Must use this SEO tips!

After posting this several times I thought to post this as topic so that everyone can see it and benefit.

I welcome some more additions to enlarge this MUST HAVE TIPS, so that the new comers to SEO arena can get better results.

Here is my standard suggestions that might help:

Optional but very important:

A - Own your-domain-name-dot-com
B - Host your site on a reliable server

1 - Shorten the title to 55 chars
2 - Add the robots tag
3 - Place the robots.txt in your root on your server
4 - Get rid of the js in the code and put it in an external file
5 - Use css instead of color, size and font tags
5 - Change the link buttons or js links in to text links
6 - Make sure to have a site map page
7 - Make sure you have 404 page
8 - At the bottom of each page use menus as text links
9 - Make sure your page code is not bigger than 100 K
10 - Submit your site to ODP and Yahoo Dir, make sure to select the right cat
11 - Pay special attention to your content
12 - Try to get as much as relevant links you can
13 - Read each search engines guide lines and follow them strictly
14 - Don't spam
15 - Don't use doorway pages
16 - Don't cloak
17 - Always come and ask for advice on this board
18 - And pray hard that the big G appreciates all your efforts

This will help as long as you follow each rule here ;)

Any more suggestions?

no suggestion, just one question.

About the robots.txt, as far as i found out it's only to prevent spiders from crawling certain directories. So if you want them to crawl everything you just put an empty file up?

Thanx,
Alex

yep that's almost right. You need to put this in robots.txt file if you want everything to be crawled in your root:

User-agent: *
Disallow:

Hope this helps ;)

Probably wont help me with my PR0, but it'll get me one step closer to a good seo website.

Thanx,
Alex

I just wanted to say "Thanks" Simple-biz!

It was very nice of you to think of us 'beginners' and I appreciate all the help/tips given here.

Thanks again

a few additions to this helpful list:

* use wordtracker.com to research the proper keywords for your site.

* include your keywords in the alt tags of images.

* use the H1 tag for page headings (you can alter the way h1 displays text with CSS. . .).

* submit to gimpsy.com and goguides.org (these are free directories)

sorry about that I wanted to quote lowell's point of including your keywords in your alt tags... ops:

I would add:

Be extremely conservative in what you do with the query strings for dynamically generated pages. Avoid using them for tracking codes, session ids, etc.. One parameter that you parse is better than three parameters.

Oh, and add plenty of pictures of hot babes in tight outfits.

1. Never start a word pass 58 characters < stop text is 60 - 65 but if last word is "association" you can easily make an "***" on your site.
6. and no more 100 links per page, 25 - 50 is better
7. not required if you have a good link structure is developed
8. highly recommend 32K or less
9. the more the merrier (DMOZ)

Breadcrumbs work wonders too!

Pet Peeve ... don't put your domain name in the Meta Title > if anything your registered BUSINESS NAME should be here and the last few words of the 60 character title.... once.

Additional ones... use title attributes particularly in links <a href="" title=""> </a> and the title precisely as the anchor > if image alt="" and title="" the same.

Note which page of your site has the most internal links to it > if this isn't the homepage > then the page the has the most links will likely have greater success on your most competitive phrase.

Match Meta Title with Page Title - SEO's keyword the Meta all the time > however this is the intro to your site as well as a ranking thing > if it doesn't look good written on the page it not that efficient in bringing visitors into your site (even if your #1).

Page Title match to Meta Title > now match all internal anchors to that page theme. A text anchor call HOME which goes to the HOMEPAGE does not help - get innovative - if your site is about CARS then: example: CARS should be the anchor to index.html. NOTE: this is one place where the use of an image is GOOD... the title attribute and alt both indicate CARS and the image read HOME... also

The link HOME is also good in your copyright statement... e.g. -

Motortown.com has cars for all people.
Copyright © 2003 Motor Town. All rights reserved.

Short one word anchors are better than longer ones. CARS is relevant to to blue cars, black cars, old cars, antique cars, used cars, new cars... but none of these are "highly" relevant to each other or just "cars". If you're highly relevant on one word "cars" the "on-page" optimized stuff is all that is needed to make you more relevant to the second word (what ever that may be) and not just one phrase.

Non-relevant - or less adequate topical pages (contact us, support, trouble-shooting, policies, shipping instructions can help make the difference between a page ranked #11 and one that's higher. Use these to PUSH relevancy and PageRank to only those pages that need it. If many links out to a link structure -- Javascript the links to pages that already are highly ranked > and use that "saved" PageRank to push to ones that are not (on their specific topic).

Put a face to your site > get your staff professionally on your site > people prefer to buy from people. Particularly if the person is real (employee/owner) and noted by NAME and POSITION in the company.

The old story... "on the web... no one knows your a dog" holds true today... a name, a face adds trust. There are lots of scams out there and just because you know that your not one of them... doesn't mean the visitor knows this.

The best advice (put your competitors on your site) and compare your positive points to their negative points (be truthful though).

Anyone that believes web purchasers are not comparative shoppers for price, quality, service, shipping, guarantees, warranties, returns, support and another 100 variables is really only fooling themselves... particularly if the visitor came via a search engine > back on out and see what else is available.

Additionally, rarely will a new potential customer buy on the first visit.

SEO isn't just about getting to #1... it's also about selling "more" once you're there!

Quite well addressesed points you have there Fathom ;)

Can I ask why? Doesn't Google still read further than the 60 character limit?

great post, fathom...