What us SEO?

SEO is the practice of optimizing a website in order to rank it higher for targeted keywords in the search engines-the biggest ones being Google, Yahoo, and MSN. SEO strategies can be grouped into 2 categories, on-page and off page.

On-page tactics include performing keyword research and using the most important terms in prime website real estate such as in titles, headers, Meta tags , and on-page copy.

Off-page tactics on the other hand focus on improving external quality signals that tell the search engines that a page is important. Inbound links, for example, represent a huge part of Google’s algorithm. A page that gains more quality links is likely to rank higher for particular keywords.

SEO begins even before you create your site through meticulous planning and education. Be sure you have these initial checks in place before your begin your SEO campaign. Getting started on the right track makes a huge difference and will prevent headaches later on.

What makes a page rank well in the search engines?  Just keep in mind that search engine algorithms are constantly changing and adapting to the Internet landscape. An SEO factor that’s important today could be irrelevant tomorrow.

Make sure your designers understand your expectations and needs for SEO.
There’s nothing worse than creating a new site and having to redo it because it’s a mess in terms of optimization. For example, a Flash- based site is horrible for SEO and is extremely limited for search engine crawling. Keep SEO in mind before, during , and after your website development process.

It’s just as important to optimize your site for conversions and usability as it is for search engine rankings. SEO is useless your visitors are easily able to find what they need once they get your site. Don’t sacrifice usability for the sake of “better” SEO.

If you’re on a shared hosting server, do a blacklist check to make sure that you’re not on the same IP as a spammer or banned site. Spammer penalties could affect your own site’s ranking if you’re on the same IP block.

Search engine give preference to site that have domain names registered for multiples years. I’m not sure how much of a boost they get but it makes sense because a long-term domain signifies stability and trust. For example, a spammer would never register a domain for 10 years because it could get banned and be made worthless by the search engines any day. Furthermore, there have also been reports that blocking your WHOIS information with a private registration could potentially lead to Google labelling you as a spammer. It’s not likely unless there’s a legitimate reason for them to do so, but it’s something to keep in mind should you see penalties for your sites

We’ll get into greater detail about link building in a later section, but keep in mind that the majority of your SEO efforts depends on your ability to drive links to your site. Use the “link:domain.com” operator in Yahoo Site Explorer and the Majestic SEO tool to see the current links pointing at your site(and competitors’). You can also see this information in more depth in your Google Webmaster account.

If you’re looking to get ahead using blackhat SEO, stop now. Unless you’re highly experienced technically or are experimenting with sites you don’t care about, blackhat SEO isn’t really a viable long-term marketing strategy. Tactics come and go and if you’re looking to see success using the strategies in this checklist, you should really avoid anything shady that will get you banned in the search engines.

As of this writing, Google has around 70% of the search engine market share, followed by Yahoo, MSN can still send you a good amount of organic search traffic. But it’s better to optimize for Google and hope the others rank you favourably than to try and collect the scraps the secondary engines offer. Google is king in this market and the lead id only growing bigger as Yahoo and MSN struggle to find their places.

The SEO landscape changes extremely quickly and it’s important that you stay on top of what the search engines are doing and what’s working. I recommend SEOmoz Pro and Aaron Wall’s SEO Book Training to get cutting-edge industry knowledge and Search Engine Land for industry news. You should also conduct experiments and learn from your own experience and mistakes.

Each of the three major search engines allows you to set up a webmaster account which enables you to see inbound links and change various settings for your site. Set up an account at Google Webmaster Central, Yahoo Site Explorer, and Live Search Webmaster Centre.

Forget about submitting your site to the search engines
Google’s regular submission form can take weeks to process. The fastest way to get your site crawled and indexed in the search engines is to attain links from other quality site.

When it comes down to it, search engines merely attempt to organize information in a way that follows human behaviours and trends. In other words, they strive to rank what’s popular and of high quality. As search evolves, the engines will incorporate more and more data into their alogorithms. For example, Google already owns properties like analytics, maps, Gmail, toolbar, and Chrome and can easily use this data to influence their search rankings. In the near future, we’ll see things like social media votes, time on page, and bounce rate affect rankings Rather than try to fool the search engines into giving your site a top listing, provide real value to humans and the rankings will follow. This is the best long term SEO strategy that will pay dividends for year to come