An important aspect of search engine optimization is the fact that you need to invest time and effort into your website on a regular basis in order get traffic and keep traffic continuously increasing. If you allow your website to sit and collect cobwebs it won’t do much for you.

SEO Tip #1:

There isn’t a magical formula; at least not one that’s evergreen so it’s important to stay current on SEO news. Dig deep to find information and read everything you can. You’ll find conflicting information at times but knowledge is power so absorb as much SEO news as you can.

SEO Tip # 2:

Create an easy to follow design with a standard homepage, easily viewable links and a site index. This way, people and search engines can find their way around easily and so can people.

SEO Tip # 3:

Determine what your target keywords are. There are some great tools out there that can help you both for free or for a small fee. Often it’s fairly easy to figure this out on your own.

Ask yourself:

What are the top three to five words or phrases you would use if you were use to search for the product or topic you are selling? Be sure that those words are on each page of your website, especially in titles, headings and at the beginning, middle and end of each page. It’s a good idea to use variations as well to give your site further credibility and increase the Long Tail.

SEO Tip # 4:

SEO Fact : Content is king. Always will be. Don’t assume that more is better in terms of keywords. Do not fall victim to the temptation to simply keyword stuff your site otherwise two things will happen. First, you’ll get banned by the search engines and even worse, you’ll be ignored by the humans who land on your page. Both types of visitors can see through vain SEO attempts to trick you to get onto their site.

Instead, you want to target the fine line between having enough keyword relevancy to make it impossible for the search engines to ignore you but not so much that your human visitors find your content to be poor quality. Hire a professional SEO article writer if you have to in order to come across as professional. Keep fresh content on your pages and change your content regularly. You don’t have to waste what you’ve put effort and money into, instead move your old content into archives so it continues to work for you as well.

SEO Tip # 5:

Web 2.0 is all about social networking. Social networking, social book marking, forum posting and link exchanges can be invaluable If you can get high ranking websites in your niche to exchange links with you, this can help. If you are blogging, comment on other blogs in your niche to get a link back to your site and generate interest from bloggers that frequent other sites in your niche. If you use tools like Technorati, Digg, StumbleUpon and other social book marking tools on your pages with appropriate tagging, you can bring relevant traffic fairly quickly and it’s viral so others will do the same. Social networking activities are also indexed by the search engines.

In summary, there are basic to advanced seo techniques and seo tips that you can use to get noticed by the big three search engines. Your results will depend a lot on how narrow your niche is but there are some basic things you can do to be search engine friendly from the start. It’s never too late to optimize your site though so don’t lose heart if you didn’t follow this advice on your website from the beginning. Here are some basic ideas. This is not an exhaustive list but is a great place to start.

A couple of years ago, SEO did not even exist, so in some way we are all newbies. It’s just that some are more new than others.

This list of terms, is by no means exhaustive but is meant as a basic introduction to the language used in SEO. At the rate new terms area appearing, by the time you have finished reading this list someone will have probably invented a new term, but at least you will have the basics. So lets get started.

above the fold
This is derived from the reference to the top part of a newspaper. Above the fold is used on the Internet to describe the top part of the page that the visitor can see without scrolling down.

AdSense
Google’s contextual based ad program. Use AdSense, by placing the ads on your website and earning revenue from when visitors click on the ads.

AdWords
Google’s pay per click (PPC) advertising program. Use AdWords when you want to buy advertisement to send traffic somewhere.

algorithm
Algorithms are complex sets of rules based on mathematical equations. With regard to SEO the algorithm is how the search engines rank web pages in it’s search results. Some SEOers feel that is they can figure out the algorithm, they can obtain higher search engine rankings.

anchor text
Also called link text. Is the blue underlined text on web pages that you click to go to another page or site. (Note: The link does not necessarily need to be blue or underlined but this is the traditional standard).

backlink / back link
A link on another page that links to the page you are viewing. Also known as inbound link.

click through rate (CTR)
Often used in Internet marketing to describe the percentage of users who click on a link or advertisement. IF a page has 100 visitors and 12 click on the link then the page has a CTR of 12%.

cloaking
The practice used by some web sites to send one page to a search engine for indexing while serving an entirely different page to everyone else. So what the search engine sees and what you see are two different things. It should be noted that the practice of cloaking can get your site banned from the search engines.

conversion rate (CR)
The percentage of site visitors that deliver your most wanted response (MWR). The CR is an important measure of the effectiveness of your online sales effort. If your site is selling an e-book and if 3 out of every 100 visitors buys your book then your site has a CR of 3%.

