Tools for Picking Keywords

• Overture's Keyword Selector Tool.
• Google AdWords Keyword Tool.

Redirects

• Avoid using JavaScript and http-equiv redirects. Search engines cannot follow them.
• Use 301 permanent redirects instead of 302 temporary redirects. Here is a guide to 301 redirects.

Keep Your Code Clean

Messy code and extraneous code will interfere with a search engine’s ability to index your page.

• Make sure your code validates to W3C standards: validator.w3.org.
• Avoid using tables and font tags to format your page. Use style sheets instead.
• Avoid placing style sheets and JavaScripts on the page (unless your site gets as many hits as Yahoo); link to them instead.
• Search engines cannot read text dynamically created with JavaScript. Present text content using HTML instead.

meta keyword elements

Don’t waste your time with meta keywords. Apparently Google does not care about them. Spend your time improving your page content and title instead. If you have meta keywords on legacy pages, follow these rules:

• The words and phrases in your keyword list must match the words and phrases found in the body of the page, otherwise it is considered spamming.
• Limit your meta keywords to less that 25 keywords.

meta description elements

Meta descriptions are crucial in two cases:

• Search engines use text to describe a page. Images do not contain text and search engines may not be able to index the text in your Flash. When your page is mostly images or Flash, provide a meta description of the contents of your page.
• Search engines use link text to describe the page the link goes to, but not the page the link text is on. When your page is mostly links, like a sitemap or portal, you need to provide a meta description of the contents of the page.

title elements

• When your webpage appears in search results, the title text becomes the link text people click on in the search results, therefore, the page title should be simple, easy to read and enticing.
• Make sure the title tags include keywords that reflect the contents of your page, and the name of your site and/or business.
• Each page should have a unique title.
• Never separate the letters of the words in your titles with spaces or other characters. Some designers make this mistake because they think it looks cool, but it destroys the search quality of your page titles.

Images, Flash and other Multimedia

Search engines are good at reading text, but they cannot read information trapped in images or video, and many struggle to read text included in Flash movies. In circumstances where your pages use images, Flash or video to convey information, you must do the following:

• Ensure that page titles and meta descriptions adequately describe the contents of the page.
• Ensure that images have alt and title attributes that describe the content of the images.
• Object elements should have descriptive title attributes.
• Consider adding HTML text descriptions of multimedia to your pages.
• Use descriptive link text when linking to pages comprised of mostly images, Flash or other multimedia.

Links

• Search engines use link text to describe the contents of the page the link points to. It is crucial to be descriptive when writing your link text copy, ensuring that you include keywords in the link text. See this article on Google Bombing for more information.
• Never use "click here", "learn more" or other link text that contains no description of the page the link points to.
• HTML text links should be used when possible instead of image, Flash or JavaScript rendered links.

Cookies, Session Variables, and Form Information

• Content on pages that require cookies, session variables or form information may not be available to search engines.

Domains

• When you register your domain, register it for at least five years. Your website and business appear to be legitimate when you make the commitment to register your website for an extended period of time.
• Once you pick a domain name, don’t change it. When you move your site to a new domain name, or new root domain (.com, .org, .net), you’re back to zero again. All links and bookmarks to your site will be broken, and search engines will need to index your site again.

URLs

• Include keywords in your sub-domains, directory names and file names.
• Avoid complex URLs. Search engines can choke on complex query strings.

Getting the Search Engines to Notice You

• Get people to link to you. Network with similar sites, and exchange links.
• Be careful who you exchange links with. If you exchange links with a spammer, it reflects poorly on your site.
• Submit your site to search engines and directories.
• Update your site frequently; every day if possible.
• Start a blog and/or RSS feed.