Do’s and don’ts SEO
With Big G, making it clear that 2009 will see changes where SEO is concerned and would include more SEM and Ad bases Optimizations, it only makes sense to list down some common practices and do’s and don’ts of SEO.
This is just a basic list type article on the do’s and dont’s of SEOs.
SEO Definitely Do’s
Do #1 The <title> tag in your HTML code is a must. This tag fits between the <head> and </head> tags. The <title> tag should contain the title of the page, with the title containing the keywords to be used for the content. It is preferable to have these keywords in the first part of the title itself.
Do #2 Page URL should contain the keywords selected. If content is served up dynamically it helps to have the pages being name as static .html files. For e.g. http://www.yoursite.com/keyword-title.html is a must do. Use of “-“ helps differentiate words for search engines.
Do #3 Keyword densities should be taken care of. The primary keyword used should have a keyword density of approximate 3-5% and secondary keywords used should have a density of approximately 2-3%.
Do #4 Anchor texts or text links should contain keywords, wherever possible. If you are getting backlinks or one way links from other websites make sure that these use keywords in the link backs.
Do #5 Use of heading tags is highly recommended. Use <h1>… <h6> tags wherever you can and wherever you can use them to highlight keywords, titles, etc.
Do #6 Use keywords in the beginning of the document content. This helps search engines index your keywords faster.
Do #7 Definitely use alt tags within all image tags. Add keywords within these alt tags.
Do #8 Use Keywords meta tags. Not necessary for google but a definite for Yahoo and MSN.
Do #9 Definitely see to it that within the content the keyword proximity used is as less as possible. This counts especially where keyword phrases as possible.
Do #10 Use Secondary keyword phrases more often and do use them. Optimize your content around both primary AND secondary keywords.
Do #11 The origin of all inbound links to your website again counts and is important where Google PR is concerned. So be careful where you get linked from, and if these links are from websites that relate in any way to the content on your website, this would be added advantage for your website where Google is concerned again. Links from .edu, .gov and .org domains count more.
Do #12 The text of all internal links matters and should be keyword concentric if possible.
Do #13 The content surrounding internal links and all links should be keyword concentric too.
Do #14 The more older incoming links are, the better.
Do #15 Having links from link directories is great, especially if these links are from DMOZ, Yahoo and other such directories. But if you have a lot of links from PR0 Link directories, then it just might be considered as link spamming.
Do #16 Named anchors are another way of boosting your credibility with search engines.
Do #17 Usage of Description, keywords, robots, and author meta tags is definitely a Do. Whereas caution is advised when using the refresh metatag and is advised to use a delay of over 10 seconds and some indicative text.
Do #18 Content is king and Unique content is definitely a must. This content should be keyword concentric. Frequently updating you content goes a long way.
Do #19 Page size also matters, normally large pages should be split up into smaller ones.
Do #20 Site should be accessible and should concentrate more on user experience.
Do #21 Submitting a sitemap to Yahoo, Google and MSN goes a long way.
Do #22 Sub domains don’t play nice where SEO is concerned.
SEO Definitely Dont’s
Don’t #1 Don’t optimize for too many keywords. Use keywords more specific to your content and website.
Don’t #2 Don’t stuff your content with keywords. Keyword stuffing is definitely detrimental for your websites SEO.
Don’t #3 Don’t have many outgoing links on one page, if links are too many and are still required, split the pages up.
Don’t #4 Don’t buy links. Don’t use link farms and other suspicious sites.
Don’t #5 Don’t Cross links between sites. What this means is Site X links to Site Y links to Site Z and Site Z links back to Site X.
Don’t #6 Don’t use non visual or hardly visual links. Search Engine spiders can track these and penalize your site.
Don’t #7 Don’t have separate content which is GEO targeted or targeted on user preferences. Instead build separate sites targeting each user group.
Don’t #8 Don’t copy paste content from elsewhere. Plagiarism will get you no where and will only be detrimental to your website.
Don’t #9 Don’t use invisible links or other black hat SEO techniques.
Don’t #10 Don’t use link cloaking.
Don’t #11 Doorway pages are a big No – No where SEO is concerned.
Don’t #12 Don’t have duplicated content on your website. Your website will definitely be penalized.
Don’t #13 Albeit an image conveys a 1000 words, it is always advisable to use text instead of images where SEO is concerned.
Don’t #14 Avoid using Frames to build your websites. Instead use Divs and Ajax.
Don’t #15 Don’t have frequent downtimes. Hosting downtimes are considered to be detrimental to user experience and Search engines are known to be keeping a check and dropping your websites from their indexes due to downtimes.
Don’t #16 Don’t have too many dynamic URLs.
Don’t #17 Don’t have to many bans using the robot.txt, use “noindex” instead.
Don’t #18 Don’t use redirects, when not used properly, their usage would definitely hurt your websites rankings or can even lead to delisting.
SEO Resources
Here are some links that provide some Tools and resources, including tutorials on SEO.
http://seoresources.seoforgoogle.com/
http://freeseo.org/
http://www.myseoblog.net/
1 Response to “Do’s and don’ts SEO”
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2008.12.04 10:32
good stuff…..
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