Common SEO General Mistakes Many Bloggers Make

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Common SEO General Mistakes Many Bloggers Make

September 21st, 2007 | 12 comments

I came across Jocelyn’s Make Money Online Blog and noticed a few mistakes that I see many bloggers make.

I hope Jocelyn isn’t mad at me for this It’s actually a great blog, there are just a few things she could do better in order to rank higher and for her blog to convert a little better.

1. Title Tag - Never use your domain name yoursite.com as your title. The title is the #1 most important onpage SEO factor in getting a page ranked. Your title tag should be very targeted. It should contain the exact keyword you are trying to rank for. It’s pretty common to see someones name in there as well and that’s fine for branding purposes, but make sure your name appears after your main keyword.

2. Pagerank(PR) Leakage - This is probably the most common mistake of them all. I’ve seen people claiming to be SEO gurus doing this. Using Social Media widgets on your pages is a good thing. It reminds readers that if they found the post interesting they can bookmark it. But, if you use them, add the rel=”nofollow” attribute to them so you don’t leak Pagerank. Every link on every page gets assigned a certain amount of PR. That means affiliate links, Social Bookmarking links, Contact us links…everything! Stick a nofollow into those links so they don’t take from the PR that could be going back into your own pages!! Blogrolls are another great way to leak PR. Most blogrolls are sitewide. That means, although it’s good to give credit to good blogs, you’re giving away a considerable amount of PR to other sites. If you want to run a blogroll I recommend either putting the links on a separate page and linking to it, or limiting the number of link to a couple.

3. Banner Clutter - Affiliate banners are good, they make us money. But if you have a million and one banners, they aren’t going to convert! Chances are, one person doesn’t have 20 or more products or services that they have tried and honestly recommend that run an affiliate program anyway, so it may take from ones credibility as well. To make those affiliate links convert, reduce them to just a few select products that you whole heartedly recommend.

4. Copyright Statement - If you don’t have a copyright statement (i.e. © Copyright 2007 Your Company) people can take your content, as you didn’t claim the copyright. Granted, these days it seems that most people really don’t care about a copyright statement, they’re steal your content anyway, but with one at least you have a legal stand if you need to pursue it.

5. Add a Full RSS Button - Different people use different RSS readers. That’s why it’s a really good idea to have one Full RSS button, where people can easily grab it and subscribe to your RSS feed. Having only a few options may hurt you.

6. Have an easy way for your readers to contact you - If you don’t have a visible “contact us” link or email, you may be missing out of valuable JV’s, link requests etc. It also takes from ones credibility when they can’t be contacted. We have to give people the option to contact us, whether for good or bad.

Those are the main flaws I saw and I hope Jocelyn can use this info to improve her blog even more. Like I said, it’s a great blog and this review was done in order to help her, not put her down.

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12 comments

Courtney (2 comments.)
21st September, 2007 at 7:54 pm

Some of these are common sense, but I have to admit that I’m guilty of quite a few of them! I just realized that I don’t have a clear “contact me” spot on my blog…and there are some other things I need to fix immediately. Thanks for the wake up call!
mark (9 comments.)
21st September, 2007 at 11:17 pm

Good tips. I like what you said about #3. When I first started out doing affiliate stuff I started promoting many. Then I stuck with one and ended up with a couple of good sales. Another reason it became a sale is because what I promoted was good, and people liked what they signed up for.
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Josh Spaulding
22nd September, 2007 at 6:49 am

Courtney,

Very true but I still see some of these common mistakes everyday. I’m glad the post served a purpose for you though.

Mark,

I did the same thing when I began online. I thought the more links the better. Then I did what you mentioned and saw a much better conversion, not to mention it just looks better.
Jocelyn (6 comments.)
25th September, 2007 at 9:54 pm

Hi Josh, I’ve been sick for a few days now and hadn’t gotten around to checking your blog. I didn’t know you blogged about my site, lol…I know…can’t you see I’m new to all this? I am certainly learning evryday from expert bloggers liek you. So to say the least, I am not mad at all. Actually I am glad that you had the chance to review my site so I can make improvements on it. I will certainly take into considerations all the points you’ve made here..and no, I don’t claim to be an expert. I have a lot of knowledge on other moneymaking ideas posted on my blog but as far as ‘blogging for money’ I still have a lot to learn about it.
Thanks,
Jocelyn
Josh Spaulding
26th September, 2007 at 4:38 pm

Hey Jocelyn,

I’m glad you’re feeling better and that you weren’t offended. I hate seeing bloggers bash other blogs/services. I did this to help you and my other readers who may be making some of the same mistakes and hopefully it sent a little traffic your way as well.
Jocelyn (6 comments.)
26th September, 2007 at 5:53 pm

Thanks, I appreciate that.
Donna (1 comments.)
27th September, 2007 at 10:37 pm

Hi Josh,

I love your blog and I really value your opinion. Can you take a look at my blog and let me know what you think?

Donna
Jocelyn (6 comments.)
29th September, 2007 at 4:54 am

Hey Josh,

I’m working on getting a copyright for my blog, do you know where I can set it up and get it for free?

Also I would like to ask you if you know of a good tutorial I can use to do the point you made on number 2: leaking page rank and how to use no follow attribute.

I would very much appreciate if you can point me to the right direction.

Thank you much!
Jocelyn
Josh Spaulding
29th September, 2007 at 5:57 am

Hi Jocelyn,

It’s great to see you’re working out the kinks.

You don’t actually have to get your material copyrighted, you just need to add a copyright statement in your footer. Something like mine in my footer.

I can’t think of a good tutorial off hand for the nofollow attribute, but I can show you exactly how to use it right now.

Find each link in your code that you want to nofollow i.e. contact, affiliate links etc. and add rel=”nofollow” after
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