| The Top 10 Do's and Don'ts of SEO |
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A person can spend years trying to learn all the ins and outs of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Most people don't have that kind of time to invest so here is a rundown of the most important things you need to do to optimize your site. This will be separated in two lists one for things you need to do and one for the things you need to make sure you're NOT doing (or you may get penalized and sent to the back of the line). The Top 10 Dos of SEO:
1. Pick a domain name that contains your main keywords or key phrase.
2. Use search engine friendly URLs. This is especially important when using a database driven website that may have long URLs. Here is an example: http://yourdomain-with-keywords.com/test/index.php?option=com_content§ionid=568&cid[]=998 Place keywords within your URL. For example don't just call a service page "services.html" or "/services". If you sell wedding cakes in Portland call your service page "weddingcakesportland.html" or "/weddingcakesportland".
3. Make sure to place your keyword/phrase in your title tag, but don't over do it. A couple Key phrases will do. Example <title>Wedding Cakes Portland - Your Business Name</title>. This should be unique to every page on your site.
4. Use your description meta tag. This should be one to two sentences and it should explain the content on the page while containing keywords/phrases in the order they appear on the page. This should be unique to every page on your site.
5. Content - Content - Content..... Make sure that the content on your site is not only useful and interesting to your visitors, but that it also contains your keywords/phases. Place them in the order of importance throughout the content.
6. <H1>Heading Tags... Use this tag for you main keyword/phrase. You will generally see this as a title (not a title tag - don't confuse the two) for the site or as a heading of a page article. For example if you wrote a page about wedding cake styles the heading would be <H1>Wedding Cake Styles </H1>. The <H1> heading tag is very large by default so I suggest using some CSS to customize the size and appearance.
7. Links within your site. Have at least a couple of links to other areas of you site placed within each page's content. This should contain the keywords/phrase that is optimized for the page it is linked to. For example if you have a page optimized for the key phrase"affordable wedding cakes" the link to that page should be affordable wedding cakes.
8. Inbound links (external links)! This is very important. You need to get as many ONE WAY (not reciprocal links as in a link exchange) links to your site as you can. These links should come from other sites that are in you genre. In addition the better ranking they have the better it is for you. The link coming from that site should contain your keywords/phrase. Most people make the mistake of using their company name as the link text when they need to use their keywords/phrase.
9. Use your alt or title tags for all of your photos (this of course doesn't include backgrounds or design graphics). Write your keyword/phrase in these tags, but don't over do it and don't repeat the same key phrase. Make each tag unique.
10. Keywords Meta Tags... I place this last because it is becoming less and less important, but it is still a good idea to use it. The keywords meta tag should contain your keywords/phrases separated by comas and should be placed in the order of importance. That 's it.
The Top 10 Dont's of SEO:
1. Don't duplicate your content. This includes page content, title tags, keywords meta data, and description meta data.
2. Don't place hidden text on your website. This can be in the form of tiny text, text that is the same color as the background, or text hidden through other means.
3. Don't have too many outbound links from your site especially on your home page.
4. Don't over do it with your keywords. If you just repeat the same keywords/phrase over and over again on the same page it will be viewed as spam. This also goes for anywhere else you place your keywords/phrases (title tags, description meta data)
5. Don't get involved with web rings or other link exchange programs.
6. Don't receive too many inbound links too fast. This may work against you. You should focus on getting no more than 30 to 50 a month.
7. Don't overstuff your pages with javascript. This makes it harder for the search engine to get to the actual content of your page for indexing. If you need to use javascript you should call it externally. This goes for CSS as well.
8. Don't use flash for your main site navigation. Even though search engines are getting better at reading flash text it is still a good idea to follow this rule. If you do want to use flash for you navigation make sure to either supplement it with an HTML navigation (this can be your links at the bottom of the page) or use a SE Friendly flash navigation system.
9. Don't place your content within flash or graphics that are difficult or unreadable by the search engines.
10. Don't use redirects that sneakily send a visitor off to another page. If you do need to redirect a page or domain it should be done through a permanent 301 redirect.
If you follow these basic rules it should help to increase your SERP (Search Engine Result Position).
Jeremy Morris
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