Wading into the waters of search engine optimization can be a scary task for small business owners. Even with the right intentions and some good knowledge to back you up, there are some common mistakes that could cost you dearly in the search results. Christine Churchill tackles seven of these problems today in her Small is Beautiful column at Search Engine Land.

Christine covers seven common issues in the article:

1. You suffer from relative linking issues
2. Spider traps are keeping your site from being properly indexed
3. Previous SEO firms used shady tactics that cast your site in a bad light
4. You have canonical domain name problems
5. You're haunted by an unreliable server
6. All your web content has been stolen
7. Bogons can eat your web site

The good news is that along with explaining what these problems are and why they can trip you up, she also offers some helpful solutions to dealing with them.






About the Author

Jennifer Laycock is the Editor of Search Engine Guide, an educational web site aimed at translating the search marketing world into something that small business owners can understand. Jennifer specializes in common sense search engine marketing, viral marketing and customer outreach via social media and blogs. A former search marketing consultant and in-house trainer, Jennifer’s clients have included companies like Verizon, American Greetings and Highlights for Children. Her primary clients now are a little girl named Elnora and a little boy named Emmitt.

Jennifer Laycock is the Editor of Search Engine Guide, an educational web site aimed at translating the search marketing world into something that small business owners can understand. Jennifer specializes in common sense search engine marketing, viral marketing and customer outreach via social media and blogs. A former search marketing consultant and in-house trainer, Jennifer’s clients have included companies like Verizon, American Greetings and Highlights for Children. Her primary clients now are a little girl named Elnora and a little boy named Emmitt.