Web pages very seldom rank in the pages of search by conducting little to no marketing. If you are located in a busy vertical you are going to have to proactively market your business online through clean SEO/SEM efforts. It is important to understand that a unique strategy should always be taken when marketing a website online because the search engines are getting smarter and throwing the kitchen sink at them will not warrant the results that might have occurred years ago. Keep in mind that it is just as easy to lose your rankings once you climb your way to the top, so don’t make careless mistakes once you get to the party.

Below are some important areas to address in order to preserve your rankings for the long haul.

Don’t Overstuff Your Website with Keywords

It is very easy to acquire the spam bug when you market your website for the first time. You read all these things online that tell you keywords are the golden egg and you might think that more will help you. Do not make the assumption that more keywords crammed into your website will produce superior web rankings because it could very well backfire in your face. Keyword stuffing can actually cause you to drop in power and also obtain a search engine penalty – which is a lot like getting poison ivy, not fun at all.

Too Much Javascript

Search engines don’t mind javascript, but when you use too much of it on your site that is when things can go south. A header or possibly your website navigation is OK but make sure to come back with a robust amount of well written and optimized site content to counter the javascript. There have been many industry related arguments regarding javascript-focused websites but the reality is that if you want to stay safe and make sure your rankings do not disappear, keep the script on the site to a minimum.

Using Frames

Using frames on your site is a great way to make things go sour with your rankings. Search engines really have a hard time indexing sites that use frames properly so it is in your best interest to just stay away from this completely.

Frequent Content Changes

One thing you do not want to do is frequently change the content on your website. Search engines don’t like this. You must be able to allow your website pages to gather some maturity & power. If you are continuously altering your website content it will end up working against you. Minor alterations are perfectly acceptable but mass text revisions are advised against.

Dirty External Links

It is hard to measure when you might connect to another website that is linked up to a poor quality network of other links, but it is crucial to use your best professional judgment when you start to conduct your link building campaigns. If they even look like they might be part of a larger spammy type of link network, avoid the link at all costs. The link might sound nice now but it won’t be when you are dealing with a website penalty.

Poor or Weak Meta Info

I often bump into websites that are only utilizing 60 or 70 of the 160 potential characters for a meta tag description. From a user experience standpoint you could be missing out on an opportunity to explain your business message. And it also presents room for additional content connected with your website. I know there are many arguments that say meta data has no bearing on your rankings any longer but if you decided to go through and change them all I am pretty sure your website would bounce around a bit more than you would like.

Duplicate Content

Duplicate content can be your worst nightmare. Some websites fall prey to this without even knowing it, which is why it is important to fully understand what you are getting into when it comes down to website content. If you get lazy and want to spread a paragraph onto multiple pages of your website, I would think twice about that. Duplicate content can eventually trigger a website penalty that can lead to a nightmare you do not want to deal with.

Changing Web Platforms

This is a very common issue I see many websites get themselves into. Let’s say they have been utilizing an HTML based platform for the last 7 years and the site ranks very well. All of a sudden someone decides it is time to move to WordPress because they like the functionality of the CMS system and they forget to place a 301 redirect on the old pages. Do you know what happens here? Your site falls off the face of the earth. If you are going to transition your website platform make sure you do it the right way or you might find yourself in a pickle.