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Hiring The Right Webmaster
(Submited by: Kevin McElligott )

The Questions You Should Be Asking The Answers You Should Be ReceivingWhen interviewing webmasters, dont let price be your deciding factor. Among webmasters there is a split between those who are skilled in the fine art of Search ... Read article

Dont Make the Top 30 SEO Mistake
(Submited by: Michael Murray )

SEO consultants will tell you that you need to be in the Top 30 or you can pretty much give up any hope of getting a visitor to your web site.Yes, there is truth in that Top 30 goal. Occasionally, a potential customer will make his or her ... Read article

SEO Facts
(Submited by: Sajjad Ahmad )

The internet is the largest market place on earth. It offers unparalleled access to an international base of consumers and referrers. However, the internet is also an extremely overcrowded place. With such an opportunity to make a business ... Read article

All about SEO or SFO?
(Submited by: Didier Ntwali )

First let's start with definitions:SEO: Search Engine Optimization, SFO: Search Friendly Optimization.These two things are what most webmasters have trouble balancing. These things seem to always be on opposite ends. On one hand ... Read article

Googles New SEO Rules
(Submited by: John Metzler )

Google has recently made some pretty significant changes in its ranking algorithm. The latest update, dubbed by Google forum users as "Allegra", has left some web sites in the dust and catapulted others to top positions. Major updates like this ... Read article

Are You Making These Deadly SEO Mistakes?
(Submited by: Ed Zivkovic )

Black Hat SEO: Web Spamming and Linking to Bad NeighborhoodsSo you want to exchange links with other web sites in order to get higher search engine rankings?So you want to create hundreds of auto-generated, keyword rich pages for ... Read article


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The SEO Game - Do You Play It?
(Submited by: Shawna Fennell )

Most people do not think of SEO as a game. Let me take 5 minutes of your time and explain how SEO is simply a game of Chess.I remember as a teenager learning how to play Chess for the first time. Man it was complicated. Each piece moved ... Read article

SEO Article Writing 101
(Submited by: Marsha Maung )

SEO writing is very different from content writing, article writing, story writing and news writing. When I first realized my innate talent for writing stuff and putting thoughts into words, I was still reading Mills and Boons, and it was during ... Read article

How Real SEO Analysis Works
(Submited by: Michael Murray )

If youre serious about SEO, you need to know how to analyze the information you uncover.A decade ago, businesses were wondering whether they need to be part of the Internet. By the late 1990s, plenty signed up and did the basics like ... Read article

SEO India: Tips & Techniques
(Submited by: Ravz Dubz )

SEO is all about "Individualism"According to me SEO is not only getting rank for keywords (Of course that is the primary objective) but apart from ranking your objective should be "Conversion" getting "Sales" (No matter if its personal ... Read article

SEO Expert Guide - Sitewide Optimization (part 4/10)
(Submited by: David Viney )

In parts 1 and 2 you learnt how to develop your online business proposition and how to generate a list of key word ingredients for your site optimization activity. You were also introduced to our mythical Doug (who sells antique doors, door ... Read article

Free Online SEO Tools
(Submited by: Arif Hanid )

For anyone wanting to do a bit of their own Search Engine Optimisation, there is an abundance of free online SEO tools available on the internet. Most of them provide some pretty impressive statistics and information to help you optimise your ... Read article


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SEO Hints and Tips and Free SEO Tools
(Submited by: Alan Boyer )

Do you realize that if you manage your website, SEO tools, and pay-per-click tools, you can literally have as many leads as you want from your website? I assume that a website should convert approximately 5% of the viewers to doers, taking some ... Read article

Search Engine Optimization: Who Do You Trust?
(Submited by: Colleen Ryan )

Internet search engines exist to organize the seemingly immeasurable amount of information available on the web. They direct people to pages that are relevant to their searches, pages that discuss the exact keywords they are looking for. For a ... Read article

Honest In-Depth SEO Elite Review
(Submited by: Joseph Tierney )