CPC
Cost per click. The total cost of an advertising campaign divided by the resulting number of unique visitors.

CPM
Cost per thousand impressions (M= Roman numeral for 1000). A pricing system often used in the banner advertising industry.

dead link
A link to a page, that no longer exists or has been moved to a different URL. Search engine spiders regularly remove dead links.

deep linking
The practice of linking to the inner pages of another web site – as opposed to linking to the homepage.

Google bomb / Google bombing
The practice of using anchor text to make a page show up in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) under keywords that are out of context for that page. It should be noted that Google is taking steps to prevent this practice.

hand submission
The practice of visiting each search engine and directory and submitting the registration form by hand as opposed to using a software program. Some systems will not accept automated submissions. Same as Manual Submission.

heading tag
A HTML tag represented by , etc, to H6. These tags denote a text size with H1 being the largest. The heading tags may have significance in SEO with search engines appearing to assign more weight to keywords within heading tags.

hidden text
Text on a web page that is visible to spiders but not to human visitors. The aim is to load the page with keywords without deterring from the visitor’s experience. This is mostly done by making the text the some color as the background. Most search engines can now detect hidden text and consider it a form of spaming. Pages that contain hidden text are penalized or even de-listed.

hit
One hit is one request for a file on a web server. A visitor opening a page with 3images will in the process generate 4 hits.

hot linking
The practice of displaying images files, video files etc. on a web site when those files are on another (usually someone else’s) server. Effectively the site displays content that uses up someone else’s bandwidth. Hot linking is generally considered unethical unless prior permission is obtained.

HTML
Hypertext Markup Language is the primary language used to write web sites. Consists of tags .

HTTP
Hypertext Transfer Protocol is the most common transfer protocol used to facilitate communication between servers and browsers.

IP address
Every Internet user and every server has a numeric address – they look like this 123.45.67.890.

keyword
Keyword in a word used in a search query. In SEO, web pages are typically optimized for specific keywords. Accurate keyword targeting is considered by most to be essential to effective SEO.

keyword density
A measure of the percentage of key words on a page. When keyword density is inflated artificially, it is often referred to as keyword stuffing.

latent semantic indexing (LSI)
Latent Semantic Indexing, uses statistical algorithms to retrieve relevant documents even when they do not share any of the words queried.

manual submission
The process of manually submitting a web page to a search engine or directory as opposed to using submission software or a submission service. Same as Hand Submission.

Natural Linking
Describes the hypertext links found on web sites that are part of text content and that link to expanded or add extra information to the subject.

nofollow
If you don’t want the Googlebot to follow a you can use the following tag in your href links – rel=”nofollow”

PPC
Pay Per Click. An internet advertising payment system where the advertiser only pays for an advertisement when it gets click on. So an ad may be on a page that gets 1,000 visitors but if only 6 click, then the advertiser only pays for 6.

ranking
Refers to where a web page is listed in the search results for a particular query. For example, if one of your web pages is listed a position 7 for “cat” then your page is said to have a ranking of 7 for that term.

reciprocal link
Is basically a link swap. I will put a link to your page on mine if you will give a link back from your page.

PageRank
Google’s measure of the link popularity of a page.

SERP(S)
Search Engine Results Page(s). When you search for a term in a search engine it brings back a page full of responses this is the SERP.

SEO
Search Engine Optimization. This is a collective term used to describe activities that aim to improve a web page’s search engine ranking.

sitemap
A map to your site. A sitemap contains links to every page of your site which may assist spiders to index all your pages.

spider
An internal search engine program that travels the internet following links from one page to the next and from one site to the next. As it ‘crawls” it collects information from the sites it visits and then that information is stored in the search engine’s database for using in search engine query results.

spidering
The process of what the spiders do.

Server Side Include (SSI)
Is a form of HTML command that is kept off the page and on the server. It allows the webmaster to insert the same thing on many pages and allows them to make changes to that thing in just one place. For example a navigation bar may occur on every page, but if it is set up as a SSI, if a change is needed then the webmaster only need change it once and it will automatically be changed on every page.

unique visitor
Used to describe one individual person visiting a site. That one individual may visit the site multiple times, therefore log files normally show more visits than unique visitors.

URL
URL is short for Uniform Resource Locator or Universal Resource Locator. It is the unique Internet address that every website must have in order to be located. Eg www.discover-voip.info.

