When it comes to search engine optimization, mistakes are easy to make.  I mean… how should we mere mortals know what a computer program is going to do with our humble webpages?  Part of the "fun" of SEO is the fixing and tweaking process that inevitably ensues.  Maybe we could bump our rank up one more spot.  Maybe we could tweak our title just a little more.

It's a game, to say the least.  And it's one that few, if any, of us will ever fully master.

Even the big guys mess up from time to time.  It's pretty easy to do.  You want your content to be the focus.  You want your website to be fun and inviting.  And a little pizzazz here and there never hurt anyone.  And when you're a major brand, you might not think as much about placement as smaller or lesser known companies might.  I mean… if you're Best Buy you might just assume you'd have excellent ranking for a search on plasma televisions.

The SEOmoz Blog has a great list of mistakes the big guys make when ignoring search engine guidelines.  Their ignorance can become your incredible gain.  The 8 mistakes listed at SEOmoz basically fit into two categories:  navigation and content problems.

Navigation Mistakes

Text links are the easiest for crawlers to read.  Pictures, flash, drop-downs… they all look nice.  But sending a crawler to a javascript or flash link is like trying to see through a one-way mirror:  the links are invisible to crawlers.  URL and directory structure is also commonly ignored.  And, as SEOmoz points out, some major brands have multiple URLs pointing to the same content.  Or multiple domains - one for every little whim.

Content Mistakes

Like links, content is invisible inside flash.  Best rule of thumb:  don't use flash for navigation or important content.  HTML is probably best.  Also, keep your content on your site.  SEOmoz reminds us that it doesn't help your site to have a bunch of other sites with the same content.  In addition, restricted access sites (such as those requiring sign-up to view content) don't get nearly as many links to them as those with open content.

Finally, SEOmoz mentions a couple of other tips.  Don't ignore popular keywords.  Test, test, and test again to make sure your keywords are performing and that you haven't missed any with potential.  We can learn good practices from industry leading websites.  But we can also learn bad practices to avoid.  SEOmoz does a good job of pointing out some big mistakes. 

But remember… pay attention to the little details as well.