This is a REAL IN-DEPTH review of the SEO Elite version 3.2 software that is currently out. Every claim I make here is 100% accurate, and you can even verify the results yourself.I started up my Central Florida Surf Report website in ... Read article

The Unethical SEO Myth
(Submited by: Damian Smith )

"The use of black hat SEO techniques are completely unethical." Really? I completely disagree.Is it unethical because these techniques are attempts to give a webmaster an advantage over their competition? If this is the case, stop ... Read article

How to Manage SEO
(Submited by: Michael Murray )

Whether you launch a search engine optimization program in-house or outsource the program, you should keep the following training opportunities and skill sets in mind: Advanced SEO techniques, including page titles, META descriptions, META ... Read article

How to Pick an SEO Firm
(Submited by: Michael Murray )

If you're looking for an SEO firm, we recommend that you weigh 10 factors that can save you trouble down the road.1. Check out their experience.You shouldn't have to try hard to find samples of their clients or their SEO performance ... Read article


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The Biggest SEO Scam of All
(Submited by: Cari Haus )

While there are many ethical SEO firms serving Internet users today, a few notorious practitioners also exist. One of them called me just the other day.We can get your site to be number one in the search engines for the top 20 search ... Read article

Black Hat SEO and the Sneaky Redirect
(Submited by: Ed Zivkovic )

Are shades of grey SEO really Black Hat SEO?Black hat SEO is a strategy which gets a web page or entire site banned from a search engine.A shade of grey is when you use a black hat strategy but your site has not been banned ... Read article

How to REALLY Profit from SEO
(Submited by: John Alexander )

I want to give you a few more things to think about as you excel and grow in the craft of search engine marketing. If you are anything like me, you were hooked the first time you really made a difference to someone else's success. I soon realized ... Read article

SEO Versus PPC: What is More Useful?
(Submited by: Tulika Bose )

There has been a continuing debate on the efficacy of Search Engine Optimization(SEO) versus that of PPC Advertising Management.My two cents on the topic...SEO Positives:More visitors to search page are likely to click on ... Read article

Beat Googles Dampening Link Filter with SEO Articles
(Submited by: Glenn Murray )

Most Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts agree that links back to your site have a great impact on your ranking in the major search engines. Think of it like ... Read article

SEO: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
(Submited by: Dean Phillips )

I seem to have created quite a stir, on a particular SEO forum recently. In fact, rumor has it, at one point, my article, "Google's Trap, DMOZ's Nap, And Yahoo!'s Crap" was the hottest topic discussed on this particular forum.The ... Read article


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What Is Waiting for Us? Tomorrows SEO Industry
(Submited by: Irina Ponomareva )

Today, SEO is swiftly approaching saturation point. More and more webmasters realise the necessity of learning SEO basics, and as they do so, SEO professionals are facing difficulties finding new clients. With all the niche sites optimised, it ... Read article

When to NOT Hire a SEO and Why
(Submited by: Zoran Makrevski )

When you get an e-mail from SEO Company with content similar to this:"We submit your site on X00.000 search engines and directories"Stay far away from companies which offer you to submit your site on thousands of directories and ... Read article

Organic SEO: Patience For Long Term Ranking Results
(Submited by: Daria Goetsch )

When does long term SEO show ranking results? It takes time for optimization to produce targeted traffic to your website. Organic SEO requires time to take effect, just as it takes time for your web pages to start showing up in the search ... Read article

When to Hire a Professional SEO Firm?
(Submited by: Corey Wenger )

In efforts to increase sales and profitability, more and more companies are turning to online marketing initiatives specifically, search engine optimization. Search Engine Optimization or (SEO) is the art and science of blending technical and ... Read article

Complete Web-Site Optimization For Search Engines (Part 1)
(Submited by: Pavel Lenshin )

SEO or search engine optimization strategy now becomes widely popular among online business operators. Nothing strange about it as it allows to substantially increase your gross income, as a result of growing traffic or visitors flow.That ... Read article

What Makes The Perfect SEO Firm?
(Submited by: Stoney DeGeyter )

