[Guide] Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

**muzikool** · March 10th, 2007

I've been asked to share some information on SEO, so I thought I'd start a thread here for anyone who might find the information useful. I am not an SEO genius or "professional optimizer" by any means, but I have done some research on the subject for my own sites and talked with someone who has a lot of great knowledge on the subject. Note: I will only be describing FREE methods of SEO that you can do on your own. Additional Note: SEO is a debated topic, so everything I state here won't necessarily be agreed upon by everyone. What I'm posting here is what I believe to be correct and ethical, but by no means is it the final word on SEO methods.

Important Basics -- My Top 5 Do's and Don't of SEO

1. SEO DOES TAKE TIME. It takes time for you to research keywords, optimize your site and it's content and receive external links from other websites. Beyond that, though, your site will gain validity and value to search engines the longer it exists. So much of the SEO process is simply waiting and being patient.

2. Probaby the biggest "Don't." DO NOT EMBED INVISIBLE TEXT into your webpage -- this is usually keywords that are made to be the same color as the background, normally at the bottom of a webpage. Google recognizes this and penalizes your website for it, and you don't want that since Google is the #1 search engine!

3. ESTABLISH AND MAKE USE OF KEYWORDS on your website, especially on your home page. I will link to some keywords tools at the bottom of this post that can help you establish what keywords your site should use. Keywords are what you expect people to use when they are performing a search, and the search engine will list your site if you are using these keywords in your meta tags and in your text content.

Once you've decided on these keywords, it's recommended that you repeat them throughout the text on your homepage. At the same time, avoid saturating your page with these words -- they will obviously appear frequently, but you can try to word your sentences in a way where they are still good in a grammatical sense.

Meta tags are not as important as they used to be, but they can still be helpful and I encourage you to put them into your code. The keywords you choose should be listed in the meta keyword tag. See the links at the bottom of this post for information on how to setup your meta tags.

4. GET SITE TRAFFIC USING EXTERNAL LINKS. Links from other websites (referral links) that point to your website are extremely important and make a significant impact on your placement in search engine results. There are tons of ways to get linked from other sites. You can list your site in relevant directories, offer to trade referral links with other site owners, place links to your site in forums (without spamming!), utilize social bookmarking get friends to blog about your site, etc. This brings me to my next point...

5. DO NOT SUBMIT YOUR SITE TO LINK FARMS. Link Farms used to be an SEO trick that was recommended, but your site can now be penalized in search results if it is listed in a link farm. What is a link farm?

Additional Tips -- Other methods that will aid in SEO

1. Use descriptive links on your site, or when linking from other websites. Instead of linking from another website with your URL, use a descriptive phrase that utilizes one or more of your keywords. For example instead of http://www.mywebsite.com, post useful gadgets and widgets. The same applies for within your website. If you are going to link between pages using textual content, then use a descriptive link, instead of something like "Back."

2. Graphic links will only enhance your SEO if you put a description in the image's alt tag.

3. Manually submit your website to search engines if you feel the need to do so. If your site is linked to from any well-known website, then the search engines will find your site in a short amount of time. There normally isn't a need to manually submit your site, but it won't hurt you to do it either.

4. Build a sitemap for your website. It won't drastically improve your site's ranking, but it will help web spiders index all of your pages. A sitemap is more necessary for larger sites than smaller ones.

Useful Links

SEO Resources
101 SEO Resources
SEO Chat
SEOBook
Ethical SEO - site run by a friend of mine

Keyword Resources
About.com Articles
Google Keyword Tool
SEOBook Keyword Tool

Meta Tags
Myths about Meta Tags
Meta Tag Generator

Monitoring Tools
Google Webmaster Tools (thanks, Geffy)
Google Analytics
StatCounter

**Geffy** · March 10th, 2007

You can use the Google Webmaster Tools to test how google indexes your site and so on.

**NetRyder** · March 10th, 2007

Originally Posted by Geffy

You can use the Google Webmaster Tools to test how google indexes your site and so on.

Yep, I use that for my blog and it's a very handy tool.

