Page 2 - Quick 12 Point "1st steps" SEO Checklist

I have two questions with regards to the 12 SEO steps

1.Go to Webmaster Tools and canonicalise your domains if you haven't. If you have links to different domains (http and non http), you may be wasting link juice because of the way someone is linking back to you.

What does this mean ?

2. Check how much code you have v. text on any low ranking page and see if you need to consolidate or move some js off page - http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/code-to-text-ratio/


What is a good ration ?

The domain that gets the link get the link juice [link power for ranking advantage].

The fact that search engines treat sub-domains are separate websites from the root domain means 'in effect' you have links going two two different websites [rank-wise] while you think it is only "1" site.

www.domain.com is a sub-domain of the root domain.com



A good ratio for "SEO"... is whatever it is.

I'm sure Gary has millions of pages of data to base his theory on... but it has ZERO effect on ranks... and that is what "SEO" is about.

Might be considered an usability issue for things like PDA and text readers e.g. load time and most text readers disable Javascript or by default is turned off...

But "code" neither adds nor subtracts from a page(s) rankability.

...the copy sells though... 12 step to SEO is better than 11 steps... right?

Thanks for the tips....the only problem is I'm a bit of a techno-moron and now that I've done the link diagnosis, I've no idea what to do with the results. It's come back as:

Usually the sign of a malformed URL that cannot be parsed by the server.

Response status code: 400
Response message: Bad Request
Line: 104

What the b'jesus does this mean? And how do I go about rectifiying the problem on my website?

Lol, I haven't heard b'jesus since I was in Valdosta Georgia.
(I've lived in England for 2 years now)
400 is a server error. Google it and try the tool again.
Line 104 might be a coding issue preventing the tool from working.
I would need to see it to say.

I have forum members who left or deleted the photobucket accounts they used to post images onto the forum. The result is that link sleuth flags up the broken links. Do I need to go right through my forum and remove all such broken links where images have been removed ??

Your only jelous Fathom

Thank you Gary. I liked the list.

We mostly use Google optimization, but seems there are differences.

Gary - great post as usually. Thanks for sharing this valuable information.
I would have one question left - I'm just not sure if I understand this right (sorry, English is NOT my mother language).

Do you say that it is as easy as putting A link to a high PR website related to my site, on every page on MY website (sitewide) will increase my rankings?
I assume as long as we don't have a incoming link from the same site (because it would be reciprocal).

What about subpages? Do outgoing links to quality websites (related) will improve my subpages if I have those outgoing links?

Would be great if you, or somebody could clear this up.
Very appreciated!
Thanks

Hi Gary. For your tool on #9 http://www.linkdiagnosis.com/ I don't understand what Missing Link, and No Follow mean. It shows a list of missing links, but when I click them they work, and my url is listed. As for no follow I don't understand this either.

Actually if you use google webmaster tools many of the points you have mentioned will be checked out and errors reported, additionally the robots verification...

Anyway, the w3 validator is tricky and can cause headaches - especially if you have banners and ads - they can rise tens of errors ...

Is there any site anyone knows of that will give you the entire list of domains hosted on an IP for free? Similar to domaintools site given above but free? I believe the domain I'm on is in a bad neighborhood (new domains) but on spam lists.

Nope - unlikely.

In your specific case though your host may provide this info [for free] surely they know who their customers are.

Thanks for this list Gary!

Hi Thanks Gary, just to go back to your last point about making a good high PR backlink reciprocal with sitewide links. Sounds interesting, have you done this on a few sites and has it worked every time?

I am wondering if it doesn't work all the time I might end up wasting a good one way link

... point about making a good high PR backlink reciprocal with sitewide links.

Any theory as to why this would work?

Ed