SEO companies come in all shapes and sizes. You've got your solo SEOs that either a) do everything themselves and/or b) sub-contract out many aspects of each campaign while maintaining a tight control on the quality and results of the project. ... Read article


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7 Essential SEO techniques
(Submited by: Scott Fish )

1) Title Tag When were talking about SEO Technique, the Title tag is one of the best and most powerful tags that you can use. Every page should have its own title tag, each tag should include the keyword that you are targeting, along with ... Read article

Branding Versus SEO
(Submited by: Kevin Kantola )

Branding versus search engine optimization is a marketing dilemma that larger companies will need to come to grips with on the Internet. Often companies will need to decide whether to promote their own brand name as their main keyword phrase or ... Read article

SEO Expert Guide - Page Optimization (part 5/10)

(Submited by: David Viney )

In parts 1 - 4 you learnt how to develop your online business proposition, generate a list of key words and optimize at a site level. You were also introduced to our mythical Doug (who sells antique doors, door handles, knockers, door bells or ... Read article






















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SEO Expert Guide - Keyword Analysis (part 3/10)
(Submited by: David Viney )

If you imagine that building an optimized site is like cooking a meal, then keywords are the essential ingredients. Would you attempt to cook a complex new dish without first referring to a recipe? Would you start before you had all the ... Read article

Content Management Systems Eyeball SEOs
(Submited by: Kevin Kantola )

Content Management Systems and search engine optimization (SEO) used to be mutually exclusive terms. But the SEO community has been driving the developers of Content Management Systems to integrate more SEO-friendly methodology within their ... Read article

Buzzwords vs Effective SEO Keywords
(Submited by: Daria Goetsch )

Ever see a website that seems to speak a foreign language...in English? We encounter many SEO client websites that rely on buzzwords in the page copy to get the word out about their product. The problem lies with visitors who may not be familiar ... Read article

Increase Your Page Rank Through SEO
(Submited by: Adam Waxler )

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) must be considered a process and over time you can build your ranking and traffic.Remember, Rome wasnt built in a day.This article provides 10 SEO tips that will build your search engine rank ... Read article

Picking Keywords for SEO A Different View
(Submited by: Halstatt Pires )

The first step to developing any search engine optimization effort is picking keywords. The general consensus is pick keywords with solid amounts of traffic and a minimum of competition. At the risk of being laughed off the Internet, heres a ... Read article

Sitemaps 101 - Back to SEO School
(Submited by: Niall Roche )

Sitemaps are without doubt one of the most often ignored and undervalued aspects of search engine optimization. You've probably spent a huge amount of time working on pages of original content, keyword density and getting incoming links but never ... Read article


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SEO Expert Guide - Proposition Development (part 2/10)
(Submited by: David Viney )

It is literally amazing how many people start their online business presence by buying a domain name (close to their business name) and building a brochure-ware page. Only later do they turn their mind to optimizing their site for (i) their ... Read article

SEO Success: Step Three is Creating Long-Term Popularity
(Submited by: Chesa Keane )

Finally, after the hard-core efforts that are directly related to generating traffic to your website, you next step is to develop a strategy that creates follow-on, long-term traffic. Several methods exist for this Tier III strategy:- ... Read article

Mindset from Yahoo!- Changing the SEO Game
(Submited by: Ross MacIver )

Yahoo! has a developed a new concept in search engine technology - "Intent Driven Search" - allowing you to sort search results according to their commercial or informational content.The beta version of ... Read article

DIY SEO
(Submited by: Mark White )

Part 1. Wordtracker for keywords.A problem for all new webmasters has always been SEO or search engine optimisation.The problem starts with the age-old question of how do I design my website so people can find it?Lets assume ... Read article

Top 10 Little Used SEO Strategies
(Submited by: Lewis Leake )

There are millions of web sites trying to get listed in the top 20 to 30 spots on the major search engines. That's a lot of competition! So if you're having a hard time getting those spots, maybe you should try some little used but effective seo ... Read article

Why You Need a SEO Maintenance Plan
(Submited by: Herman Drost )

