Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO thoughts by a Web Marketer in a New Year

south

I was asked tonight:
“Do you know of any good seo seminars/workshops??”

My answer:  “Not really…”

I learned search engine optimization through trial and error and now most of the information is in my blog or search engine optimization page anyway.

By the way, Google just upgraded my site https://ogdenian.com to pagerank 4 on New Years Day. http://website.grader.com/ is a great service. Here is Ogdenian.com’s  score: http://website.grader.com/wsgid/2160686/

Basically, a site should have the following:

  • Use clean 100% valid code
    ( like: http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fogdenian.com )
  • Use clean 100% valid external css to get rid of extraneous code ( like: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fogdenian.com )
  • Crunch code to get rid of spaces before publishing a site
  • Use keyword and key-phrase heavy text with some keywords bold, and at least three times or more in a natural way.
  • Create and add sitemap.xml file, then  submit to MSN Live, Yahoo and Google accounts ( like: https://ogdenian.com/sitemap.xml )
  • Bookmark all site pages on a lot of popular bookmark sites ( like: www.delicious.com)
  • Add robots.txt file ( like: https://ogdenian.com/robots.txt )
  • Add/edit .htaccess file to make only one version of the www.domian.com work,
    (with 3 w’s [better] or without) ( explained at:
    https://ogdenian.com/search_engine_optimization.html#9 )
  • Submit site to all same type web directories.
  • Have a blog – add articles often ( www.digg.com them)
  • Go to sites like www.digg.com and www.technorati.com and add your blog feed.
  • Join a couple of social media sites, www.facebook.com and www.myspace.com – participate in groups and be social
  • Use no fullscreen splash, fullscreen flash intros or frames.
  • Use light weight graphics
  • Write article at topic sites and press release sites ( like: www.pr.com )
  • Create a buzz about your product, brand or site.
  • No paid links to site
  • Use rel=”nofollow” on all links leaving the site…links leak pagerank.
  • Never link to a site using unethical seo methods, alt tag stuffing, hidden text, meta tag stuffing, scrapping, link farms, etc….
  • One-way links to your site from a similar and same or preferably higher pageranked site is the only good links. Reciprocal links are no good.
  • Never use run-on keyword comma sentences ( I. E. we offer these services: keyword, keyword, keyword, keyword, keyword, keyword, keyword, keyword, keyword, keyword, keyword, keyword, keyword, keyword, and keyword )
  • All marketing has to be done in natural progression, meaning not overnight, hence why most SEO firms hurt a site more than helps it.
  • Larger sites rank better.
  • Older domain names rank better.
  • No duplicate content at all ( use www.copyscape.com to test a page ) Duplicate content cancels all results of the later efforts.

It is just not one of the later items that needs to be done, it is all of them.
Once a site is done, then it needs to be checked periodically so that it stays done. The process of maintaining the site correctness, keeps the content fresh, content that never changes is concidered an archive and not worthy of a good search result (SERP.) So, adding new content or updating a site is a great idea, that is why blogs are great… they make it easy to add and update content.