in all his/her keywords on the home page. A classic example of a little know-how being a dangerous thing!
What generally happens is not one of the 12+ words ever reach a high ranking for the reason that individually they can never get the keyword density or repetitions needed in order to rank highly. This is especially the case for popular terms. I laugh when I see spammers hiding loads of keywords in long lists, knowing that rather than improving their ranking they just make it worse!
Less, can mean a lot more when it comes to SEO in this respect.
The Solution: Focus your home page for a MAXIMUM of three of your top keywords. If you have a particularly competitive field then make that just one or two keywords. Concentrate on just those keywords on your home page and of course in your title tags. Eg. The ABAKUS home page (root) concentrates on 3 keyword phrases where it does very well in German searches. 'Internet Marketing', 'Webpromotion', and 'Suchmaschinenoptimierung' (search engine optimization). A newbie at SEO would also have added 'Suchmaschinen eintrag', 'Suchmaschinenranking', 'Suchmaschinen platzierung' and possibly more keywords to the title tag, and would have tried to optimize the home page for all the terms rather than spreading them throughout the site as I have done.
Summary:Focus on your top three keywords (hopefully researched properly)for your home page, keep them to a maximum of three, however if you are really in a niche market with little competition, it is ok to go for up to 4 or 5. Try and keep your title tag to less than 7 words and make sure your text copy uses the three terms at least 3 times each. Don't forget EVERY page is a potential entry page from search engines so there is no need to cram everything in on your home page.
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