A search engine optimization maintenance service plan will ensure that your site will continue to increase in its rankings, attract more visitors and make more sales. It's not enough to simply design your web site, have it optimized for the ... Read article


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An SEO Checklist
(Submited by: Jane McLain )

Search engine optimization is on every webmaster's mind these days. Achieving a favorable ranking for the right keywords can mean a steady stream of targeted traffic to your site, and all for free - that's hard to beat. The key to ... Read article

How To Really SEO Your Site
(Submited by: Matt Colyer )

Search engine optimization is one of most popular online marketing tool for any website. With more websites coming online every day the competition gets larger, so you have to make sure you can out SEO them before they out do you. In this article ... Read article

How to Top Google by Writing Articles
(Submited by: Glenn Murray )

Search engines determine their rankings based on two things: Is your site relevant? (Optimized for certain keywords) ... Read article

The Real Search Engine Optimization Guide
(Submited by: Ivan Juras )

Nowadays, there is so much talk about SEO (search engine optimization) that it has become an industry of its own. Still, 90% of webmasters don`t know how to achieve high search engine positions. In this article, you`ll learn what the 90% doesn`t. ... Read article

Forget SEO Its All About Conversion!
(Submited by: Stephen Munday )

Which SEO hat do you wear? Is it white or black? Or perhaps its a subtle shade of gray. Well, wherever you are on this spectrum, if you are like 99% of the SEO-fixated webmasters out there, you are doing all you can to get visitors to your site. ... Read article

SEO Success: Step One is Good Web Design
(Submited by: Chesa Keane )

Creating a well-designed website is the first step in your internet marketing strategy. Once the website has been created and optimized, there are further techniques to employ that will drive traffic to your website for successful, long-term ... Read article


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Are Your SEO Efforts Going To Waste?

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Are Your SEO Efforts Going To Waste?


Search engine optimization (SEO) is a long and complicated process that can be highly rewarding if done correctly. SEO is not a waste of time, but can be if your site doesnt appeal to visitors or function properly. Your potential customer will be turned off if your site lacks trustworthiness, an eye pleasing color scheme and easy to use navigation. Why lose visitors and possible sales because of a small design flaw or unappealing color scheme? Those visitors could have resulted in sales if those small imperfections were fixed.

As I arrive from your high position in the search engines looking for your product, I want to be able to trust the company I am buying from. People are very leery with making purchases on the Internet, and even more so from sites they dont know a great deal about. You want to gain trust from the visitor with guarantees, a professional design and color scheme, testimonials and by any other way. If your site doesnt boast its trustworthiness and make me feel secure, do you think I will purchase your product? No. Visitors are especially leery when they are required to give credit card information. Make them feel protected, boast about your privacy policy, encrypted servers and whatever else you have set up. Be enthusiastic about your sites security.

I need to be able to find what I want and navigate to where I need to go FAST after I arrive at your site via the search engines. Some visitors get lost and frustrated with poor navigation and will leave your site without a second thought. Do not leave your visitor with a bad taste in their mouth! Allow them to flow through your site with ease and comfort. If your navigation is confusing your potential customer will likely leave and travel to one of the other three billion web sites on the Internet. Speed is also a factor in navigation. Visitors dont want to sit there for twenty or thirty seconds while your page loads. Dont make them wait. Cut down on the size of your pages and graphics.

The colors you choose for your site also impact on whether the visitor will make a purchase. A color scheme that hurts the eye will turn visitors off which will lead to lost sales. Visitors may also question how accountable your site is. You cannot have a black background with white, yellow or neon green text. It hurts the eyes. Color schemes such as that scare visitors away. With professional colors visitors will likely feel more secure and relaxed while surfing your site, which will lead to more sales.

A top position in the search engines can provide huge amounts of sales, if your site can be trusted and appeal to visitors. With a defective design and color scheme, slow loading pages or lack of trustworthiness all of the time spent performing SEO could go to waste. So get out, fix those flaws and discover more sales!

About The Author

Derek Croote is a SEO, web design and usability enthusiast. He practices ethical search engine optimization and strives to make sites across the web better for visitors. Derek is the webmaster of the http://www.saratogalakesideacresassociation.org/, a small homeowners association. You can reach him at dcroote@gmail.com.

