SEO Tips, Free SEO Guide, Search Engine Optimization, Google SEO Tips, SEO Whitepaper

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SearchEngineOptimization(SEO)Checklist

1 . D o ma i nN a me Mostsearchenginesdo look at domainnameswhen rankingpages,but the direct benefit of havingkeywordsin your domainis very small. Thereis alsoan indirect benefit to havinga keyword-richdomainnamerSearchEngineslike Googlethat factor link popularityinto their rankingalgorithmsoften also look at the anchor text of incoming links. In other words,the text usedin a text link that pointsto your site should- as far as possible- containyour keyword.If your site is about purplewidgets,you want peopteto tink to you using"purplewidgets"as the link text. Like this: Hereis a goodsite aboutpurplewidgets. Not like this: Hereis a goodsite about purplewidgets. But this is of coursein the handsof the webmasterlinkingto you. Howdo you increasethe probabilitythat they will link to you usingyour keywords?Yes,keywords in the domain.Manypeopte(I'm one of them) preferto link likethis: PurpleWidgets This is a good site about purplewidgets www.purple-widgets. com Apart from SEOconsiderations, there are other (arguablymore important)considerations when choosinga domainname.

A good domain is: o o o .

shoft, €?sYto say and spell, descriptive and memorable.

You should be able to say it over the telephoneonce and the other person should know how to spell it and they should know what you sell. If you can do that AND work keywords in there, good for you. If you can't, skip the keywords.

2 . F i l e N a me The sameapplieshere.The filenameshouldpreferablybe short and descriptive.Havingkeywordsin the filenamehelps,but not a wholelot. By the way, if you do use keywordsin the domainor filename,separatethem with hyphensrather than underscores. Googlesees seo-checklist as seochecklist(good) but it sees (not good) seo_checklist as seochecklist

3. Content is King! The "bait" for search engine spiders to find your site Searchengines'primaryway to locateyour site are the keywordsor phraseson the site that match the searcher'ssearch. Withoutthesebeingsomewhereon your site, it'll simply not be displayedin the searchengine'sresults. The actualpagecontentshouldhave a keyworddensityof about 20olo and shouldweighin at about 200 - 500 words- but there are as many opinionsaboutthis as there are SEOexperts.Somesay keyworddensityshouldbe 5oloand somesay it shouldbe 2Ao/o. Thereis more consensusabout pagelength @ 200 words.Thosethat disagreeusuallysay it should be more. Somesay it shouldbe 500. Thereis no exact rule of thumb here. I've seenlongerpages doingvery well in the searchengineresultspagesfor highlycompetitivekeywordsso longermight be better. Don't fuss too muchabout this. Keepthe file sizeunder 101Kthough becauseGoogle chopsanythingabovethat.

4. Layout & Design o o e o o o o

You should have more !eX[ content than HTMLelements. etc,) unlessabsolutelynecessary. No fancystuff (Flash,Splash,AnimatedGifs,Rollovers No Frames.This often causesthe userto scrollright to view your completepage.Do not assumethat they'lldo this. If you needJavaScript, callit from an externalfile ratherthan dumpingthe No JavaScript. codein the HTMLfile.lavaScriptdropdownmenuspreventspidersfrom crawlingbeyond your homepage.If you usethem, be sure to includetext links at the bottomof the page. No ads if possible.Doesanyonelike pop-upads? Nothingthat doesnot fit perfectlyinto the pagetopic; Thereshouldbe no doubt in the searchengine'smind(or in he user'smind)what your pageis about. No unnecessary directories.Keepyour files as closeto the root as possible.

5. Page Title Thepagetitle weighsheavilyin the algorithmsof all the majorsearchengines,so be preparedto spendsometime on it. Here's what to look for: o o o o

Write an accurate,keyword-richpagetitle of about up to 100 characters. Do not includestopwords(and,the, a etc.) in the title. Thatjust wastesspace. its content. Rememberthat eachpagecan (and should)havea uniquetitle characterizing Remember that the title is the first and probablythe only thingthe searcherwill lookat in the searchresults.Havinga keywordlist as title mightget you listedhigher(if you'renot penalized), but it's lesslikelyto get clickedthan a wellstructuredtitle. Syntax: In the HEADsectionof the site add: Your

Kevword-Rich,

Descr:ipl-ive

Paqe Trtle

Her:e

6. Meta Tags The generalconsensusamongSEOexpertsis that the meta description tag is usedas a "snippet" in searchengineresults(seePOINT#1below).The areasjust belowthe linksreturnedfrom a Googlesearchresultfor "Austrialiantravel", showthe snippetsthat are so importantin whethera potentialprospectclicksto go to your websiteor NOT. If the searchenginecrawlerfinds no meta description,it then looksfor the first availablereadabletext to displayand usesthat as the snippet. snippet(seePOINT#2below). Oftenthis resultsin a jumbled,irrelevant-to-the-search

Allinl Travel Ireland - ever.ythingyou needto Travel to Ireland POINT#{ lf you wouldliketo exchangeAustrialiantravellinks,pleaseemailyourlink exchangedetailsto our webmasterat the fo*lowingemailaddress:Austrailian... - Similarpages www.allin1-travel.comilinksaustrialia. htm- 10k - Cached ***December 23. 2004 SydneyA.{ZSapphirePrincess*** - Topic ... You can fly to the banierreefand bookpackagesthroughaustrialiantravel agents.byefor nowjeff Posts:198| From:ca I Registered: 05-21-01.... - 101kmessages.cruisecritic.com/21 OpenTopic?a=tpc&f=4763056957&m=5913037067 Cached - Similar pages

Raining Cats and Dogs POINT#2......AustrialianShepherdTravelMug.Price:$16.95.StainlessSteelMug. Quantity:Travel Mugs. gallery.bcentral.com/Gallery/ProductDetails. - 9k - Cached - Similarpages aspx?GlD=5021962&PlD=2588842&page=1&sortOrder=0

Here'show to use MetaTags: Syntax: In the HEADsectionof the site add: (meta name:"keywords" content:"KEYWORDlKEYWORD2 KEYPHRASE1 etc. about 30 to 40 unique words")