Lessons learned from this forum

[alhefner]

There are a huge number of posters here with real experience in the field of SEO. Many have sites and individual pages that consistently show up on the first page of search results across all search engines.

Reading these posts and applying the lessons learned has hepled me get similar results and I thought I would sumarize a few things that have stuck to my second remaining brain cell. please correct me if I am leading anyone astray!

• Don't worry too much about the toolbar "pagerank" that Google assigns any page. Where you are actually showing up in a search is more indicative of your SEO efforts.
• Give your SEO efforts some time! Making changes today and expecting to be on page one tomorrow usually isn't gonna happen. I am giving my efforts at least two weeks to show progress before thinking of new changes.
• Write text for every page! Write well and for your targeted audience. Ensure the text you write makes sense, is readable, and above all else something the reader will want to read all the way through.
• Focus on just a few keywords for any one page. Though the major search engines will crawl a site, it is the individual pages that most often show in a search result.
• Optimize every page. Keep your site theme consistent but ensure that every page that shows up takes SEO into account.
• META description and keywords do not figure highly in search results for the major engines BUT do not discard them or discount them totally. Write a good description as if it is an advertisement for the page. Use the keyword tag but don't overload it.
• Use the "alt" attribute everywhere it makes sense to do so. Keep it short and descriptive using your keywords or key phrases where possible. This is especially important for sites that make heavy use of images.
• Make somewhat frequent chages to your content. These do not need to be major changes and should always enhance the original content of the page you are changing. Doing this will "entice" the search engines to crawl your site more frequently.
• Avoid huge URL's that don't describe the page if possible. Many "dynamic" sites place variables into the URL. This can have a negative effect on your SERP. If possible, configure your scripts to use descriptive URL's. Using .htaccess can help greatly in this but if you use hosting that won't allow you to have your own .htaccess file you may have some programming to do.

I think that if you do these things, you will see your pages creeping up in search results. It has helped me and I am watching my pages go from absolute obscurity to places where they can actually be found.

[thindenim]

That all sounds correct, I would add: -

- Interlink your pages through contextual links in the body text where applicable
- Link out to relevant authoratitive resources where applicable
- Build high quality links to your home page and internal pages
- Network with other site owners in your field as much as you can

[mjtaylor]

And pay attention to Semantics and Accessibility.

You are a great addition to the forum, Al, and I applaud your synthesis of what you have learned. Rep points to you.
Cheers, MJ

[alhefner]

MJTAYLOR: to borrow a term from my wasted youth "much grass" for the points!

I read, sometimes I learn, sometimes my other living brain cell goes on strike.

BTW, I was reading another post where a guy wanted to know what questions to ask in an interview for performing SEO. Someone gave a link to 55 questions to ask an SEO applicant and I read them. Lot's o good info in just the questions and I learned that I have been performing tasks I didn't know the name of but just did as a matter of course.

[kgun]

May be a follow up in this

http://www.webproworld.com/search-en...tml#post218675

forgotten? thread.

And don't forget that we live in a web 2.0 world:

http://www.webproworld.com/search-en...tml#post330521

http://www.webproworld.com/search-en...tml#post358962

SEO Rule 1:

Make dynamic quality content with simple, clean code, easy, consistent navigation, good headings on the page and foccused relevant KW's in internal and external links.

SEO Rule 2:
Don't forget rule 1.

Content and code is Queen, refactoring to better content and code is King.

Source:
http://www.webproworld.com/search-en...tml#post255253

Here is another very (too) general definition, more related to business profit:

SEO definition 1:
Improving a site's (the pages of the site) postion on the SERP's of one SE without worsening it other SE's SERP's.

Professional SEO definition 1:
Improving a site's (the pages of the site) postion on the SERP's for a sustainable increase in free cash flow.

Source:
http://www.webproworld.com/search-en...tml#post247140

Conclusion:
Make it simple as simple as possible, but no simpler.

Sometimes that requires a lot of work.

[alhefner]

Good additions all! I am currently experimenting with the "keep it simple" method. In fact I am keeping it simple to the extreme to see how that affects rankings. I'll be sure to let people know how that works out.

[~DaRk-EyE~]

• Give your SEO efforts some time! Making changes today and expecting to be on page one tomorrow usually isn't gonna happen. I am giving my efforts at least two weeks to show progress before thinking of new changes.
• Focus on just a few keywords for any one page. Though the major search engines will crawl a site, it is the individual pages that most often show in a search result.
• Use the "alt" attribute everywhere it makes sense to do so. Keep it short and descriptive using your keywords or key phrases where possible. This is especially important for sites that make heavy use of images.
• Make somewhat frequent chages to your content. These do not need to be major changes and should always enhance the original content of the page you are changing. Doing this will "entice" the search engines to crawl your site more frequently.

I choose these four pointers cause they're included in my SEO priorities right now...
I'm doing my best to figure out the proper combination in order to achieve ranking stability...
Nice tips...