Top 50 SEO Tips
SEO TIP 50: Build a few web pages for experimental purposes. See how ranking responds to specific tweaks. Log your finding and progress.
SEO TIP 49: Change web pages that consistently rank poorly. META, TITLE and even content. Without improvement, change every 3-4 months.
SEO TIP 48: If you sell products, create merchant accounts with Yahoo Shopping, Amazon, eBay, etc. Let those resources work for you.
SEO TIP 47: If you sell physical products, publish them in Google Products. Implement descriptive keyword phrases in your XML posts.
SEO TIP 46: If one page has 2 links pointing to the same location, Google only considers the text and attributes of the first link.
SEO TIP 45: Search engine spiders may see “WWW.domain.com” and “domain.com” as 2 separate websites, therefore cutting link-juice in half.
SEO TIP 44: There are four primary factors influencing keyword ranking: (1) The content of your website, (2) Your pagerank or “online authority”, (3) Stickness or likability of your website and (4) Your social media activity.
“Human factors matter. SEO friendly efforts must also be human friendly.”
SEO TIP 43: Be patient with SEO. It may take weeks for SEO changes to take effect. Make sure prior changes take root before changing again.
SEO TIP 42: You can optimize for more than websites. Depending on your business model, SEO can apply to video, audio, images, social media posts and articles.
SEO TIP 41: “Article swapping” is not a valid method to generate content if the content is duplicated with an original content source.
SEO TIP 40: Google AdWords states that a “www” before your domain name increases clicks. Carry this through to SEO with canonicalization.
SEO TIP 39: Your “h1” tag should integrate the focus keywords used in your TITLE and META descriptions. Stick to a tight keyword theme.
SEO TIP 38: Every web page should include a keyword-based headline tag “h1”. Maintain font size with style tags.
SEO TIP 37: Implement search-friendly URLs. Many shopping carts and CMS’ use dynamic links that interfere with search engine indexing.
SEO TIP 36: Site ranking can be punished for having bad inbound links and for linking to bad sites such as link farms.
SEO TIP 35: Human factors matter. SEO friendly efforts must also be human friendly. Once you gain clicks, you still need to make the sale.
SEO TIP 34: Search engines do not actually prefer fresh content over static content. If you content is always changing, Google can’t lock-down rankings. Be sure that all web pages some some static content, even if it is a news or article website.
SEO TIP 33: Domain registrars sell ownership privacy protection. Don’t buy it if interested in SEO! The search engines want transparency.
SEO TIP 32: The content around a link carries weight for the linked page. Be descriptive and integrate targeted keywords.
SEO TIP 31: Don’t try to do too much with one web page. Likewise don’t try to do too much with one web site. Search engines want focus.
SEO TIP 30: Use the “STRONG” tag to emphasize targeted keywords. Use “BOLD” for aesthetics, where the phrase is not targeted for ranking.
SEO TIP 29: Maintain clean website code. Follow WC3 standards as best as possible, fix broken links & images, remove 404 errors, no frames, use static URLs.
SEO TIP 28: Fast site indexing for Google can occur through Google-owned media, including Blogger, Knol, Buzz, Google News, and YouTube.
SEO TIP 27: Link quality is more important than link quantity. The sum of the inbound pagerank (link juice) is what matters.
SEO TIP 26: Don’t hyperlink generic text like “buy now” or “click here.” Use keyword-based content in your links. This is called “anchor text.”
SEO TIP 25: Use descriptive content for items in your shopping cart. Don’t call it “item 13324”.
“Perform keyword research to identify phrases used to represent your products and services.”
SEO TIP 24: Regularly add new content to your website. Blogs, tips and articles work well. As the footprint of your website grows, so will the opportunity to capture more rankings.
SEO TIP 23: Implement keyword research when writing articles and newsletters. Host the content on your website with clean navigation.
SEO TIP 22: Don’t like begging for inbound links? Try writing articles and submitting them to article submission sites. Target ~450 words. Or create a link bait website that links to your primary website. Business directories can also provide inbound links.
SEO TIP 21: Do not use a pure Flash or graphical home page. Always make sure you have a healthy amount of content and solid navigation.
SEO TIP 20: Use Google Webmaster Tools to identify up-and-coming rankings. Optimize these search ranking impressions and watch them climb.
SEO TIP 19: When you engage in PPC, you can save money by not bidding on phrases where you already have strong organic rankings.
SEO TIP 18: The length of time your domain is reserved can influence pagerank. A long registration period indicates long-term ambitions.
SEO TIP 17: Many Tier 1 search engines factor in the age of a domain name when determining pagerank. It established business maturity.
SEO TIP 16: SEO friendly web design begins with keyword research. Keywords should influence domains, page names, tags/attributes & content.
SEO TIP 15: Never allow a 404 error. Implement error handling to bounce 404 errors back to your website. Consider turning a 404 into a 301 redirect to your home page.
SEO TIP 14: The use of “301 redirects” are critical for transferring established ranking from an old website to a new web design.
SEO TIP 13: Minimize the amount of duplicate content throughout your website. Do NOT let your home page be a compilation of article/blog snippets from other parts of your website, which results in duplicate content.
SEO TIP 12: Build web pages and not list items “li”. Rather than displaying a list of services/products, dedicate a web page to each item.
SEO TIP 11: Don’t pass on “link juice” unless necessary. Use the [rel=”nofollow”] attribute if you don’t want link credit passed on.
SEO TIP 10: Submit to more than only the Tier 1 search engines. Tier 2 search engines can drive traffic, and count as inbound links.
SEO TIP 9: For any page intended for SEO, include a minimum of 200 words per page. Make sure the content is supported by keyword research.
SEO TIP 8: Build an XML and HTML sitemap to ensure thorough search engine bot crawling. Free online sitemap resources can help you.
SEO TIP 7: If you service only a local community, optimize your website for that community. Tap the local biz tools of each search engine.
SEO TIP 6: Google has declared that page-load speed will impact search engine ranking. Page load speed should be under 2 seconds.
SEO TIP 5: Include at least 1 outbound link to a non-competitive authority website in your industry, but not from your home page.
SEO TIP 4: Implement keyword-friendly title and alt attributes to links and images. Similarly, use keywords in your web page names.
SEO TIP 3: Perform keyword research to identify phrases used to represent your products and services. Each page optimized to a unique word.
SEO TIP 2: Don’t try to optimize too many keywords on one page. Keep a narrow focus and keyword theme on a page by page basis.
SEO TIP 1: Use META tags for your Title, Description and Keywords. Keep META tags relevant to the content of each individual page.