11/14/07: Basic Steps to Optimize Your Pages For Search Engines (SEO)
While many people seem to think you need experts to optimize their pages for search engine, the fact is anyone can make their pages far more likely to be spidered favorably by following as many of the DOs and Don'ts below as possible.
DOs
1. Place keywords in your pages' URLs. For instance, if your page is about dogs, work dogs into the URL of the page.
2. Work keywords into your page's content. Don't go crazy with this! If you have your keyword appear too many times your page may be penalized for keyword stuffing.
3. Use keywords in your pages' <title> tags.
4. Make page headings that use keywords (<H1>, <H2>)
5. Put keywords in links. If possible, have those who link to your site use keywords as well.
6. Work keywords into the alt tags of images.
7. Work keywords into the beginning of your pages' content
8. Place keywords in meta tags. Meta tags may not be as important as they once were, but they still have some weight with MSN and Yahoo.
9. Group keywords. Pages that have keywords strung together tend to be weighted as more important by search engines.
10. Use keywords in phrases.
11. Use secondary keywords.
12. Use synonyms as well. As an example, search engines will see words like car and automobile as being related and will weight your site favorably based upon them.
13. Keep near keyword mistypes use limited to your meta tags.
14. Get other sites to link to you.
15. Try to work to keywords into all links.
16. Links from sites similar to yours are seen as a positive by search engines.
17. Links from .edu and .gov sites are often weighted stronger.
18. List your sites in link directories.
19. Limit links going to other sites. Try to have more links coming into your site than are going out.
20. Content rules. Content that is unique to your site can really boost a sites rankings.
21. Try to change your content regularly.
22. Keep the size of your pages reasonable. Search engines do not like pages that go on forever.
23. Design your pages to work in all browsers instead of redirecting based on the user's browser.
24. Accompany videos and podcasts and flash with text. Search engines can't read flash or podcast or videos, but they can and will read the text that accompanies them.
25. Create a sitemap for your site.
26. The larger your site is the better. Search engines love large sites that are easy to navigate.
27. Age counts with sites. The older your site is the more respect search engines will show it.
28. Keep your site as horizontal as possible. That is, avoid having pages over 5 levels deep.
29. Have a unique domain name. Subdomains do not carry the weight of a standalone domain.
30. Stick to .com, .net, .edu, and .org when creating a new domain.
31. Make URLS easy to read by search engines by separating keywords with dashes or underscores.
32. Use rewrite tools to make dynamic URLs more search engine friendly.
DON'Ts:
1. Don't stuff your pages with keywords. Keyword stuffing can actually get your page banned from search engines.
2. Don't use keywords that are not related to content on the page.
3. Don't use link farms and suspicious sites.
4. Don't stuff inbound or outbound links to other sites.
5. Don't create links that are not visible to humans.
6. Don't use redirects like the <refresh> metatag to move visitors from one site to another.
7. Don't use sloppy code. If your code is too sloppy your pages may not be indexable.
8. Don't use copyrighted material without permission.
9. Don't promote illegal activities on your site, or link to sites that do.
10. Don't duplicate content.
11. Don't show search engines one page and users another.
12. Don't use frames unless there is no way around it.
13. Don't use a flash homepage. Search engines can't index them.
14. Don't create a site that is mostly private.
15. Don't ban robots.
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11/14/07: Basic Steps to Optimize Your Pages For Search Engines (SEO)
While many people seem to think you need experts to optimize their pages for search engine, the fact is anyone can make their pages far more likely to be spidered favorably by following as many of the DOs and Don'ts below as possible.DOs
1. Place keywords in your pages' URLs. For instance, if your page is about dogs, work dogs into the URL of the page.
2. Work keywords into your page's content. Don't go crazy with this! If you have your keyword appear too many times your page may be penalized for keyword stuffing.
3. Use keywords in your pages' <title> tags.
4. Make page headings that use keywords (<H1>, <H2>)
5. Put keywords in links. If possible, have those who link to your site use keywords as well.
6. Work keywords into the alt tags of images.
7. Work keywords into the beginning of your pages' content
8. Place keywords in meta tags. Meta tags may not be as important as they once were, but they still have some weight with MSN and Yahoo.
9. Group keywords. Pages that have keywords strung together tend to be weighted as more important by search engines.
10. Use keywords in phrases.
11. Use secondary keywords.
12. Use synonyms as well. As an example, search engines will see words like car and automobile as being related and will weight your site favorably based upon them.
13. Keep near keyword mistypes use limited to your meta tags.
14. Get other sites to link to you.
15. Try to work to keywords into all links.
16. Links from sites similar to yours are seen as a positive by search engines.
17. Links from .edu and .gov sites are often weighted stronger.
18. List your sites in link directories.
19. Limit links going to other sites. Try to have more links coming into your site than are going out.
20. Content rules. Content that is unique to your site can really boost a sites rankings.
21. Try to change your content regularly.
22. Keep the size of your pages reasonable. Search engines do not like pages that go on forever.
23. Design your pages to work in all browsers instead of redirecting based on the user's browser.
24. Accompany videos and podcasts and flash with text. Search engines can't read flash or podcast or videos, but they can and will read the text that accompanies them.
25. Create a sitemap for your site.
26. The larger your site is the better. Search engines love large sites that are easy to navigate.
27. Age counts with sites. The older your site is the more respect search engines will show it.
28. Keep your site as horizontal as possible. That is, avoid having pages over 5 levels deep.
29. Have a unique domain name. Subdomains do not carry the weight of a standalone domain.
30. Stick to .com, .net, .edu, and .org when creating a new domain.
31. Make URLS easy to read by search engines by separating keywords with dashes or underscores.
32. Use rewrite tools to make dynamic URLs more search engine friendly.
DON'Ts:
1. Don't stuff your pages with keywords. Keyword stuffing can actually get your page banned from search engines.
2. Don't use keywords that are not related to content on the page.
3. Don't use link farms and suspicious sites.
4. Don't stuff inbound or outbound links to other sites.
5. Don't create links that are not visible to humans.
6. Don't use redirects like the <refresh> metatag to move visitors from one site to another.
7. Don't use sloppy code. If your code is too sloppy your pages may not be indexable.
8. Don't use copyrighted material without permission.
9. Don't promote illegal activities on your site, or link to sites that do.
10. Don't duplicate content.
11. Don't show search engines one page and users another.
12. Don't use frames unless there is no way around it.
13. Don't use a flash homepage. Search engines can't index them.
14. Don't create a site that is mostly private.
15. Don't ban robots.