Here are some tips on basic search engine optimization. It may not be entirely applicable to everyone's site, but it should be mostly valid to anyone interested in the topic. This is also a critical guide with specifics for anyone doing SEO work (or final checks) on our pages.
Mistakes to Avoid in SEO
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If there are pages or sections of the website that you want to keep private, then you probably don't want Google to index them and funnel thousands of people straight there, do you? Make sure to use a robots.txt file to deny bots access to any pages you do not want indexed.
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Do keyword research. A few searches should turn up many websites which assist with this but the more reliable the better. Include keywords in the page <title> tag, <meta> keywords tag, <meta> description tag, URL, all headings (including title attributes), all links (also including title attributes), image names (including alt attributes), and text content on the page itself. The more additional content pages you can link to related pages the better - Portal sites dominate their categories because they have so many internal pages to link together.
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Don't incorporate heavy CSS and JavaScript into your webpages. Use external files (.css and .js) to eliminate SEO (and accessibility) confusion and save space, i.e. increase your keyword density.
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Finally review everything that Google and Yahoo have available on SEO.
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SEO Design Tips
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The first priority of title attributes is including secondary keywords which are not appropriate to appear on the page but valuable for SEO, primary keywords will appear in the link/heading/other text where they're human readable. If there are no secondary keywords, repeat the keywords in the text to increase keyword density; the title attribute is available, take advantage of the opportunity.
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All headings and links should have a title attribute. These are the two most valuable types of webpage real estate, don't forget their titles. Anything on the page which does not have specific subpoints should have a set of general keywords for the page. All links to that page should have those same keywords. The title attribute keywords for inpage links <a> should be the same as the title attribute keywords for the <h#> heading they link to.
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Creating a Google sitemap, if their procedure works on your hosting server, is also a good way to help Google index your website.
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If you have a physical location you're trying to market, include the contact information on the homepage.
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SEO Keyword Procedures
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The keywords meta tag is the first one to craft. It should be first on the content page. This is typically the most difficult step because it requires choosing the golden keywords for the page. Once you've determined your keywords, everything else is just about enriching the page with those keywords.
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Craft a keyword rich description meta tag, though the primary emphasis should be on human readability as this is what people see in the organic search results. If it's not enticing, you've gotten to the top of the Google rankings only to turn off anyone who might click on your page.
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Create matching <title> and <h1> tags that are primarily human readable but as keyword rich as possible.
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These should be descriptive (for humans) and keyword dense with the primary page keywords. (for humans and computers, including Googlebot)
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The page should start with the main topic or the <h1> heading should include the main page keywords as a title. Then search "skip" and copy the main page keywords into the title attribute of every <a> tag for the skip links.
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These should begin with the topic or subject of the location the link goes to or the section the heading is for. (for accessibility, screen readers and browsers frequently alphabetize link lists and heading lists for navigability) If not, the text should at least begin with a word that alphabetizes closely with the subject. (first two letters or better if possible, e.g. "just" is a close match for "justice").
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The <h1> tag's title attribute should be as descriptive as possible but primarily to include secondary keywords (for instance, synonyms), especially if they should not to be used in the text (e.g. common but undesirable terms like "masterpage" in the "master page" section). Use primary keywords if no secondary keywords exist. Title attributes render not only in accessible devices, but also as tool tips in all browsers so they should be human readable.
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Search "<h" to locate all headings and confirm they meet these criteria for keywords.
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For section headings, don't forget to match the heading text and title attribute with the inpage links which go to them (link text and title attribute both).
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Use secondary keywords for the title attributes; if none exist use primary keywords.
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Search "<a " to locate all links and confirm they meet these criteria for keywords.
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For page forward and back links, you can grab the page back links from the <h1> title attribute of the previous page, and the forward links from the page ahead. Include the <h1> from the current page as the new forward link of the previous page and the previous link of the next page.
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Use secondary keywords for the title attributes; if none exist use primary keywords.
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Search "<img" to locate all images and confirm their alt attributes meet these criteria for keywords. The first priority for alt attributes however is to be a descriptive human readable statement about the image.
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Ensure you have more than 300 words of quality content text.
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Ensure that each primary keyword appears in the content text three or more times.
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Edit the content text before posting. It looks bad to have typos, awkward passages, etc.
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Write defensively. What could people misunderstand?
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