Search Engine Optimization

I work in the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) industry and spend many hours optimizing client websites. For the uninformed, SEO is the, well, art of getting a website to rank well with search engines through the use of great content and sensible structure (my opinion). SEO is an inexact science and often relies on a lot of theory and commonly held beliefs since the search engines themselves reveal little about the precise ways in which they work. That being said, there are valuable nuggets of information out there that can be helpful. This is a collection of sites and other information that I find useful.

Helpful Search Engine Optimization Websites (in no particular order of preference):

Here's a few things that I think are important to any SEO campaign:

  • Today's SEO should go hand in hand with site conversions (particularly important for e-commerce). What good are top rankings for your site if visitors don't hang around long enough to get engaged?
  • Page Title Tags should actually reflect what's being talked about on the page.
  • Page Description Tags should include content that pulls in readers from the search engine results pages (SERPS) rather than just spewing keywords. These tags are commonly used in the SERPS to shed a bit of light on what the link will show the visitor...make them count.
  • Don't sweat keyword density, that's a tactic from years past. Just focus on creating some good, human-readable, content that happens to naturally include your keywords. Reading text written specifically for a search engine sucks and I should know having worked in the past for a company that did nothing but that.
  • Try to use only one or two keyword phrases per page. Yes, that means if you have 50 pet keyword phrases, you'll want to create somewhere around 50 pages to support them. You want top results right? You'll have to pay the price to get them. If you try to mash all those keywords into a couple of pages, you've blown the focus of those pages in the eyes of the search engines. I dare say your site's readers will be challenged to figure out what you're talking about too.
  • Design counts. If you don't provide an organized design for your visitors, don't expect them to hang around too long on your site. On the same token, if you're an e-commerce operation, keep up with the times and don't allow your site to become outdated...would you trust a site that looks like it came out of the '90's with your money?
  • Provide easy navigation for your visitors and ensure every page is linked in a consistent manner. If you talk about a great sale for a particular product, use some anchor text to push visitors to the product. Don't trust them to find the products on their own...lead them by the hand.
  • Use Alt tags for all non-structural images and use Title tags on all hyperlinks.
  • Use page names that make sense and give hints as to what a visitor can expect. (e.g. /article/seo-ideas.htm rather than /article/11183.htm)
  • Avoid session ID's and queries in URL's when you can. Search engines don't like session ID's and tend to get hung up on queries after a certain point. Most modern blog/e-commerce systems can be set to avoid these pitfalls if you do your research.
  • Use a custom 404 error page rather than whatever bland, black and white page the server uses as a default. Sooner or later, your visitors will stumble upon a 404 error on your site so give your 404 page some loving and provide a link on the page for visitors to extricate themselves from the problem. If you want to be really nice, you'll style the page in the same format as the rest of your site. It can be done...this site does a nice 404 page in most areas by default.

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