How to improve your site’s visibility in search engines
So, for those of us who don’t always stay up-to-date on the latest search engine optimization trends, here’s Google’s handy Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide. (By the way, in an effort to dot my i’s and cross my t’s this year, I just looked up the value of putting a title attribute on my link. The jury seems to consistently say that there is no value for SEO, but the <title> tage adds accessibility value. So, it’s a low SEO priority) .
SEO Gold provides a terrifically well-written analysis of the SEO value of the various tags and attributes for anchor text, updated for Google Panda.
Summary of Google’s Starter Guide to SEO
Google’s guide is a very pragmatic summary of search engine optimization best practices from Google’s perspective. The top nine points:
1. Learn about and use meta tags such as titles and descriptions. Use heading tags <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, etc to break up your text and help Google understand how your content is organized. Bolding, italicizing, and other formatting does not carry as much weight. treat each page as an outline and highlight the most important concepts as headers. Then expand on those in paragraph format.
2. Keep your site structure simple. Organize your site logically, so it is easy to navigate, and use breadcrumbs so users can find their way around. Use relevant words in your URLs, keep them as short as possible, so they are memorable, and make sure they are simple, plain English. Use site maps – one for users, one for search engines, one HTML, one XML. Have a useful 404 page.
3. Keep your users in mind when you write. Your site’s customers are not the search engines: the search engines are just the way your users find your website. So, organize your content well. Write interesting content that is useful, relevant to your users and highlights your excellent products and expertise.
4. Choose your anchor text with care. When you link to content on other sites or within your own site, remember that Google treats that content preferentially. Make the link text relevant to the content the visitor will find. Keep the anchor link text short and simple. Format links so they’re easily identifiable as links.
5. Manage images well. Have a dedicated directory. Use common formats, such as *.jpg and *.png. Name your images using words relevant to the image itself (don’t rely on your camera’s default names :->.) Use relevant <alt> tags, including when you (rarely) choose to usa an image as a link. (By the way, your navigation links should be be text wherever possible.) Provide an image site map.
6. Manage crawlers effectively, using rel=”nofollow” for, say, comments on your blog where you cannot vouch for the reputation or relevance of the commenter’s site, so you don’t want it factoring into your site’s reputation. Use the robots.txt file to direct search engines to not index files and directories you don’t want displayed in the search engines, such as your image directory. Use more advanced security to restrict sensitive information, such as a user directory.
7. Think Mobile. Make sure your mobile site can be indexed. Create a mobile sitemap. Make sure the User-Agent Googlebot-Mobile is allowed to crawl your site. Make sure your mobile URLs are in a recognizable format, such as XHTML Mobile or Compact HTML. Change the content based on the user-agent, or redirect a mobile user to the mobile site.
8. Promote your site appropriately. Back links (links from other sites) take time to develop. Network. Promote your site on blogs and social networks. Don’t try and game the system. Network.
9. Make use of appropriate tools, like the ones below.
Handy SEO links
Google Webmaster Help Forum: http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!forum/webmasters
Google Webmaster Central Blog: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/
Google Webmaster Help Center: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/
Google Webmaster Tools: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/
Google Webmaster Guidelines: http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
Google Analytics: http://www.google.com/analytics/
Google Website Optimizer: http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer/