Here are some of my personal sketch notes (in point form) for implementing SEO on a website.
- The <title> of the web site pages should use keywords with the following. Keyword > Category > Title (The <title> should consist of a short phrase).
- Meta Keywords should be individually categorized to the pages content.
- The <title> tag should not exceed more than 60 characters.
- Your Meta Description should not exceed more than 150 characters.
- No more than 100 unique links per page.
- Page should not exceed 150 kbs.
- Your page content should be written to use keywords.
- Use <h1> tags referencing keywords in meta (only one <h1> per page and should be used to form a phrase with those Keywords > Category > Title)
- Use <h2> Tags in a phrase using same structure as the <h1> tag used on the page.
- Use <h3>
- Use <strong> and <em> for Keyword phrases in page content
- Use alt tags on Images (including keywords > category > title, referenced in a phrase relevant to that image and page)
- Use title tags on links (including keywords > category > title, referenced in a phrase relevant to the page it links to and page the link is on)
- Use keywords and phrases for links directing to relevant content with in your own web site.
- URL Slug Formatting is essential an oversimplified example: Category > Title: business-law-services/trademarks-and-intellectual-property/
- Understanding how to use MicroData in your site and verifying your MicroData and HTML structure using Google is essential.
- Use well structured/formed HTML (http://validator.w3.org/nu/)
- Fix broken/unclosed HTML tags to be verified by the HTML validator.
- Design your site to be mobile friendly!
- Use opengraph meta tags for integration with Facebook, Twitter etc.
- Localization in Content/URLs/Title/Meta Tags can provide helpful results as well. Localization Example would be: www.theworld.com/USA/NewYork/New-York-Times-Newspaper (not a real link)
- Using the date in your URL can help provide relative content for the information people are searching for (for example a news web site).
- Remember who your target audience is when developing SEO. Not all traffic is good traffic.
- Enforce SSL on your website.
Implement SEO Foundation
- Generate relevant keywords using Google Adsense Keyword tool
- Provide relevant content (using keywords) (Why should I visit your web site?)
- Determine the readability of your website content using an AI program (such as LM Studio) or using another online resource tailored to websites.
- Manually submit site to Google/Yahoo/Bing
- Add Google/Bing Web Master Tools
- Create a site map and submit to Google/Bing web master tools
- Add manual back links from web sites that relate to your content by posting comments, blog and news articles.
Submit site to DMOZ(DMOZ is no longer the starting source of Googles search index)- Submit Site to Google/Bing/Yahoo Places
- Allow Google/Bing images/video to index your images/videos
- Create [301] redirects for pages which have changed or have been removed. You can check these using Google Web Master Tools.
- Pay attention to bounce rate in Google Analytics this is an important factor for website placement. I recommend a software program called Sage available at https://github.com/AndyQuicklyDelete/Sage
Implement Continuous SEO
- Create a blog where you post articles pertaining to the business.
- Use Social networks to promote web site and blog articles
- Submit Articles to Blog Sites and News Sites
SEO Blog Guidelines
- Let crawlers post links and comments but don’t publish them
- Allow trackbacks.
- Only allow comments to be posted on posts not pages.
- Only approve relevant comments
Social Media SEO Guideline
- Same rules apply – Write relevant content including links to your website (and others with similar content).
Above all else POST RELEVANT CONTENT!