1. Don’t take the time to manually submit. Using automatic search engine submission tools or going through some service that offers to submit your site to 1,000 search engines is usually a big mistake. Getting listed on the major search engines (and there are about a dozen used by 90 percent of Web visitors) is very important and you have to handle it manually. If done correctly, it’s worth taking the time.

2. Trying Too Much To Incorporate Keywords. Packaging keywords in meta tags doesn’t work very well anymore, and invisible text or hidden pages can get you banned by search engines forever. Incorporate keywords into your text. Search engines are now looking to optimize based on what people see and read.

3. Excessive use of keywords. Search engines have picked up on the scheme to abuse keywords. If your company sells shoes and includes the word shoes or pumps nine times in three sentences, they’ll take notice. Yes, you want to use keywords multiple times throughout the text, but it’s a mistake to overdo it.

4. Lack of creativity in keywords and phrases. If you’re a small business that sells toys in Boise, Idaho, you’ll list the word “toys” as a keyword. However, that will lump you in with Toys R Us and all the other major toy stores and manufacturers that will still appear before you in search results. Therefore, you need to be creative and come up with words and/or phrases that can help you reach your target customers more easily. Maybe “Boise Toys” as local buyers will look for local businesses. Keep thinking and be creative.

5. Excessive use of graphics instead of text. Most search engines are not programmed to read graphics, but instead look for text. Therefore, if you are too rich in graphics, you may be overlooked by search engines.

6. Not following submission procedures. Each search engine will have its own guidelines. Although they are similar, you have to pay attention. If you submit your site but it is not accepted, you can submit it again.

7. Adaptation of pages for search engines. You can try creating different pages for different search engines, but you’ll usually end up wasting valuable time and resources, plus you’ll have too many web pages. Also, you could get kicked out of a search engine.

8. Neglecting your title tag. A common mistake is to overlook the importance of the title tag. More important than the name of your business is what your business is about. Since search engines give more credibility to what’s at the beginning of title tags, put your featured information at the beginning.

9. Neglecting a sitemap. If you want to know how to get around a place, you will use a map. The same goes for some of the major search engines.

10. Believing in offers that are too good to be true. Any place that guarantees you thousands of views, numerous customers, or anything of that nature is probably a scam. There are scammers who will drop you on adware, pop-ups, or other services that redirect traffic to places visitors don’t want to go. Avoid these places.