SEO Elements

Take a moment and reflect on the top SEO elements needed to achieve top search engine rankings.

CONTENT

Content is KING in SEO! Post quality non redundant content on your page. Update your content frequently so your visitors have a reason to come back to your site. If you update and post quality content, one of the hardest SEO elements has been accomplished.

INCOMING LINKS

If content is KING, then incoming links are Queen. You cannot have success in the search engines if you do not have quality links pointing to your web pages. Notice that I said pages and note site. Each page within your site has to have links pointing to them.

TITLE TAGS

Create unique title tags for all your pages within your site. Try to include your keywords in your title tags whenever possible.

XML Site Map

Create an XML Sitemap. What better way to have your pages found and indexed by search engines than to hand them a list of your pages on a silver platter?

INTERNAL LINKING

Links from other niche related sites might be the most valuable, but don't forget about adding links within your page. Contextual linking from one of your pages to another can help increase your link count.

URL STRUCTURE

Dynamic URLs are better than Static URL's. In other words would you rather look at a url that has a lot of Id#30&-618 or a URL that is easier to read such as blackitsoft.com/seo-for-website/seo-for-website.aspx Use a URL re-write and use your keywords in the URL when possible.

META DESCRIPTION

Use a meta description that includes your keywords. This is your selling point and will show up underneath your link in the search engines.

NAVIGATION AND MENUS

Make sure all your navigation and menu links work properly, nothing will frustrate a search engine spider more than a broken link. Also, make sure your menus are search engine friendly.

HEADER TAGS

This one is simple, USE Them!

IMAGE ALT TAGS

Image alt tags should be included in some of the images on your page. These image alt tags should contain keywords if it's appropriate to the picture.

404 ERROR PAGE

Create a custom 404 error page. If the search engine spiders are scanning your page and reach a broken link, they have no way to get back to your site.

META KEYWORDS

Search engines don't really place a value on Meta Keyword tags anymore, however I like to use them as a reminder to which keywords im optimizing for. For the people who are thinking users will come and steal your keywords... your probably right.

ROBOTS.TXT FILE

This file tells the search engines what to not index. If you have a TOS page or a check out page that you do not want indexed under any circumstances, then you need a robots.txt file.