Tips to start focusing on getting your site to rank high in Google

If you have a website, or maybe you're running some other kind of business on the web, you're going to want traffic that's actually searching for what you're offering. You need to get your site optimized for the search engines if this is your aim. When SEO is done correctly, you get that targeted traffic and they'll also typically buy, too. On the other hand, if you're new to the SEO game, it's important that you learn a few blunders to stay away so that you don't harm your chances for success.

You want to be favored by the search engines, not penalized by them. This is why it's crucial that you stay away from the following mistakes if you hope to reach your goals. It's important to read on for some common mistakes that people often make that kill their chances of getting the traffic they want.

The number one SEO mistake early marketers make is improper on-page SEO. This is one of the only elements of SEO that you have complete control over. On-page SEO is nothing more than the way you decide to structure your site and its content. On-site navigation is actually the easy part of SEO, you want to pay attention to your navigation, ALT tags, header tags, and file names. You need to be sure to add your keywords to the page titles, in the navigation, and in the ALT tags. The search engines are big on creating the best experience for their users and on-site optimization helps with it tremendously. These are very basic on-page SEO methods that will be implemented by your competing sites, so it's always good to stay ahead.

Messing up your keyword research will mess up you SEO results. Basically, with the wrong list of keywords, no matter how great you are ranking, you won't make any money. You can't sell anything to visitors who aren't even interested in what you have to offer. Apart from that, choosing keywords that people aren't searching for doesn't really make sense. Keywords are how people search and how the search engine determines which sites to show in the results, so they should be one of your main priorities. The key is to locate lower competition keywords and to build your content around them. And the best part is that there are free keyword tools that will show you keywords that you can use.

If you ignore the search engine guidelines, you are making a huge blunder.

These need to be looked at heavily so that you don't commit any SEO techniques that could get you a penalty with the search engines. These guidelines are regularly updated by the search engines, so keeping a constant vigil will keep your website clean in their eyes. For instance, when we look at Google, we see it changing its search engine algorithm on a regular basis, so if you don't go by their rules, your ranking will probably fall.

Above all, make sure your don't use too much flash on your site if you do include images, and use ALT tags when necessary. If you can avoid committing these blunders, you'll shoot through the search engine ranks and you'll avoid ever being banned.