Related Links:

Forget SEO Its All About Conversion!

SEO Success: Step One is Good Web Design

SEO Expert Guide - Proposition Development (part 2/10)

Are You Making These Deadly SEO Mistakes?

SEO Resources Site

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Are You Making These Deadly SEO Mistakes?


Black Hat SEO: Web Spamming and Linking to Bad Neighborhoods

So you want to exchange links with other web sites in order to get higher search engine rankings?

So you want to create hundreds of auto-generated, keyword rich pages for your site?

Before you go and link to every website that is willing to exchange links, it would be a good idea to know where not to link to. Sometimes it can mean not linking to your own sites.

Firstly, lets take a look at the Google webmaster guidelines page which states:

"Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on the web as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links."

I know that Google is not responsible for all search engine traffic, but it is a good guide to follow because other engines seem to be following along the same lines.

So what is a web spammer?

A web spammer is someone who creates hundreds or thousands of keyword rich pages in order to create the illusion of a themed site with related pages. These sites can be composed of sneaky redirect pages, doorway pages, gateway pages and now the latest craze seems to be auto generated directories. SEO circles call these types of pages "search engine clutter".

The Professional Web Spammer

The aware, professional web spammer places the search engine clutter on a secondary domain and looks for link partners. If you exchange links with these webmasters, you will be at risk of getting a penalty if one of those sites gets banned.

These sites are created on disposable (secondary) domains and they all link or redirect to a main selling website which does not link back to the spam pages. Usually, all the secondary domains link to each other too.

This professional knows all about not using the standard web page templates that come with the auto directory generation software. This webmaster is clever enough to realize that common templates will be easy to detect by search engines which means that the web spam site will get banned very quickly. This webmaster will rebuild the pages from scratch which is usually a good way to avoid detection.

The Amateur Web Spammer

The amateur web spammer, hungry for high search engine rankings will purchase software which creates search engine clutter and make the mistake of not creating a disposable domain to serve these new pages and they will use the basic easily detected templates to generate the web site.

They upload these pages to their main site and link to them. The problem with this is that if a search engine perceives these auto-generated pages as spam, it will penalize, the site that links to them as well as remove the clutter from the index.

Sometimes these sites do not get detected straight away which means that they could have a decent amount of Page Rank, but is it worth taking that chance? Your biggest challenge will be to develop the ability to detect these types of pages with the naked eye.

One Linking Myth Exploded

Please understand that you will not receive a penalty if web spam or a bad neighborhood links to your site. It is the other way around. It is only if you link to web spam or a bad neighborhood that you risk getting penalized.

There is much misunderstanding regarding this issue. Look at it from a logical point of view. If this were true that you would get a penalty, all you would have to do to eliminate all your competition would be to create some web spam and link to your competitors. So it is plain to realize that you cannot get a penalty if web spam links to you. It's the other way around.

So what is a bad neighborhood?

I do not know how exactly to define a bad neighborhood because a bad neighborhood is not a bad neighborhood until it gets defined as such by a search engine. Examples include Free For All Links pages (FFA s), Link Farms and useless directories designed to do nothing more than create the illusion of a themed web site.

A good guide to follow would be not to link to any site which does not contain useful information or relevant content. More info about bad neighborhoods here: http://www.v7n.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11376

The Obsessive Compulsive SEO practitioner

The obsessive compulsive SEO practitioner will go to any length to get top search engine rankings quickly. It is sort of like gold fever. The bug bites and it becomes difficult to let go of the insanity.

This webmaster is always looking for the easier softer way. The delusion is strong. The insanity has got a grip of the obsessive compulsive SEO. In the end, when they get sick and tired of getting banned, they swear off Internet Marketing altogether claiming that everybody in the industry is a rip off artist.

The problem is that they got exposed to rubbish before they discovered the good stuff. They have been permission marketed by someone they trusted and ended up wasting a lot of time. (and I do mean a lot of time)

Why not create a legitimate web directory?