**muzikool** · March 10th, 2007

Thanks, guys. I wasn't able to finish up earlier so I've come back and added the links I wanted listed. I'll add more information and links if others want to contribute. Hopefully this will be a good resource to get people started.

**kcnychief** · March 10th, 2007

Great information, thanks for posting it

Mizzle · May 20th, 2008

Yes, thanks a lot. It was very helpful

amanda12 · August 30th, 2008

Yep, great information . it's a very handy tool.

bugmaster · April 5th, 2009

nice info for a newbie

seo-marketing · July 6th, 2009

Following are some cool tips on search engine optimization ( PPC and SEO)

Read: how to Achieve Higher SEO Rankings on Google

Adwords SEO Optimization Tips - How to Optimize your Adwords Campaign for better results and leads

I am sure you will also find these threads informative and these postings will help you gain better insight into search engine optimization.

**perris** · July 10th, 2009

thanks for this page, I don't do it where I work but because of this thread I decided I'd see how effective their web master is, I just put our site through the ringer and it really sux

(www.carlsfence.net)

I am going through some basic optimization with the web master, I want to know of the meta tag generator is worth adding to the web page?

**LordOfLA** · July 10th, 2009

meta tags really help with search engines, especially keywords and description.

**perris** · July 10th, 2009

Originally Posted by LordOfLA

meta tags really help with search engines, especially keywords and description.

thanx lordofla, I understand that but there is a meta tag generator that you add to the website that I guess adds tags by random or something?

does this tool do any good, it seems it might be counter productive to me

Code:

<!-- BEGIN Developer Shed™ Network's Meta Tag Generator -->
<!-- Copyright 2001-2009 Developer Shed™, LLC All Rights Reserved -->


<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
  <tr>
   <td valign="top">
      <table width="300" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
        <tr>
          <td width="16" height="16"><img src="http://images.devshed.com/sc/seotools/image_01.gif" width="16" height="16"></td>
          <td width="130" height="16" background="http://images.devshed.com/sc/seotools/bckg06.gif"><img src="http://images.devshed.com/sc/seotools/spacer.gif" width="130" height="16"></td>
          <td width="118" height="16" background="http://images.devshed.com/sc/seotools/bckg06.gif"><img src="http://images.devshed.com/sc/seotools/spacer.gif" width="150" height="16"></td>
          <td width="40" background="http://images.devshed.com/sc/seotools/bckg06.gif"><img src="http://images.devshed.com/sc/seotools/spacer.gif" width="40" height="16"></td>
          <td width="18" height="16"><img src="http://images.devshed.com/sc/seotools/image_02.gif" width="16" height="16"></td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td height="30" background="http://images.devshed.com/sc/seotools/bckg07.gif"> </td>
          <td class=toolbox width="*" bgcolor="#CCCCCC" colspan=2 valign=top>
          <B><font size=+1>Meta Tag Generator Tool</font></b> © <a href="http://www.seochat.com">SEO Chat™</a>
          <font size="2" face="Courier New, Courier, mono">
			    <form action="http://www.seochat.com/?option=com_seotools&tool=3" method="POST" name="form"><input type=hidden name=go value=1><p><b>Keywords</b><br>List of relevant keywords<br><textarea  tabindex=1   name="keywords" cols=30 rows=5></textarea><p><b>Description</b><br>Short description of page<br><textarea  tabindex=2   name="description" cols=30 rows=5></textarea><p><b>Enter Captcha To Continue</b><br>To prevent spamming, please enter in the numbers and letters in the box below<br><input type=text  tabindex=3   name="imageverify" size=32 value=""><input   tabindex=4  type="hidden" name="timehsh" value="487a41334f56773d"><p><img	src=http://www.seochat.com/includes/showcaptcha.php?bd=487a41334f56773d border=1><p><input  tabindex=5   type=submit name="submit" id="submit" value="Make Meta-Tags"><p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.developershed.com/esupport/"><font color="#0000FF"><b>Report Problem with Tool.</b></font></a></form>
          </font>
          </td>
          <td width="40" valign="top" bgcolor="#CCCCCC"></td>
          <td width="18" background="http://images.devshed.com/sc/seotools/bckg03.gif"> </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td width="16"><img src="http://images.devshed.com/sc/seotools/image_03.gif" width="16" height="16"></td>
          <td colspan="3" width="*" height="16" background="http://images.devshed.com/sc/seotools/bckg04.gif"><img src="http://images.devshed.com/sc/seotools/spacer.gif" width="16" height="16"></td>
          <td width="18"><img src="http://images.devshed.com/sc/seotools/image_04.gif" width="16" height="16"></td>
        </tr>
      </table>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

