There are certain things that I see in the world of SEO (Search engine optimization) that make my blood boil. Today I am going to share with you the noob mistakes that I see on a daily basis.

The Most Common SEO Mistakes - PART ONE

Ranking for a highly low searched term.

I see this all the time. People use this to ramp up the value of their sites at Sitepoint as well.

It goes a little something like this:

Noob: Hey Dean, I am great at SEO, I rank 1st out of 3 million results

Dean: wow, congrats. What is the term?

Noob: “Super Bloopers extra spicy widgets in the Texas area”

Dean: oh, you really are a dxxk!

Noob: 1st out of 3 million is amazing!

Dean: Do you know how many people out of those 3 million people WANT to rank for that term? one, you! How much traffic have you got from it?

Noob: er, I don’t know, how do I check?

Dean: arrrgggghhhhhh
(Dean contemplates suicide)

Listen, you can type a load of random words into Google and get 1+ million results, that does NOT mean that 1 million people are trying to rank for it.

Also, if your favourite keyword research program says that the term gets 6,000 searches per month, don’t take that as gospel. Use some common sense for once.

I rank for some keywords that sound useless, but they drive regular traffic to my sites. Rankings that don’t drive traffic are as useless as a solar powered torch!