ohkkk ... adding some stuff to what JS posted
Am not includingthe stuff/points already posted by JohnScott in first post
Beginner's Basic Technical Guidelines
These are again very very basic elements of SEO
1. Website Name
Do not keep the website's name too long. A name more than 10 alphabets long is considered to be anti-SEO. Shorter the name, better the ranking.
Try not to keep a non-english(non-dictionary) word as site's name. Try to include your most important keyword (lying at core of your business) in your site's name.
Prefer .com as extension (TLD) inplace of anything else. Especially avoid free TLD's like .tk and also country specific ones, like .in or .uk .
Instead of using a subdomain, prefer using a TLD domain name, 8$ worth your own domain name is worth this mere price.
I have lately observed, that search engines, especially google prefer domain names with '-' , for this clearly distinguishes two different words. I mean
www.web-market.com is better for SEO than
www.webmarket.com
2. Page Name
Most factors are same as above --- short, meaningful names with probably most important keyword included.
One important thing though --- Say, you have a page for support opions, named support.htm with the full url being ---- www.yoursite.com/support.htm
Then, its much better to keep it like -- www.yoursite.com/support/index.htm instead of the former.
Also, .htm, .html are preferred page extensions as compared to .asp , .php or any other dynamic page extension. Although, its not a big factor these days until sessions and querystrings are not issue .
3. Title
After the page name, then comes the page title.
The title tag is the single most important piece of content for people who search.
Keep it shor, shouldn't have more than 100-120 characters (with spaces), which is roughly 10-12 words.
Begin your title tag with your important keyword, in relevance to that particular page.
Most sites begin their title tags with their company name/brand name . This is a big mistake and don't get into this mess.
If the page is about "cumcumb" product of your company named "ABC services", then "cumcumb, the ________ by ABC services" is much better than "ABC services present, cumcumb, the_________).
Keep the title tag of each page different and relevant to that page.
Avoid using words and phrases like "best, the most, the best site, etc." in your title tags.
Try having different title for all of your pages. (same for meta tags)
3. Meta Tags (JS has already said about these, just some additional points
)
Description Meta Tag is now-a-days more important than keywords tag for all major search engines.
Description Meta Tag
This is these days the most important meta tag in your site.
The description tag is not nearly as important as the title. However, it does have some value. Write it as a summary and keep it under thirty words. It should be written in a compelling, clear manner.
Again, don't use phrases like "the best site on internet" etc., rather use targetted words/phrases like "asp scripts, ABC software support etc. on this page"
Keyword Meta Tag:
As a matter of a protocol, you must include this, but don't waste much attention to it. Since, its more or less obselete these days, and has the least importance among almost all factors.
Author and other tags:
Avoid using these tags, since they are of no value to search engines. These tags just add to non-important(search engine point of view) part of your page.
Also, many search bots are designed just so as to go through first few bytes/kilobytes of your page. So, adding these extra tags will just decrease the chances of getting all your meaningful content indexed by bots.
4. Images and Links:
Avoid using Image links, since a serach bot can't read text on an image. Also, do not use images for important headers/headings in your page, rather use normal text.
With each image, include title and alt tags --- meaningful !
Also, include title tag with all your text hyperlinks too.
5. Page Structure -- H1, H2 tags (Again JS has said about them, still adding something to these
) :
Search bots always look for these tags in your pages, and treat text between these tags as most important.
Hence, for all your important headers/captions on page, use <h1> , <h2> etc. tags. Wait, don't shout at me --
I know these tags look ugly.
For the purpose of proper display, override these tag settings with CSS like :
<H1 class='yourtextclass'> HeadingOfBlock </H1> , where 'youtrextclas' is CSS class for nice display of apparently ugly HTML tags.
6. Menu Layouts and javascript
:
Avoid using javascript driven menus, since most bot programs are unable to comprehend them.
If you want to use such a menu, then also include all your major links in your footer or in the header, making a top-menu row or anything else you want.
There are many other points like :
avoid use of flash, use of session, dynamic applications, keyword density, page size, use of graphics, RSS, feed syndication, link density, inbound/outbound links, different C-class links , use of softwares, site submission etc. Will be posting these shortly.
Above all, try and keep your stuff as organised, unique and clean as you can.
Ummm .. just reckoned of a very point...
Avoid using client side redirection
say for example , you have site www.mysite.com
and your index page redirects to www.yoursite.com/forums/
Then never use client side redirection with javascript or meta tags.
Rather use server side redirection with ASP or PHP for that matter.
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