<!-- END Developer Shed™ Network's Meta Tag Generator -->

**LordOfLA** · July 10th, 2009

no, you're better off spending the time to manualy research the keywords per page. Keywords should be the words you think your customers are going to be typing to try and find you when they don't know who you are yet.

the description tag should only be a short paragraph to go under you link title on search result pages.

**perris** · July 10th, 2009

Originally Posted by LordOfLA

no, you're better off spending the time to manualy research the keywords per page. Keywords should be the words you think your customers are going to be typing to try and find you when they don't know who you are yet.

the description tag should only be a short paragraph to go under you link title on search result pages.

thanx, that's what I thought, been waiting to hear from you before I called their web master

good stuff

binoyxj · July 18th, 2009

I suggest all OSNN members to read great posts at DailySEOblog.com.

binoyxj · July 18th, 2009

How to increase your Page Rank? - http://www.dailyseoblog.com/2007/10/...adually-tip-1/

SEO Tips - Landing page Optimization - http://www.dailyseoblog.com/2008/01/...tion-seo-tips/

7 steps to your blog's SEO -- http://www.dailyseoblog.com/2007/12/...n-one-capsule/

binoyxj · July 23rd, 2009

The Definitive Guide To Higher Rankings For Your Blog - http://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-seo/

**Mainframeguy** · August 20th, 2009

I did not scroll.... but one thing not stated is the importance of ACCESSABILITY which is a BIG factor once a spider gets there. Seriously.

**Johnny** · August 20th, 2009

There is some great info on here. Thanx for it all ..

JavierNeri · August 24th, 2009

Very good post, the daily SEO becomes more essential for websites.

March 10th, 2007	Top \| #1
muzikool Act your wage. Joined: December 2001 Location: Texas, USA Reputation: Yes, please. Posts: 7,626 Reputation: 2900 Power: 232	[Guide] Search Engine Optimization (SEO) I've been asked to share some information on SEO, so I thought I'd start a thread here for anyone who might find the information useful. I am not an SEO genius or "professional optimizer" by any means, but I have done some research on the subject for my own sites and talked with someone who has a lot of great knowledge on the subject. Note: I will only be describing FREE methods of SEO that you can do on your own. Additional Note: SEO is a debated topic, so everything I state here won't necessarily be agreed upon by everyone. What I'm posting here is what I believe to be correct and ethical, but by no means is it the final word on SEO methods. Important Basics -- My Top 5 Do's and Don't of SEO 1. SEO DOES TAKE TIME. It takes time for you to research keywords, optimize your site and it's content and receive external links from other websites. Beyond that, though, your site will gain validity and value to search engines the longer it exists. So much of the SEO process is simply waiting and being patient. 2. Probaby the biggest "Don't." DO NOT EMBED INVISIBLE TEXT into your webpage -- this is usually keywords that are made to be the same color as the background, normally at the bottom of a webpage. Google recognizes this and penalizes your website for it, and you don't want that since Google is the #1 search engine! 3. ESTABLISH AND MAKE USE OF KEYWORDS on your website, especially on your home page. I will link to some keywords tools at the bottom of this post that can help you establish what keywords your site should use. Keywords are what you expect people to use when they are performing a search, and the search engine will list your site if you are using these keywords in your meta tags and in your text content. Once you've decided on these keywords, it's recommended that you repeat them throughout the text on your homepage. At the same time, avoid saturating your page with these words -- they will obviously appear frequently, but you can try to word your sentences in a way where they are still good in a grammatical sense. Meta tags are not as important as they used to be, but they can still be helpful and I encourage you to put them into your code. The keywords you choose should be listed in the meta keyword tag. See the links at the bottom of this post for information on how to setup your meta tags. 4. GET SITE TRAFFIC USING EXTERNAL LINKS. Links from other websites (referral links) that point to your website are extremely important and make a significant impact on your placement in search engine results. There are tons of ways to get linked from other sites. You can list your site in relevant directories, offer to trade referral links with other site owners, place links to your site in forums (without spamming!), utilize social bookmarking get friends to blog about your site, etc. This brings me to my next point... 5. DO NOT SUBMIT YOUR SITE TO LINK FARMS. Link Farms used to be an SEO trick that was recommended, but your site can now be penalized in search results if it is listed in a link farm. What is a link farm? Additional Tips -- Other methods that will aid in SEO 1. Use descriptive links on your site, or when linking from other websites. Instead of linking from another website with your URL, use a descriptive phrase that utilizes one or more of your keywords. For example instead of http://www.mywebsite.com, post useful gadgets and widgets. The same applies for within your website. If you are going to link between pages using textual content, then use a descriptive link, instead of something like "Back." 2. Graphic links will only enhance your SEO if you put a description in the image's alt tag. 3. Manually submit your website to search engines if you feel the need to do so. If your site is linked to from any well-known website, then the search engines will find your site in a short amount of time. There normally isn't a need to manually submit your site, but it won't hurt you to do it either. 4. Build a sitemap for your website. It won't drastically improve your site's ranking, but it will help web spiders index all of your pages. A sitemap is more necessary for larger sites than smaller ones. Useful Links SEO Resources 101 SEO Resources SEO Chat SEOBook Ethical SEO - site run by a friend of mine Keyword Resources About.com Articles Google Keyword Tool SEOBook Keyword Tool Meta Tags Myths about Meta Tags Meta Tag Generator Monitoring Tools Google Webmaster Tools (thanks, Geffy) Google Analytics StatCounter

