Top 3 Mistakes SEO N00bz make

I see at least 1 post a day on BHW from someone saying things like "I don't know where to start". I get it, there are a lot of verticals within IM and a lot of information as well as misinformation. These top 3 mistakes are all about ranking websites. Whether you do it for affiliate SEO, client SEO, bored as fuck SEO, etc.

1. Taking advice from 'Gurus' as fact

Anyone can call themselves an SEO expert and write about SEO. Hell, I sold myself as an SEO expert when I first started before I even knew how to do SEO. Why? Becuase people fail to fact check things. Just because someone runs a successful SEO company doesn't mean they're actually worth anything. I could go grab a $5,000/month contract, tell the client it'll take 6 months and then they'll be rank #1 for everything, do no work and make $30,000. Will I get fired? Yes, but hey, I just made $30,000 for doing no work. Do that 3-4 times, destroy the old brand, create a new one, make a blog, sell my ebook about how I helped those companies make millions.

End rant.

I've read plenty of articles talking about how blackhat SEO will destroy your website, how PBNs don't work, how blog commenting is dead, how your website live's and dies by its metrics, etc. That's all crap.

Black hat SEO, when done right, is faster than white hat and IS sustainable. PBNs are used by most SEO's and SEO agencies, even if they write articles about how they don't work (that's less competition and more domains for them), blog commenting can help a lot with local SEO, and metrics like DA PA TF & CF are only relative and can easily be manipulated.

This is a skill that develops over time. Those are still great articles to read from SEJ, SEL, SEW, and SER but when I read them I know what's useful information and what's BS.

How to develop this skill? Cross check things. If someone tells you that PBNs no longer work, go see if you can find anyone that can prove they do work. BHW is a great place for this. BHW has solved many misconceptions I've had about tactics that do and don't work

2. Making Google Your Massiah

Think about Google like you would a police officer (let's leave current events and politics out of this, yeah?). The cop's job is to enforce the law and it's legal for them to lie to you. Google is the same way. They don't want people using blackhat tactics or really doing SEO at all. Why? Google doesn't profit that way. They want you to say "Fuck SEO, I'm going to Adwords". Matt Cutts wants to jizz all over your PPC campaigns.

Just because Google says "don't buy links" or "We will find your PBN" doesn't mean they aren't lying through their teeth. Do you know why Google does a massive PBN take down that makes headlines every few years? Becuase it scares the shit out of people. Google knows that PBNs can rank websites incredibly fast. Just last week I went from nowhere to #9 with 1 domain. After 3 domains in the PBN I saw 6 KWs ranking between 9-31. A PBN done correctly is incredibly difficult for Google to find. Plus, most of the time they just don't care. There are networks with hundreds and thousands of domains, why would they care about your 5 site network?

"Don't buy links". Funny because even Google buys links. BBB link costs like $500, niche related directories can cost $50+, etc. When Google says don't buy links they mean:

• Don't buy spam links ($5 for 10,000 links won't get you much anymore)
• Don't buy real links because that's too easy to rank

Getting a link from The Huggington Post can cost a couple hundred dollars and you'll be on there within a week - month. That link will get you traffic, rankings, and brand awareness. That's easy. Google would rather you spend months writing content waiting for someone authoritative to link to you. Chances are it's not gonna happen.

Listen to algorithm updates but take everything with a grain of salt. Not sure what to believe? Ask on here.

3. Put in little effort and expect big results

You're not just adding in your keywords a couple times, making some 2.0's, and flying through the SERPs. you're competing with thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of websites to show Google that you deserve to rank higher than these other websites. Not only that, you're also competition with all of those websites SEOs.

There are a couple hundred ranking factors and that list is always changing. If you're only optimizing for 5 of them, how well do you really think you're gonna fare? If SEO was easy we'd all be rich by now. Spend the time to do the research to figure out how to rank. Just because you read an article from 2009 about how great GSA is when you send your website 50,000 links overnight doesn't mean that it still works or that it will work for you.

Every industry is different. Every niche is different. Every website is different. What works for one, won't always work for them all. SEO is about trial and error.

Like the write up.
This stuns me when I see people still trying this direct to a money site

"GSA is when you send your website 50,000 links overnight doesn't mean that it still works or that it will work for you."

then crying when the site gets slapped into nowhere.

4. Getting into a hard competition niche due to bad comp analysis.

MisterF said:

Like the write up.
This stuns me when I see people still trying this direct to a money site

"GSA is when you send your website 50,000 links overnight doesn't mean that it still works or that it will work for you."

then crying when the site gets slapped into nowhere.

Click to expand...

