What is SEO? Search Engine Optimization is the process of modifying your website and creating links to increase your rank in the SERPs. (Search Engine Result Page(s)Here's a list of what I personally consider to be some of the top ranking factors for Google's Algorithm:
Metatags:
Title: Keep it short, think keyword density = priority, place your most important keywords here! Make sure each page within your website has a unique title describing that particular page.
Description: Not nearly important as the title but definately worth optimizing if you want to have a chance at getting decent results in MSN. Make sure you include the keywords that are used in your description in your body text of the webpage as well to give it more priority. Also make sure you use unique descriptions on each page to avoid Google's Supplemental Index of hell.
Keyword metatag: This tag is suggested to not even be used by Google for a long time, however google will penalize you if you spam keywords in your metatag. Strange isn't it? Some search engines do use keyword tags though so it's worth keeping in the code. Just don't use words in the keyword tag that do not appear within the content of your webpage or you may get penalized for keyword spamming as well. Another reason why I advise to add a keyword tag is because I believe (theory here) that google rates webpages based on how complete it is. Meaning it has all the traditional metatags, etc. There's no proof to back this up, but I suggest doing so. Again this tag isn't very important but could still get some extra hits. It can't hurt you if you use it right.
Body Content: Extremely important! Take special attention to the very 1st sentence that appears on your website, keywords that appear close to the top of the page are given higher priority! You should also repeat your most important keywords throughout the body content of your website, but don't spam! While keyword density is an important factor you can still add enough keywords through natural content without having to spam or use black hat techniques.
Internal Links: Make sure your website is spider friendly! This means that google bot can easily navigate through your site because you have a thorough internal link structure. Make sure you link to all of your pages if you want them to be indexed in google. Also note that you can register with google's webmaster tools where you can include a sitemap.xls and view statistics about how people are searching for your site. This will also help you analize and improve your search results.
External Links: DO NOT over do it with too many external links. Each time you give a link to another website it's like giving them some of your PageRank and if you have too many external links you can reduce your ranking in the SERPs. If you need to have a lot of external links, make sure you use a "nofollow" tag so you don't give out all your PageRank juice! Do not link to bad neighborhoods such as adult sites, gambling, etc. this can get your site penalized!
URL Name: If you haven't registered a domain name yet then choose one with your main target keywords if you can. It's not recommendable to use your company name if it says nothing about what you do. Domain names play a major part of SEO and can get you into top ranking positions without much effort if you have a good domain name with your keywords. If you already have a domain name, you can create folders or pages within your site and put your keywords in the URL name. This will definately help you rank higher in the search engines.
Regionalize: If you deal with a local market, make sure you mention the area where you offer your services. This can greatly increase your chances of ranking higher for those specific areas when people do a search for your products. Use proper language metatags if your site is in another language.
Backlinks & Anchor Text: This is one of the single most important factors. By creating many links pointing to your website, it's like creating votes for your website. It is extremly important to include your keywords in the actual link that points to your site. Get links for different keyword phrases from websites with your keywords in their URLS that your link is coming from. Make sure those keywords appear on the page your linking to (somewhere near the top of the page) and you will break the search engines in half! (In other words you will do very well ;)
Reciprocal Linking: While this type of linking is often frowned upon, it can still get you some very good traffic. It's not a bad idea to create a reciprocal link page within your site to be able to trade links with high PageRank directories or websites. Just don't over do it and choose links that will benefit you. They should mention your keywords on their site (relevancy) if possible, but not necessary.
There's too many factors in Google Algorithm to really know what makes it tick, but if you apply these methods I guarantee you will do better in the search engines.
Thanks for reading,
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