Domain names:
When choosing a domain name, choose one that is relevant to the product or service you are going to provide and that is as simple as possible. There are considerations of branding and product/service provided that should go into this choice. Involvement of marketing personal and product understanding is required but also consultation with your SEO professional is advantageous. In this step I would say, take some time and choose wisely. Keep it simple and easy to remember, often saying it out loud will make it clear whether it can be understood by a simple man.

It is a strongly held belief by many SEO professionals that buying a domain which is older, and that has been around for a while, means it will not be sand boxed by Google. What’s the sandbox effect? Well, it refers to what Google does to a website or domain that is new or is relatively unknown by Google. In many instances Google’s Sandbox effect relegates the new domain to sub-optimal inclusion in search results. Regardless of the sites optimization it lowers the websites relevance and ranking to the term searched upon. If you can use your old business domain name, then consider this very important.

If, however, you are buying a new domain name then keep it relevant to the product or service being sold or offered on the website. Keep it close, relevant and simple. Relevance is primary.

Location specific domain or international domain ( .com or com.au)? Personally I think dot com’s are better, mainly because they appeal Internationally but if you want to you can keep it location specific and to your region then consider purchasing all similar higher level domains, yourdomain.com and yourdomain.com.au, if you can.

Choosing a Host:
Fast, reliable and gives you all you that you need and want. Preferably gives a unique IP. Again some SEO professionals believe this can also have a detrimental affect in Google rankings but from my experience it sometimes does and it sometimes doesn’t. I have had some sites come in with high PR rankings on shared IP’s and others when I shifted to a new IP the PR of the site jumped, so this is still a bit of a mystery when it comes to Google rankings. I guess a consideration

Traffic considerations: When choosing your host ensure the plan you are on can be expanded so that any new increases in traffic can be accommodated accordingly.

Site Design:
There are several fundamental things to consider when you are modifying or designing a website.

Flash:
Flash is has been popular for a few years now and I truly believe it has its place. It is a great way of showing many products or services in a small area, has great visual impact if done properly and can set a good friendly tone to the website visitor. Having said that, I also hate flash; it can be an absolute nightmare when it comes to search engine optimization.

What you should know about flash; it cannot be read by a search engine as the search engine cannot read the text or the images contained within it nor can it interpret what is in the pictures being shown.

When it comes to flash I would suggest, not making your whole website flash. If you are designing a new website and you want to use flash then use it in high impact areas to capture the attention of your intended audience but use it sparingly. It is important to ensure that as much text content(to a maximum discussed in my next book, generally 300-500 characters) is available on the webpage and in simple HTML.

Frames:
Many older websites were designed with frames. Frames are where the main home page is actually a frameset page that includes several other pages into it. This makes the page hard to index in search engines and should be avoided. While Google do now index framed sites, it is important to note that most of the other top search engines still cannot follow frame links. They only see the frameset page and ignore the rest of the inner frames. This presents an SEO problem to us because it is highly likely those inner pages contain our content keywords.

Nowadays this is not really a huge issue as it is so uncommon for a designer to actually use frames but the easiest way to resolve the issue would be to enforce a no use policy on frames.

Page Layout:
According to research the Googlebot trawls web pages from left to right and top to bottom. So given this little tidbit of information it is clear that you should be putting our most valuable keywords and information on the left and near the top. Of course this is a blanket statement and does not take into account design principles and beautification. Just keep it in mind during design of page layout. Position your move relevant keywords to the left of the page and near the top.

Good HTML Coding:
A lot of HTML generator programs out there bloat HTML to the point it is 3-4 times larger than what it would be if you hand coded it. Keep it simple, use a text editor, edit your HTML the old school way; until there is a HTML generator tool worthy of use. If you can’t code HTML then do a search on the Internet and find a decent, free, e-book and learn how to do it.

Javascript:
This is very popular among many web development professionals for menu’s, popups, scollers etc etc. It would be my suggestion to use simple plain HTML menu’s or as little Javascript as possible in web pages. There are many small JavaScript menu’s out there that are slim on JavaScript code to reduce this issue and make it almost negligible. Don’t over clutter your site with JavaScript as it increases page size, page load times and the search engines won’t understand it.

Image Sizes:
Keep them small and use only what you need to. This is essential for decreasing page loading times and getting information onto the users screen as soon as possible.

Overall page size and loading:
The overall page size is an important factor. It should load quickly and be easily trawled. If you have followed the HTML hand coding, used minimal javascript, used simple table layouts and good image sizing then you should be fine. There is much evidence that supports the fact that Google and probably the other search engines also, do not like to scan huge files, so keeping your overall HTML page size below 25k is my suggestion.

