Search Engine Optimization Tips

Do’s & Don’ts of SEO:
While optimizing your website certain points need to be kept in mind. These SEO tips, if taken care of, can improve your chances of getting higher rankings in search engine results and if ignored, can result in your site either being penalized or getting banned altogether.

The Do’s of SEO:

• Keyword Research: Identify all the major keywords for your website that your visitor or prospective client is likely to use. Tools like Wordtracker and Overture can help you identify your top keywords. Make sure the keywords are related to the product or services that you want to promote through your website. These keywords should be used within the content in an optimum manner instead of just filling out the content with keywords or not using them at all. Search engines do look for keywords inside the content as well while ranking a page.

• Filename: It really helps in your ranking if your filename consists of important keywords.

• Title tag: Write a brief description, comprising of keywords, for each web page of your site in the title tag. Search engines do look into the title tags and then compare it with the content of that web page. Hence, the title should be a reflection of what the web page is all about. Never go for long, irrelevant titles.

• Meta tags: The Meta tags should be optimized with keywords keeping in mind the content and underlying idea of the web page. Update them regularly.

• Description Tag: The description of 25-30 words should consist of main keywords, used preferably in the beginning.

• Site map: Your site should have a site map, which will be helpful to both the visitors as well as the search engines. While looking for pages, the search engines do crawl this page looking for the most appropriate content page. The site map should be linked to and from each page of your website especially the home page. The links should be in text instead of being written in JavaScript, cgi or using graphics.

• Link Building: Try to get quality links to your site from other supplementary, relevant sites. This will definitely boost your search engine rankings. Be sure the search engines index the sites giving links to you.

• ALT tag: Always use ALT tag wherever images are used. This will allow the search engines to read the text used in ALT tag. You can use this tag to highlight your keywords.

• Content Updation: Search engines do give value to those sites, which put up new, fresh content on their sites frequently. So keep updating your content and make sure that you resubmit those pages.

• Dynamic pages: Search engines are not able to index dynamic pages having variables like “%”, “&”, “$”, “=”, “+”, or “?” in their URL. So in case you have to add dynamic pages to your site make sure that you use scripts, which make dynamic pages appear to search engines as static pages.

The Don’ts of SEO:

• Doorway pages: Never make use of doorway pages for getting higher rankings. This practice of using doorway pages is also known as “Cloaking”. Doorway pages are those pages, which have over optimized content, high keyword density, are submitted to search engines and linked to actual websites but are never seen by the visitors. If search engines identify such doorway pages being used by you, there’s always a chance of your site getting banned.

• Using Graphics: Don’t use too much graphic on your website. Search engines can’t read across graphics.

• Meta keywords: Don’t end up using irrelevant keywords within the Meta tag just to attract traffic. Search engines compare whether the keywords placed in this tag are actually being used within the content or not.

• Link Farms: While giving links make sure you don’t end up building a link farm. The popular search engines like Google now ban sites having link farms.

• Invisible Text: Avoid optimizing the site using invisible text with content in the same color as the background. Search engines may consider this as spam resulting in your site being penalized.

• Frames: Search engines can’t crawl through frames. So if at all you have to use, use them in a limited manner or make use of techniques that deal with frames.

• Flash: While building your website don’t make use of too much Flash or similar technology as the search engines can’t read the content written within them.

• Automated Software: Don’t make use of automated softwares to submit your site’s URLs to different search engines repeatedly. This may be considered Spam. Manual submissions are always a better and safe practice, as you can know about any problems during submission, if there are any.

• Duplication: Don’t submit web pages to search engines having similar content with different filenames. Search engines may detect such pages and ban such web pages.

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