Here is some good stuff. In the long run, it seems to me to be a lot easier to go to a script archive like hotscripts.com or scriptsearch.com and search for terms like "toplist", "directory" "community" and "portal". These single one word search terms will produce many results which contain scripts which will do a much better job of creating a directory than the latest auto-directory generation software sold by Internet marketers who own big mailing lists of newbies.

Many of these scripts are free and there is some really excellent ones you can buy. The point here is that you can create a useful web site with these scripts which you will be proud to link to.

Copyright 2004 Ed Zivkovic

About The Author

The author, Ed Zivkovic owns his own website which contains articles, tips, tricks, free downloads and more. Here is the site: http://www.ezau.com.

Related Links:

Mindset from Yahoo!- Changing the SEO Game

DIY SEO

Top 10 Little Used SEO Strategies

An SEO Checklist

SEO Resources Site

SEO Articles

An SEO Checklist


Search engine optimization is on every webmaster's mind these days. Achieving a favorable ranking for the right keywords can mean a steady stream of targeted traffic to your site, and all for free - that's hard to beat. The key to high search engine rankings is structuring your website correctly, including plenty of content that is relevant to your keywords, and making sure your website is spider-friendly. You can use this checklist to make sure all of your Web pages can be found, indexed and ranked correctly:

Your website is themed. Your site deals with an identifiable theme which is obvious from the text on the home page and reinforced by all the other pages on your site. In other words, all the individual Web pages relate to each other and deal with various aspects of some central theme. The text on your home page should state clearly what that theme is and what your website is about, and the other pages should reinforce that.

Your Web pages have enough high quality, relevant content. Spiders come to your website looking for content. If a page doesn't have much content, or the content doesn't appear closely related to the page's title and your website's theme, the page probably won't be indexed or if it is indexed it won't rank well. Search engines love quality content and lots of it - content is what Web searchers are looking for and search engines try to provide.

Your website's navigational structure is relatively flat. You don't want important pages to be too "deep" within your website, meaning it takes several clicks to get there from the home page. Search engines typically index the home page first, then gradually index other pages on a site over time. Many spiders are programmed to only go three layers deep - if some of your important content is buried deeper than that, it may never be found and indexed at all.

You've created a unique "Title" tag for each page. The title is one of the most important aspects of any Web page from an SEO standpoint, especially for Google (which is the most important search engine to optimize for). Don't use a generic title for all your pages, use the keywords your targeting for that page and keep it brief but descriptive.

You use the "Description" meta tag. Contains a highly descriptive sentence about the content and purpose of your page, and contains your most important keyword phrase early in the sentence. Not all of the search engines will display this "canned" description when they list the page in search results, but many of them will, so it's worth getting it right.

You use the "Keywords" meta tag. As with the meta tag description, not every search engine will use the keywords meta tag. But some will use it and none will penalize you for having it. Also, having a short list of the keywords you're targeting will help you write appropriate content for each page. The keyword tage should contain your targeted keyword phrase and common variations, common misspellings and related terms. Make sure your keywords relate closely to the page content and tie into the overall theme of your site.

Your keywords are included in the visible page content, preferably high up on the page. You have to achieve a balance here - you want to include keyword phrases (and variations) a number of times within your text, but not so many times that you appear to be guilty of "keyword stuffing". The trick is to work the keywords into the text so that it reads as naturally as possible for your site visitors. Remember, you can incorporate keywords into any Web page element that is potentially viewable by site visitors - header text, link text and titles, table captions, the "Alt" attribute of the image tag, the "title" attribute of the link tag, etc.

Every page of your website can be reached by search engine spiders. This is critical - if your pages can't be found, they can't be indexed and included in search results, let alone rank well. Search engines use spiders to explore your website and index the pages, so every page must be accessible by following text links. If pages require a password to view, are generated by a script in response to a query, or have a long and complicated URL, spiders may not be able to read them. You need to have simple text links to the pages you want indexed.

You've included a site map. Unless your site is very small, it's a good idea to create a site map with text links that you link to the site map from your home page. In addition to a link, include descriptive text for containing the relevant keywords for each page.

