FAQ: Search Engine Optimization

[webnology]

Truly amazing. Thx Stymiee!

[dotcompals]

post of great value.
thanks a lot.

[jessiejames27]

Great Article! thanks for the post stymiee..

very informative, i learned a lot from this thread..

What should you remember from this lesson?

Before you write one line of code:

* Do keyword research to determine what keywords you want to target.

While constructing your website you should do the following:

* Use markup to indicate the content of your site
o Optimize your <title> tags on each page to contain 1 - 3 keywords
o Create unique Meta Tags for each page
o Use header tags appropriately (H1 > H2 > H3)
o Use <b> and <i> tags if appropriate
* Optimize your URLs
o Use Search Engine Friendly URLs
o Use keywords in your domain (http://www.keyword1.com/)
o Use keywords in your URL (http://www.example.com/keyword2/keyword3.html)
o Use dashes or underscores to separate words in your URLs (keyword2-keyword3.html)
* Optimize your content
o Use keywords liberally yet appropriately throughout each page
o Have unique content
o Have quality content
* Use search engine friendly design
o Create a human sitemap
o Do not use inaccessible site navigation (JavaScript or Flash menus)
o Minimize outbound links
o Keep your pages under 100K in size
o Keep the number of links on a page to less then 100
* Design the navigational structure of the site to channel PR to main pages (especially the homepage)
* Create a page that encourages webmasters to link to your site
o Provide them the relevant HTML to create their link to you (make sure the anchor text contains keywords)
o Provide them with any images you may want them to use (although text links are better)
* Make sure your website is complete before launching it

Immediately after launching your site you should do the following:

* Create Webmaster Accounts
o Google Webmaster Tools
o Yahoo! Site Explorer
o Live Search Webmaster Center
* Submit your site to all three major search engines
o Google
o Yahoo (Use the page list option)
o MSN
* Create an XML sitemap
* Submit your site to all free directories
o DMOZ (also powers Google Directory)
o JoeAnt
* Submit your site to relevant directories (directory lists below)
o Directory Critic
o Directory Rate
o ISEDB
* Begin a link building campaign (attempting to get keywords in the link anchor text)
o Put a link to your website in your forum signatures (hint hint)
o Reply to relevant blog posts (Don't spam please)

If you will pay to promote your website:

* Submit your site to pay directories
o Yahoo
o GoGuides

Finally, as part of an ongoing strategy:

* Continually update your website with quality, unique content
* Continually seek free links preferably from sites in your genre

Do NOT do the following:

* Make an all Flash website (without an HTML alternative)
* Use JavaScript or Flash for navigation
* Spam other websites for incoming links
* Launch your site before it is done
* Use duplicate content
o Do not point several domains to one site without using a 301 redirect
o Do not make a site of duplicated content from other websites
* Use markup inappropriately
o Style <H>eader tags to look like regular text
o Hide content using 'display: hidden' (for the sake of hiding text)
* Use other "black hat" techniques (unless you accept the risk - Banning from the SERPs)
o Doorway/Landing pages
o Cloaking
o Hidden text

[ezwoodz]

thanks, nice resources

[saleelm03]

very much helpful information

[bcdxer]

great value informations
thanks

[freestylerYus]

great article Stymiee thanks for the info.

[hem]

Excellent resource for me. I have bookmarked this thread. Thanks.

[lajocar]

Thanks for great info.

[xtazi]

I have a new website up and i really wanted to know about search engine optimization. One thing is very exciting as there will never be an end to knowing serp. They frequently change their methods and it keeps me interested.

[Dan Schulz]

Actually the only thing that changes frequently is their anti-spam tactics. If people would stop trying to game (read: manipulate) the system, then the search engines could focus on serving relevant results and everyone would be a lot better off for it.

[mokmok69]

I already read your article and I find it really helpful thanks for sharing this to us.

[Sharonj]

Hi,
This information gives a great start to optimizing websites. thank you for all of your tips. They are appreciated

[sarika.s]

thanks master

[stymiee]

I just got called master!

[nuttakorn]

What do you think about weight of value of path between the file name like : www.domain.com/discount.hotels./ or www.domain.com/discount_hotels, or www.domain.com/discount-hotels

[morph07]

What do you think about weight of value of path between the file name like : www.domain.com/discount.hotels./ or www.domain.com/discount_hotels, or www.domain.com/discount-hotels

hmmmm never thought of it actually..i will search an article about that issue..

[Dan Schulz]

Well, I don't use periods as separators in the URL (is it even allowed?) but the dash and underscore are considered equal by all the major search engines now.

[stymiee]

What do you think about weight of value of path between the file name like : www.domain.com/discount.hotels./ or www.domain.com/discount_hotels, or www.domain.com/discount-hotels

What's really funny is this question is answered in this FAQ.

[impari Ingles]

Great Article, Thanks a lot.. I need to check it all

[selfhelpebooks]

Wow..that is a lot of links, thank you for the information.
There is so much to SEO that one can spend years reading and reading!
I usually tell people that content is king!

[matt.bush]

This is great information! Content is king, and high quality links are the lifeblood of a site.

Matt

[matt.bush]

(duplicate post)

[jessianand]

Thank stymiee...

and plz Place your SEO RELATED BLOG ONLY with your contact ur id forl ink exchange

[bustacapinya]

Thank you for the link to the PR Extension for Firefox! That was my only reason for ever using IE to actually browse... to check the PR of a site. Now I can do it in a much less obtrusive manner in Firefox!! Just one MORE powerpoint for Firefox. The King of Browsers!

be careful, because even google states that this is not a feature you should rely on to give you a realistic view of your PR, they say they update it in 3 month increments?

regards