March 10th, 2007	Top \| #2
Geffy OSNN Veteran Addict Joined: March 2002 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 7,805 Reputation: 1490 Power: 217	Re: [Guide] Search Engine Optimization (SEO) You can use the Google Webmaster Tools to test how google indexes your site and so on.  • blog • tumblog • lastfm • flickr • #rubyonrails • @twitter "I could be replaced with a very small shell script"

March 10th, 2007	Top \| #3
NetRyder Tech Junkie Joined: April 2002 Location: New York City Posts: 13,256 Reputation: 4260 Power: 298	Re: [Guide] Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Originally Posted by Geffy You can use the Google Webmaster Tools to test how google indexes your site and so on. Yep, I use that for my blog and it's a very handy tool. http://kunal.kundaje.net

March 10th, 2007	Top \| #4
muzikool Act your wage. Joined: December 2001 Location: Texas, USA Reputation: Yes, please. Posts: 7,626 Reputation: 2900 Power: 232	Re: [Guide] Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Thanks, guys. I wasn't able to finish up earlier so I've come back and added the links I wanted listed. I'll add more information and links if others want to contribute. Hopefully this will be a good resource to get people started.

March 10th, 2007	Top \| #5
kcnychief █▄█ ▀█▄ █ Joined: April 2005 Location: Massachusetts Posts: 16,949 Reputation: 4941 Power: 305	Re: [Guide] Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Great information, thanks for posting it XBOX Live Gamertag: kcnychief

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May 20th, 2008	Top \| #6
Mizzle Oh, now I know...! Joined: May 2008 Location: Denmark Posts: 347 Reputation: 210 Power: 55	Re: [Guide] Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Yes, thanks a lot. It was very helpful 20.1 inch HP Pavilion HDX Dragon Vista Ultimate 64-bit Service Pack 2 and Windows 7 Build 7000 Intel Core2 Extreme X9000 (2.80 GHz, 6 MB cache) \| 4 GB DDR2 RAM 2 DIMM \| 512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTS \| 500 GB HDD (2 x 250 GB, 5400 rpm) All thanks to OSNN, HP and BuzzCorps!

August 30th, 2008	Top \| #7
amanda12 OSNN Junior Addict Joined: August 2008 Posts: 2 Reputation: 0 Power: 0	Re: [Guide] Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Yep, great information . it's a very handy tool.

