Key Items in a Search Engine Optimization Effort

You want search engines to find your Web site first. To maximize your chances, you organize a search engine optimization, or SEO, campaign. The items in the following list are ones you need to pay attention to in your search optimization efforts:

• Title tag <title>

• META description tag

• META keywords tag

• Heading tag(s): In hierarchical order, headline style

• Textual content: A minimum of 400 words

• Alt attributes on all images

• Strong/bold tags <strong>/<b>: Use consistently

• Fully qualified links: Begin all links with http://

• Site map: Use a site map to outline silos; never exceed 99 links on a page

• Text navigation: Preferred over image maps, JavaScript, or Flash-based navigation

• JavaScript/CSS code should be externalized

• Robots.txt file

• Web analytics: Use tools to monitor traffic and ROI (return on investment)

• Keyword research

• Link development

• Image names

• Privacy statement

• Contact information

Strive to be equal to your competitors first, and then focus on surpassing them.