Google’s Top 5 SEO Mistakes Revealed

It’s all well and good to speak about what Google may and may not be looking for in terms of positive SEO practices, but another entirely when an actual Google guru shares insights. That’s why when Mr. Mat Cutts himself speaks, we tend to listen.

Over the past few weeks, Cutts has been offering all of his usual wisdom on the subject of SEO – as always stopping just short of telling us what we need to do in order to guarantee success. However, he did at least offer his own take on what are right now the five most common mistakes webmasters and business owners are making with their SEO.

This applies to in-house efforts and those that go the SEO outsource route alike, but in all cases are the most common problems. Not necessarily the most fatal mistakes possible, but by far the most common.

1 – Sites That are Not Crawlable

There are dozens of reasons why a site may not even be able to be crawled by the search engine spiders responsible for indexation. From poor overall design to overuse of flash to image use and so many more besides, if the crawlers can’t do their job, the site won’t be indexed…or at least won’t be indexed properly.

2 – Wrong Use of Words

Now more than ever, keyword choice is paramount. And as far as Google’s own experts go, this means making sure detail is added on a whole new level. For example, including the words “World Trade Center Height” won’t cut it these days, but “How Tall is the World Trade Center?” will as the latter more closely represent the searches people carry out.

3 – Link Building Focus

Or too much of it, as far as Cutts is concerned. He states that while links are important, anything that distracts a webmaster or business owner from creating compelling and engaging content is bad news. It’s a case of understanding that content matters more than anything else and should therefore be prioritized, with the rest coming further down the list.

4 – Title and Description

These are the most important elements of the page as a whole and must be addressed as such. They are both massively important for the sake of SEO and for the overall user-experience alike, so if both matter to you, here’s an area that calls for greater focus. Titles and descriptions capture the attention and interest of readers right away and can make the difference between winning them over and losing them for good – all while making a big difference SEO-wise.

5 – Ignoring Resources

Last but not least, Cutts warned of the dangers associated with to some extent thinking you know it all. Or at least, not bothering to use SEO tools, resources and educational archives to find out what’s new and how to use it. SEO is always changing so to become set in your ways is to become stuck in a rut you really have no other way of getting out of, other than to educate yourself and use what’s on offer to you.