You link to your most important pages from other pages on your site. Internal links help determine page rank since they show which pages of your site are most important. The more links you have to have to a page, relative to other pages on your site, the more importance search engines will assign to it.

You use keywords in your link text. When you create a text link to another page on your site, use that page's targeted keywords as the text for the link (inside the anchor tags that create the link). Make it as descriptive as possible. For example, a link that says "Premium Customized Widgets" is much better than one that says simply "Product Page", and indicates to search engine spiders what that linked page is about.

Your site doesn't use frames. If possible, don't use frames on any page you want to get indexed by search engines. If you feel you simply must use frames for a page, then also make use of the "noframes" HTML tags to provide alternative text that spiders can read (and make that text descriptive rather than just a notice that "This site uses frames etc. etc.").

You don't use automatic page redirects. Don't make any pages automatically redirect the visitor to another page (the exception is a page you've deleted for good - in which case you should use a "301 redirect", a permanent redirect which is acceptable to search engines).

Your important content is in plain text and not contained in images. Search engine spiders can't "read" content in JPEG, GIF, or PNG files. If you really feel that using an image rather than text is crucial to your design, at least put the same text in the image's "Alt" tag (or in the "title" tag if you're using the image as a hyperlink).

Your important content is not contained in Flash files. Flash is a wonderful technology, but unfortunately spiders don't have the required "plugin" to view Flash files. As a result, Flash content is mostly inaccessible to search engine spiders. Some can find and follow hyperlinks within the Flash file, but unless those links lead to pages with readable HTML content this won't help you much. Don't create all-Flash pages for any content you want to get indexed - instead, put that content in the HTML portion of the page.

Links and keywords are not hidden inside JavaScript code. If your links use JavaScript to direct the user to the appropriate page (for instance, a drop-down list) or important content is contained within JavaScript code (when it's displayed dynamically using DHTML, for instance) search engine spiders won't be able to "see" it. You can, however, use the "noscript" HTML tags to provide an alternative that can be read by spiders.

You've optimized every important page of your website individually. Don't stop at your home page. Take the trouble to optimize any page which has a reasonable chance of being indexed by the major search engines, targeting appropriate keywords for each. If you face a lot of competition it may be nearly impossible to get a top ranking for your home page, but you can still get a lot of search engine traffic to your site from other pages which are focused on very specific keyword phrases.

You didn't duplicate content. Each page of your site should have unique content that distinguishes it from every other page on your site. Duplicating content or having pages that are only slightly different might be seen as "search engine spamming" (trying to manipulate search engine results).

You provide linking instructions for those who want to link to your site. Somewhere on your site state your policies about other people linking to your site and provide the wording you'd like them to use in their link. You want to encourage other people to link to your site, preferably using link text and a description that reflect the keywords for that page. For their convenience provide the ready-made HTML code for the link - not everyone will use it, but most often they will use your preferred text as a courtesy as long as it is truly descriptive of your site and doesn't contain "marketing hype".

You provide linking instructions for those who want to link to your site. Somewhere on your site state your policies about other people linking to your site and provide the wording you'd like them to use in their link. You want to encourage other people to link to your site, preferably using link text and a description that reflect the keywords for that page. For their convenience provide the ready-made HTML code for the link - not everyone will use it, but many will use your preferred text as a courtesy as long as it doesn't contain "marketing hype".

Important hyperlinks are plain text links and not image links or image maps. Text links are better from an SEO standpoint than image links, as spiders can't read text from an image file. If you feel you really must use a graphic as a link, at least include a text description which (including the relevant keywords) by using the "title" attribute of the link tag.

Your website is free of coding errors and broken links. HTML coding errors and non-working links can keep search engine spiders from correctly reading and indexing your pages. For that reason, it's a good idea to use a Web page validation utility to check your HTML code to make sure it's error-free.

Jane McLain is a Web developer and SEO specialist and the webmaster of EClaunchsite.com, an online resource center for netrepreneurs with tools and information to help you plan, build, launch and grow your e-business.

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