It's sad, really. 5 minutes of research will show you that the only people who think this is a good idea are those who are selling 50,000 links.

I like to add basic html and css mistakes contubute to milluons of websites not ranking properly.

Master html and try to master css once that done i think people websites will boom in serps.

If you use wordpress using the correct plugin can help to get postion properly.

I think learning html /css before diving for wordpress would help massively.

Some people dont even no how to valadate a html page and that bad.

And another thing i find stupid broken links
Of course that effects seo in serps but why can you not fix them that just stupidness .

Images of course if your image is to big dont just re size it with html or css crop the crap to it used size , speed the loading page up.

And page loading time you need to really get on this one , cheek your loading times off your pages ,you be so suprised how slow some websites are , mainly image size problems

In seo try to learn the value of the bold, lists,
Headers, metatags.

Website design , try to keep it all simple
The easer to navigate around a website the
More it get used ,and views count to Seo ranking.


Domain names .

If the website for authority use matched keyword domains if it for afflicate work use sub matched donains if if for pbn use non relating keyword niche domains.

What ever your doing ,firstly try and search for expired domains before registring a new domain name , a old exspired domain ,might have already millions of backlinks and make the domain very easy to google index, but if buying a exspired domain and there bad backlinks on that domain use google tool to get them removed.

If you need to no more about domains and there true value, learn there metrics stats .

Da domain authority
Tf trust flow
Da domain age

This is the three most metric relevant info needed.

Then use a service like hreff to see number of backlinks on that domain.

But most good expired domain services online will provide all relevent info.

Article writting .

Just get dragon and headphones softwere, it writes as you speak, it so easy to get a article written in minutes.

With articles remeber that google no if the
Header got the main keyword in you don't need it plotted everywere that classed as spam / duplication, use the main keyword 3 times max at most , the lower the keyword used the more google gives respect.

I sugest use once in the header and then twice in a huge article.


Keyword research
It not hard at all you can get good apps to help you but you should also use google keyword tool.


Remeber to be safe always add .
Disclaimers
Legal
Terms and conditions
Dmca info

This is to protect you and your website.

Seo know needs socials

So remember to link to your socials

Facebook
Twitter
Tumblr
Pinteast
Youtube

Are all need in todays seo world
Set them up stop being lazy.

All i am saying all enjoy , seo not that hard at all
Just take time and use the most upto date tec going on , read a load in forums and eventually all come clear.


Good luck

Very good and insightful while keeping it short.
So many people seem to forget these basics.

redarrow said:

I like to add basic html and css mistakes contubute to milluons of websites not ranking properly.

Master html and try to master css once that done i think people websites will boom in serps.

If you use wordpress using the correct plugin can help to get postion properly.

I think learning html /css before diving for wordpress would help massively.

Some people dont even no how to valadate a html page and that bad.

And another thing i find stupid broken links
Of course that effects seo in serps but why can you not fix them that just stupidness .

Images of course if your image is to big dont just re size it with html or css crop the crap to it used size , speed the loading page up.

And page loading time you need to really get on this one , cheek your loading times off your pages ,you be so suprised how slow some websites are , mainly image size problems

In seo try to learn the value of the bold, lists,
Headers, metatags.

Website design , try to keep it all simple
The easer to navigate around a website the
More it get used ,and views count to Seo ranking.


Domain names .

If the website for authority use matched keyword domains if it for afflicate work use sub matched donains if if for pbn use non relating keyword niche domains.

What ever your doing ,firstly try and search for expired domains before registring a new domain name , a old exspired domain ,might have already millions of backlinks and make the donain very easy to google index, but if buying a exspired domain and there bad backlinks on that donain use google tool to get them removed.

Article writting .

Just get dragon and headphones softwere, it writes as you speak, it so easy to get a article written in minutes.

With articles remeber that google no if the
Header got the main keyword in you don't need it plotted everywere that classed as spam / duplication, use the main keyword 3 times max at most , the lower the keyword used the more google gives respect.

I sugest use once in the header and then twice in a huge article.


Keyword research
It not hard at all you can get good apps to help you but you should also use google keyword tool.


Remeber to be safe always add .
Disclaimers
Legal
Terms and conditions
Dmca info

This is to protect you and your website.

Seo know needs socials

So remember to link to your socials

Facebook
Twitter
Tumblr
Pinteast
Youtube

Are all need in todays seo world
Set them up stop being lazy.

All i am saying all enjoy , seo not that hard at all
Just take time and use the most upto date tec going on , read a load in forums and eventually all come clear.


Good luck

Click to expand...

Great original post and quoted post is great aswell, thx for this!