April 5th, 2009	Top \| #8
bugmaster OSNN Junior Addict Joined: December 2008 Posts: 3 Reputation: 0 Power: 0	Re: [Guide] Search Engine Optimization (SEO) nice info for a newbie

July 6th, 2009	Top \| #9
seo-marketing OSNN Junior Addict Joined: July 2009 Location: INDIA Posts: 5 Reputation: 0 Power: 36	Re: [Guide] Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Following are some cool tips on search engine optimization ( PPC and SEO) Read: how to Achieve Higher SEO Rankings on Google Adwords SEO Optimization Tips - How to Optimize your Adwords Campaign for better results and leads I am sure you will also find these threads informative and these postings will help you gain better insight into search engine optimization.

July 10th, 2009	Top \| #10
perris OSNN Godlike Veteran Joined: January 2002 Location: new york Posts: 12,258 Reputation: 4333 Power: 291	Re: [Guide] Search Engine Optimization (SEO) thanks for this page, I don't do it where I work but because of this thread I decided I'd see how effective their web master is, I just put our site through the ringer and it really sux (www.carlsfence.net) I am going through some basic optimization with the web master, I want to know of the meta tag generator is worth adding to the web page? IT'S NOT WHAT YOU'VE DONE IT'S WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO DO

July 10th, 2009	Top \| #11
LordOfLA Godlike! Joined: February 2004 Location: Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK Posts: 7,031 Blog Entries: 5 Reputation: 4137 Power: 213	Re: [Guide] Search Engine Optimization (SEO) meta tags really help with search engines, especially keywords and description. If HK-47 and GLaDOS had a child, the character they create would cause the video game world to overdose on awesome. -sheridanmovieguy: Dragon age forum user.

July 10th, 2009	Top \| #13
LordOfLA Godlike! Joined: February 2004 Location: Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK Posts: 7,031 Blog Entries: 5 Reputation: 4137 Power: 213	Re: [Guide] Search Engine Optimization (SEO) no, you're better off spending the time to manualy research the keywords per page. Keywords should be the words you think your customers are going to be typing to try and find you when they don't know who you are yet. the description tag should only be a short paragraph to go under you link title on search result pages. If HK-47 and GLaDOS had a child, the character they create would cause the video game world to overdose on awesome. -sheridanmovieguy: Dragon age forum user.

July 10th, 2009	Top \| #14
perris OSNN Godlike Veteran Joined: January 2002 Location: new york Posts: 12,258 Reputation: 4333 Power: 291	Re: [Guide] Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Originally Posted by LordOfLA no, you're better off spending the time to manualy research the keywords per page. Keywords should be the words you think your customers are going to be typing to try and find you when they don't know who you are yet. the description tag should only be a short paragraph to go under you link title on search result pages. thanx, that's what I thought, been waiting to hear from you before I called their web master good stuff IT'S NOT WHAT YOU'VE DONE IT'S WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO DO

July 18th, 2009	Top \| #15
binoyxj PrOuD InDiAn Joined: May 2008 Location: KOCHI,KERALA,INDIA. Posts: 475 Reputation: 307 Power: 57	Re: [Guide] Search Engine Optimization (SEO) I suggest all OSNN members to read great posts at DailySEOblog.com. Follow me - Compixels.com

July 18th, 2009	Top \| #16
binoyxj PrOuD InDiAn Joined: May 2008 Location: KOCHI,KERALA,INDIA. Posts: 475 Reputation: 307 Power: 57	Re: [Guide] Search Engine Optimization (SEO) How to increase your Page Rank? - http://www.dailyseoblog.com/2007/10/...adually-tip-1/ SEO Tips - Landing page Optimization - http://www.dailyseoblog.com/2008/01/...tion-seo-tips/ 7 steps to your blog's SEO -- http://www.dailyseoblog.com/2007/12/...n-one-capsule/ Follow me - Compixels.com

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August 24th, 2009	Top \| #20
JavierNeri OSNN Junior Addict Joined: August 2009 Posts: 3 Reputation: 0 Power: 0	Re: [Guide] Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Very good post, the daily SEO becomes more essential for websites.