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Mistake #1 - Ad placement:
I only have one small ad that is unobtrusive and has to do with the content of my website. But this ad has proven to be a bit of a killer for my site when it comes to Google, because I give a text description of the ad, and when you search google for "[searchphrase]" it will bring up my site on the 2nd page somewhere, with the link to my site, but the description google gives to my site is the description i gave to the ad, making my site look like the place to buy the [searchphrase] merchandise. I think for this reason, I'm just going to get rid of all the ad's on my site completely.
Mistake #2 - Having a second domain redirecting to your main domain:
I had no idea that google penalized for having multiple domains redirect to your main domain! Not only is this (i think) the reason my google pagerank went from being like 5th from the top, down to having a 0 page rank, but also, google now links to the domain that redirects to my main site.
This post may not apply to all, but most likely to some, hope it helps. :-)
[edited by: heini at 10:36 pm (utc) on Sep. 22, 2002]
[edit reason] no specific site details please / see TOS [/edit]
I had no idea that google penalized for having multiple domains redirect to your main domain! Not only is this (i think) the reason my google pagerank went from being like 5th from the top, down to having a 0 page rank, but also, google now links to the domain that redirects to my main site.
Configure your http server to do permanent redirects from your secondary domains to your main domain.
After that, visit the sites that link to your secondary domains and ask them to change the links.
Google will drop the secondary domains and will index the main one.
Before you remove your ads, check how your description looks for other search phrases that turn up your page(s). You'll likely find the description snippet is quite different when someone finds your page through another term. In other words, I'd be willing to bet that the only time someone sees a mention of Pink Floyd in your description snippet is when that is the search term they used.
Check that your page is constructed so Google pulls a decent snippet for your main target terms, and consider any traffic from Pink Floyd to be something of a bonus.
regards
geranimo
(I wasn't a newbie at the time, but the $$$ offered for the ticker-style ad at the top of the page blinded me.) Don't put 15k of javascript at the top of the page.
Any other newbie mistakes
I added pop-up explanations to some of the terms on my page.
I.e. a click on "widgets" would open a new small page (100x200 pixels) with a definition on widgets.
It turned out that Google just loves small 1K pages about widgets with "widget" in the title and header, so this page had many visitors via Google. :)
Unfortunately my 2-sentence definition of widgets looked quite silly on a 1280X780 screen and since the page didn't contain any links, it wasn't helping my site. :(
When I discovered this, it was easy to add some JavaScript to add graphics and links if the page was not opened as a subpage. :)
Later I skipped the whole pop-up idea and expanded the 2-sentence explanation into a full page telling all about how widgets relate to different parts of my site. However the page is now 10K and Google doesn't love it anymore. :(