Thanks for the list but i think I can add a few :
My personal complete noob experience:
1.bad competition analysis...I bought domain,hosting and then I discovered it is almost impossible to rank for those keywords
2.bought "real traffic" gigs from fiverr....damn I'm an idiot(after 2 weeks I found the script here for 39$)
3.not having a good plan...I bought an edm domain then I realised I wanted an authority site actualy
4.buy low quality articles on fiverr....basically spun content.I am not native but I can do it much better
5.almost 0 patience ..start link building with an automated tool in the first days of my site

This is what I've elarned in my 2 months since I started and discovered this forum.
Sorry OP for this ...but I needed to confess myself .If you're not Ok with this I will remove my post!

I think a noobs top mistake is trusting Google. They want as much of your money as possible. They tell you to just build content and wait because that makes you go want to go out and spend money on advertising. The more you sit, the more inpatient you get when nothing happens. Also, that is why they let people "spam" $75 Adwords coupons and don't tighten their apporval systems. The more money people waste on Google, Google grows more powerful and rich. It sure looks good to investors that sites are only of the highest content, and that their investment is in a quality company. Blah, same psyschological tactics used by the top rich used on poor saps now in volume.

I do use Google to advertise, but I don't rely on "organic" searches much. I find that to reach most of the same people I can advertise through IOS and Andriod devices, reach them through social, and finally engage them with tv ads before I slap up a Google campaign.

redarrow said:

Master html and try to master css once that done i think people websites will boom in serps.

If you use wordpress using the correct plugin can help to get postion properly.

I think learning html /css before diving for wordpress would help massively.

Click to expand...

Some of the worst sites I've worked on flat sites. With WP sites I don't usually have to worry about poor code quality. Other CMS's have varying quality.

I'm well versed in HTML, CSS, JS, Jquery, and a couple other languages which is a huge advantage. I've worked with some highly skilled SEOs that have no idea how to do most technical SEO. It's not required with most sites being on WP.

There are SEO agencies that will even not take you on as a client because they only work on WP sites. Knowing HTML & CSS isn't something a noob should worry about. That's a whole new vertical.

risefromtheashes said:

Very good and insightful while keeping it short.
So many people seem to forget these basics.

Click to expand...

iliketurtlez said:

Great original post and quoted post is great aswell, thx for this!

Click to expand...

Cheers

Abuzzz said:

Thanks for the list but i think I can add a few :
My personal complete noob experience:
1.bad competition analysis...I bought domain,hosting and then I discovered it is almost impossible to rank for those keywords

This is what I've learned in my 2 months since I started and discovered this forum.

Click to expand...

I agree but it's different if you do client SEO as you're working within their niche and it's usually med-high competition if they can afford SEO services.

This is one of the better threads I've seen this month !
Good job guys @SEOMemj @redarrow @Abuzzz @soulcollector and everybody else

A lot of people do complain about not knowing where to start. BHW has a ton of useful information, and I believe people really shouldn't have a problem if they follow what is posted here.

I thought it was a bland rehashed same old advice but hell no, this is some honest and reality on what is happening to SEO.

Well written!

great tips and mistake maths. thanks for sharing. wil keep in mind for my SEO projects.

stop saying "google it" say "bing it' or anything else but "google it", then one day the Internet will be returned to the people and we can all make as much money as we like while google execs go drown themselves.

Good info. A lot of newbies including me have gotten stuck at the 'Analysis-Paralysis' stage at some point of time. You've got to take action and like you said, use some of the real solid stuff that's on BHW.

This place can be one of two things. It can be your ticket out of the life you are currently living or it can be a labyrinth that you'll get lost in. Its your choice really.

Nice write ups. Newbies tend to rush things and didn't realize that seo is about trial and error.

verilix said:

A lot of people do complain about not knowing where to start. BHW has a ton of useful information, and I believe people really shouldn't have a problem if they follow what is posted here.

Click to expand...

toxic08 said:

I thought it was a bland rehashed same old advice but hell no, this is some honest and reality on what is happening to SEO.

Click to expand...

Windmm said:

Well written!

Click to expand...

rodyrathore said:

great tips and mistake maths. thanks for sharing. wil keep in mind for my SEO projects.

Click to expand...

magicherbs123 said:

Good info. A lot of newbies including me have gotten stuck at the 'Analysis-Paralysis' stage at some point of time. You've got to take action and like you said, use some of the real solid stuff that's on BHW.

This place can be one of two things. It can be your ticket out of the life you are currently living or it can be a labyrinth that you'll get lost in. Its your choice really.

Click to expand...

LatteGrande said:

Nice write ups. Newbies tend to rush things and didn't realize that seo is about trial and error.

Click to expand...

Cheers