SEO strategy

Hi All,

As u ve all seen my title seo strategy but it would be better to name it seo tactic cuz as u all know seo tactics keep changing.

What is the first step in seo tactics... cuz we vary the methods a lot.
my way of seo goes( i dun intend to follow the below steps but i cover these aspects)
1.backlinks in yahoo- number, quality and anchor text as well.( i chk using "www.x.com" as wel as link:www.x.com though i didn understood y sometimes link operator shows more than "www.x.com". Please do clarify my doubt if anyone knows)
2.keyword ranking in google- top 2 or 3 keywords from the site be them generic or bit specific.( i use diff tools as well as chk the se's setting up preferences)
3.Indexed pages in g, y and m(hope u know all the 3)
4. Internal navigation( i feel every page is important.. this way i cover up wid most imp keywords in the site and cover up checking for broken links as well)
5.Content.
6. check Html and css code.
7. If the 6 r ok.. i check the competitor's sites in the sameway.
8. If the site isnt impressive wid the 7 pts, 1st step wud b selecting niche directories by typing submit url "keyword" in 3 search engines but i find msn to give friendly results, 2nd to follow google. also i use isedb.com and searchenginecolossus.com (very good resources to find regional specific as well as topic specific directories).. bit difficult 2 find non-reciprocal directories but its k.
9. Improvising the 6 pts mentioned simultaneously submitting the site to directories (very few n very carefully)
10.i also take sometime to monitor search results for the various ways the search engines display the title and description of the displayed results as to experiment with the articles that we keep coming across.
but this is a bit difficult thing to do
11. I use the operators the search engines give to filter results for which i see those results which i dun find in a normal search which is bit confusing.
12. I use firefox a lot with the kool extensions it provide to chk n manipulate the things.( also tools like marketleap, seochat tools, overture kw tool, digitalpoint, few meta search engines etc for the above works).
13. Check the cache frequently (once in a week with internet archive and google's cache)
14. Regular member to seochat, sitepronews, site-reference, entireweb seo news & help, cre8asite forums and wmw

we do know that links r very imp n basically are good if from related forums, articles, blogs n we can even try out social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg ..etc.
Think u have some shopping site, I would like to know how do we write blogs n articles to promote these kind of websites. Though i ve done search, i cudnot get an idea to go further Though I copy some impressive content n change it to my words . But to b creative what can help?

All these points generally help me to work the seo tactic but i hope i missed somepoint somewhere and u guys r ready to tell me.

Bye,
Ravi

You have a great list but believe the more time you spend in general analysis the less time you spend in actual improvement.

I follow the philosophy - you are what you are and short of being something else you are not it is underproductive to waste time nitpicking specifics of your website and that of your competitors.

so my list is short:

1. Titles - Read each page and make your Titles (Tltle Elements and H1 Titles) precisely about the page itself - ensure to avoid stop words and keeping important keywords closest to the left (start of title). Try and get a litte enticement into the title as well... clicks are as important as ranks so it cannot be just about "keywords".

2. Site architecture - organize your website so it makes sense. Many times you with see every page or section on the the homepage even if there is a common theme abou them. The rational I want visitors to get the even page from the homepage. The problem - not all keywords are created equal there while you gain eyeballs for everything on the home page you lose eyeballs direct to the page those visitors actually want. Neither 90% of all websites gain ranks almost entirely on the success of the homepage - therefore 90% of all websites are designed (architecturally speaking) without SEO in mind. The difference here is the power of links. (covered in #3)

3. Links - Today if you avoid the thought process of "I need links anyway I can get them" in favor of looking for ways to induce links "naturally" you will acquire them. Trading links are a flawed practice, and 3-way links just takes a bad strategy and extends it's life but in the end in is stilled flawed. Better to offer "free link"... because all those places the note "add your link for free" will "ALL LINK TO YOU"... thus all factual votes of accreditation based on what you offer. If you use this thought process think innovatively other will link.

Back at #2 - if you design your architecture with SEO in mind where sub-sections support the homepage, and sub-sub-sections support the sub-sections, and pages below that support sub-sub-sections - you need less links to acheive the same thing.

4. Content - continuous development of new and interest content - all effect the power of 1, 2, and 3.

In the end - you are what you are - and no amount of analysis will change that - therefore the only analysis that is worthy of your time - what new innovative ideas are there that can add to the existence of the current website.

This last area - has some great side affects... all search engines LOVE FRESH!