Image by deVos via Flickr

So you have a really snazzy website that has all the bells and whistles and LOOK OUT here you go, and the search engines just keep on going. They don’t give a ever loving flip about your site. Want to have a few things to look at and get a understanding of WHY? Well sit down cause here we go, and this is defiantly a SOAP BOX SERMON type blog post.

What annoys me the most is that I keep telling people these exact same things and they still ignore me then call asking me to “Get them on the front page of Google” and then want to argue with me when I tell them “throw away your BAD website”, because it looks GREAT and is very attractive. But if search engines like the BIG DAWG Google HATES the way it is set up, it doesn’t MATTER. If the search engines HATE it, they will not give you good rankings PERIOD…

So let us take a look at a few of these thought patterns that cause people to build websites Search Engines HATE.

#1 The Search Engine Doesn’t Give a Flying Flip About Your Website Looks… PERIOD

Search engines use a little program called a spider. The spider hits your website and looks around. They grab text and decide what your website is all about. The problem, these are simple programs that are very basic, and they don’t like certain things and ignore others flat out.

If the main content of your website is displayed in images or Flash then your website can be totally meaningless to search engines, and they see a BLANK page.

If your website navigation is pure JavaScript then chances are that search engines won’t find the pages of your website. Your website will look like a single page site although it consists of many different pages.

Check Your Website For Spider Compatability

#2 Bad HTML Code because of Bad Software

Not all WYSIWYG Editors are equal. Some build up very convoluted code as you edit your website. While most spiders can handle minor errors, the big ones kindly ask them to leave. When I am talking about major issues I mean things like a misplaced tag in the code, telling the spider that the content is “FINISHED” before it gets started. To avoid this validate your code. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but hey it shouldn’t be awful either.

OHH and don’t just cut and paste from WORD to WordPress get a plugin to strip out the extra JUNK  WORD adds to the page you don’t see but the spiders do.

#3 BAD SEO Tactics and “Tricks” that make you look stupid

Yeah, I said it. Let me explain. This week I went to interview with a company for a consulting  job. They didn’t have the budget I normally want or even get but I liked the owner and wanted to help the guy out. So I got in my car Friday and drove the hour and something drive to the office. The owner wasn’t there so I had the “HONOR” to speak with the “Website and SEO Manager”. Now keep in mind from my talks with the owner I am coming in as a consultant, not a hourly employee. They are supposed to pay my company not ME. The manager hands me a generic application for employment (ok how many of you business owners use these to hire a skilled position over a real resume?). I told him I had a few questions because at this point I now have some concerns. NEEDLESS to say the guy told me to leave within 90 seconds and he never answered 1 of my questions.

Why does this look bad for the website you ask? Well a few reasons. They know they need help, and I wanted to help the owner (still would be tempted to help just seems like a nice guy). The “Manager” told me that the main website was fine that he wanted someone to build sites, and that “HE” would do the SEO. **DANGER.. DANGER Will ROBINSON.. DANGER**.. What??? The guy is writing his Title tag as a string of Keywords like it was a place to throw every BUZZ word he could bring to mind. You have to scroll 3 pages down to get past all the NON related images just to see some text that is BOLD and BLUE (not always bad but didn’t work) and florescent colors as the background of the text links for the email and a few other things. Looked like a middle school project where you would tell the pre teen “Great Job” because they actually did it.

What this guy is doing is called KEYWORD Stuffing. He has no Alt Img text (search engines can’t see images but can read what you say about them). He has done NOTHING Right for SEO or design purposes, not that I am perfect. I have things on this site that I should do, but just wont take the time (hey its my rant site not the company website).

So all of this to say.. If you need help ASK.. Just don’t start with the “I’m a SEO expert, you need to be my flunky, and you need to thank me for paying you like your a slave.”

There are MANY SEO consultants who love and are very passionate about their work, all you have to do is get them talking and they will tell you tons. Heck I will even do a free consult to see if you could use my services, and if you can’t afford me you at least have a outline of what you need to do.

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P.S> If you’re the owner of the company mentioned in #3, read this article twice, and get a “SEO Manager” who at least knows what the acronym means.