Dynamic URL’s & page/file names:
Dynamic pages are roadblocks to high search engine positioning. Especially those that end in “?” or “&”. In a dynamic site, variables are passed to the URL and the page is generated dynamically, often from information stored in a database as is the case with many e-commerce sites. Normal .html pages are static – they are hard-coded, their information does not change, and there are no “?” or “&” characters in the URL.

Pages with dynamic URLs are present in several engines, notably Google and AltaVista, even though publicly AltaVista claims their spider does not crawl dynamic URLs. To a spider a “?” represents a sea of endless possibilities – some pages can automatically generate a potentially massive number of URLs, trapping the spider in a virtually infinite loop.

As a general rule, search engines will not properly index documents that:
• contain a “?” or “&”
• End in the following document types: .cfm, .asp, .shtml, .php, .stm, .jsp, .cgi, .pl
• Could potentially generate a large number of URLs.
To avoid complications, consider creating static pages whenever possible, perhaps using the database to update the pages, not to generate them on the fly.

Slightly Off Topic Thoughts:
The topics covered here are not considered completely SEO topics but in terms of overall objective – increasing sales, this section is very important. Take these things on board, consider them, consult with your designer and marketing team. Make educated and informed choices on these topics when considering your audience and what your website objectives are.

Screen Size:
Over 65% of all screens in the World are set to run at the 1024×768 resolution. Of the remaining percentage, 13% are running at 800×600, 20% running at larger sizes and 2% are unknown. So this affects the way you design. It would be my suggestion to always design for the smallest user to visit your site, but often I find 800×600 restrictive so I tend to design for slightly larger. Not large enough to make an 800×600 user angry but large enough to make it look good on larger screens also. I weigh up my target users, my intended amount of content and find some happy medium. I generally design for 1000×620 as this is the perfect amount of real estate for a 1024×768 user when they have the browser top bar and status bar and Windows taskbar.

colors and themes:
One important aspect of marketing – selling – is the use of color. Meanings are attached to colors in the same way meanings are attached to words.

• Gold is the color of wealth and prosperity.
• White is the color of pure innocence and cleanliness.
• Pink is the color of femininity and softness.
• Green is the color of natural things and freshness.
• Red is the color of danger and stress.
• Blue is the color the calmness, intelligence. The majority of the World selects blue as a favorite color. It often represents “trust”

Use of color to establish an image or a brand is common in the marketing community, yet when you visit the websites of many search engine optimization professional’s, it’s obvious that color significance plays no part in their own web optimization. Some of the colors I found on SEO websites:
• Baby Blue, a color which implies weakness.
• Red, a color which implies risk, or danger.
• Orange a color which implies a cheerful “levity”. Orange is one of Americans’ least favorite colors.

Although color selection is off topic for SEO I would consider it a very important factor in what SEO is trying to achieve, in the end, for your website – selling more product, creating loyalty to your brand and customer impact. color research is something you should seriously consider. In summary of color choices I would suggest studying and learning more about your customers, researching color choices and their relevance to your underlying products and making informed choices on these in collaboration. If in doubt then I suggest sticking to safe and trusted colors within safe eye pleasing designs.

Gifs for logos & jpgs for pictures:
Ensure you are using gifs for logos and background placements and jpgs for photos on your website. This helps reduce size and improve clarity of the web site overall.

Browser:
It is vitally important to ensure your web page works in both IE, Firefox and Opera. Testing other browsers is also an advantage but these are the main three in use nowadays (2007). I think quoting stats on the browser breakdown are irrelevant as you need it work in all browsers. W3C cross browser compliance is great for this.

So what should your goal be when you are delving into SEO for your website? Well, everyone’s goal is exactly the same; improve page rankings, improve page visits and hits and finally gain more sales through the website.

When it comes to SEO and achieving these goals you have to have principles and my main principle is, “Good websites get good ratings and bad websites get bad ratings or none at all.” As time goes on with the improvement of search engine technology and the refinement of search engine results this statement becomes truer and truer. I believe in results through “white hat”(reads; “Grey Hat”) principles and methodologies.

What are “white hat” principles? I guess I would compare it to doing things the honest way and the right way without risk. So develop a good site, promote good linking, have good informative content and keep working on it and then you are on the road to good rankings through “White Hat” principles.

So, why should you do things the “white hat” way? Well, search engines do have some kind of understanding, an artificial intelligence. They soon catch on to websites spamming or linking to websites with no relevance and bad cross linking. It’s about being smart, in for the long term and wanting your business to grow organically, naturally.