A list from A-Z

I barely know where to begin...

[mona]

I've been doing SEO for six months now. I knew absolutely nothing when I began, but I've managed to learn a lot, thanks in part to this forum.

One of the main problems I face is a lack of direction at times, though.

Although I find tons of very helpful, specific information here, I’m not always sure how I should apply that knowledge.

I guess what I am looking for is a very general list, a list that can be used to optimize a new site, starting from scratch.

I'm not quite sure how this should be organized, but here’s an idea.

Have a list set up in sort of a timeline fashion, indicating the level of importance.
An A-Z list of everything that can improve a site. Obviously, there are a lot of techniques that many people can’t use, so maybe indicate what “must” be done and what is helpful to do.

Also, maybe have a continuing technique to work on from week to week, but change the specifics.

Here is a very rough idea of what I mean.

________________________________

1-10 (1=not very important, 10= must do)

Week One
Check major SE’s for indexing and submit site where it is not indexed. (10)
Check major directories for listing, submit site where it is not listed. (10)
Develop a list of keywords.
Add/improve title, description and keyword tags.
PPC-open up accounts at Goto, etc,
LINK--look for sites to request links from

Week Two
Finalize keyword list
PPC-submit keywords
LINK-begin emailing sites to request links from.

Week Three
cloaking?
etc....

Well, hopefully you get the idea. .

I feel like I waste so much time just trying to decide what I should do, ya know?

If anybody would like to contribute to this, I would appreciate it.

Thanks,

Mona

[agerhart]

>>>>I knew absolutely nothing when I began, but I've managed to learn a lot, thanks in part to this forum.

I have to ditto this......been a while since I said a much deserved thank you to all the pros here that have taught me pretty much everything I know, and have gotten me interested in the business/hobby of SEO.

Mona,

I think that you started off very well, and I amin total agreement with you that sometimes I don't even know where to start with the SEO process.

I think that there is only so deep you can go with this plan, as almost every site that you do will require some sort of customization.

Are you going to cloak for every site? I don't think so, as there is no need to cloak for a site that is strictly HTML.

Instead of creating one general plan of action, I think it would be better to create seperate ones for each type of site that you will be optimizing. For instance, I recently created a general plan of action to follow when creating a themed site, and how to best optimize the site according to the guidelines of themes. You could do another one for cloaking, and so on and so forth.

-A Gerhart

[Drastic]

I think the single-most important thing in SEO, and this is where you should begin, is finding the right keywords.

Number of pages indexed, their ranking, etc. etc. mean nothing unless targetting the proper keywords.

Things like: which keywords are already fully exploited in the index? which keywords are most often used by searchers? which keywords accurately describe my site/mission? are the questions you need to answer.

Then, optimizing/building your pages around those keywords, THEN submitting and analyzing your results.

IMO

[mdharrold]

I am just barely starting to worry about SEO. My first question is:

agerhart
>>Are you going to cloak for every site? I don't think so, as there is no need to cloak for a site that is strictly HTML.

If not for HTML, is it useful for SSI?

I have tons of spiders coming but they are not going deep if anywhere. Is this because my links are pulled in off an SSI and nothing from the "index" page is a real link?