With the success and growth that Google and other search engines have had over the last few years, the term 'Search Engine Optimization' (or 'SEO') has become standard in the lexicon of today's marketing department.

At the same time, many companies seem to be getting involved in SEO projects for the wrong reasons, without really setting expectations or understanding the scope of work. Many companies engage in search optimization simply because it's trendy, or because their CEO can't find their site for a particular term.

Unfortunately, this can lead to mistakes that cost time, money, and potentially even do more harm than good with search engines.

In this enewsletter, we'll identify common mistakes companies make while conducting SEO.

Probably the most dangerous mistake to make when conducting SEO is to not consider SEO within the overall strategy of the Web site. From having a plan for what action a visitor should take once they arrive at the Web site, to establishing the architecture, design and content of the site, failure to include search considerations up front can lead to Web sites that are nearly impossible to find in search engines and fail to produce a positive ROI. Including SEO as an objective during the initial site building process will ensure that the structure and design of the site will work well with search engines as well as end users.

A closely related common mistake is to measure the wrong results for SEO, or not measure them at all. When initiating an SEO project, goals should always be set-and those goals should focus mostly on ROI that can be measured. Often companies will only focus on achieving a #1 ranking for specific phrases in Google, or possibly elevating site traffic. While those are important objectives, if the rankings and traffic don't lead to conversions (sales, leads, email signups), then all of the SEO work was for naught.

Another common mistake when it comes to tracking sales or leads is to not give credit for "latent" conversions-people that may have used a search engine to find a site weeks or months earlier and returned later when they were ready to make a conversion action. Those "latent" conversions are often not counted directly in an ROI measurement, but should be taken into consideration.

One of the most frequent missteps is to devote inadequate resources to SEO. The search engine world is extremely fluid, with frequent updates made to each search engine's algorithms, which can make a site drop significantly in the rankings overnight. Staying on top of these changes requires significantly more focus than just a few hours a week.

A similar mistake is to treat search engine optimization as an event, similar to an advertising campaign, which can be accomplished over the course of a few months and then considered complete. Advances and changes in search engine technology and evolving end-user habits make SEO an ongoing process.

When a company does start to consider outside help for the SEO, there is never a shortage of options. Some of those options may include promises that sound too good to be true-special partnerships with the search engines, proprietary technologies to help with rankings, or guaranteed top rankings. In reality, most of these promises are too good to be true-most often there are hidden clauses or some other problem that will lead to little gain in search engines (if any), and in extreme cases, could even lead to being banned from search engines altogether. It is always important to check the references of any company offering SEO services, and to confirm that any techniques being utilized will be acceptable to the search engines.

Once the optimization process is actually underway, companies often end up focusing too much attention on one or two specific terms. Putting all your eggs in one basket may essentially achieve nothing if it turns out to be difficult to quickly move to the top of the list for that phrase. A broader list of terms should be targeted to have a better chance of making incremental progress while still working on the "most important" terms.

Also, companies often incorrectly believe they know best how their customers search, or often use their own internal buzz words to describe their product without knowing how their customers actually think about or search for their product. Very rarely do all people search the Internet in the same manner. Keyword research often shows multiple terms people may be using while searching for products (think 'pop' vs. 'soda'). In some cases the company may have guessed the most popular search terms, but have not considered alternatives. In other cases, the company may be shocked to find that very few people search using the terms they assumed are most popular.

Finding the right mix of brand related keywords is another problem area for many companies. Some companies focus on brand related phrases too heavily. It may be easy to rank highly with them, but they often yield low traffic volume and marginal ROI since the prospect may have other means of finding the company Web site or may simply type the URL. Omitting branded phrases, however, may allow competitor web sites (or negative brand sites) to convert potential customers. Companies should consider a healthy balance of branded terms because it may have some positive impact as an overall branding tool. The ROI in that case may be harder to measure, but may be invaluable in the long run.

Marketers who can avoid these mistakes will be well on their way to reaping the benefits of successful search engine optimization-improved rankings, increased traffic, insightful measurements and most importantly, more cost effective leads or sales.

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Featured Resources

Marketing Sherpa
Recently released Search Marketing 2007 Benchmark Guide, which has stats for SEO, Pay Per Click Campaigns, Eye Tracking 'Heatmaps' and more.

SEO Round Table
Get the latest SEO news from the top SEO forums, including Search Engine Watch, Webmaster World, Digital Point and more.