SEO TIPS: 9 Don'ts for SEO

It’s time for a little refresher course in some things NOT to do for SEO!

1. Don’t write your content with JavaScript. We know that search engines won’t penalize a site for using JavaScript, but they also won’t index the contents of the scripts. If you use JavaScript to display the content on your sites, it will be harder to get high rankings for these pages. This includes pages that use scripts to show and hide text, as well as pages that use Ajax for content – it’s just a poor practice all around.
2. Don’t omit alt text for images. This is especially true for images inside the text. While images inline with your text can dress up your Web page, if you don’t bother to include alternative text (alt text) then search engines won’t recognize the content relevance. In addition, the more packed your page is with images, the less likely that search engines will rank it highly. Text is what gets web-pages ranked in most search engines, and alt text is no substitute.
3. Don’t use images instead of text links. Search engine optimization is all about text. If you get lazy, and replace text with images instead of using the images to enhance the text (even if you have good alt text) search engines will not rank your site as highly. This rings true for navigation as well – search engine spiders crawl through your site by following links, and any links on images will always be harder for them to follow than text links. If your images are big, using them can  make your pages slower for visitors, too. Try styling your text with CSS, instead of using images.
4. Don’t misspell your keywords in your content. This practice is pretty much obsolete, as Google now suggests and shows correct spelling over wrong ones.  This practice can hurt your credibility with your customers who end up on your page and assume you are unprofessional.
5. Don’t try to optimize for more than 2-3 keywords and phrases. This is just confusing to search engines and spammy to boot. Excessive phrases on one page can make it hard for  search engines and your customers alike to figure out what you’re talking about. Instead of cramming, write multiple short pages on each topic.
6. Don’t use your keyword phrase too much. Keyword stuffing is an even bigger no-no than before thanks to Panda and Penguin. Use keywords naturally and by no means exceed a 2% density.  Blatantly stuffing keywords can get your site banned from search engines.
7. Don’t rely on links from domains on the same IP.   Google may not discriminate against domains that have the same IP but Bing and Yahoo aren’t so clear on the matter. This is another situation that can get all your sites banned from search engines if you are careless, so don’t cram in links all from a matched virtual host.
8. Don’t have more than 10 words in your URL. Keyword stuffing your url is even more hateful to Google than keyword stuffing your content! Long URLs look spammy to both customers and search engines.
9. Don’t use URL parameters if you can avoid it. Parameters on URLs can make for a real mess. Search engines can get confused by them, and often don’t rank dynamic pages as high as static pages. If you use parameters, consider doing a URL rewrite to static URLs  for your most important pages.