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I am working with a development team with very little or no SEO knowledge.
I am trying to come up with a list of basic "must-do's" for them to read and hopefully, adopt as standard. Below is the list of things I have come up with so far. Hopefully I have covered the majority of the basics. I was hoping that someone here might be able to add to this list or correct me where I am wrong.
I am brand new to this forum, usually post at another. So far I have read a lot of good stuff here.
This list does not cover content. Content is not for the development team, in this case. It also does not cover inbound links or things of that sort. That would be for the marketing team, again in this case. This list is purely for developers who do nothing but code.
Thank you in advance,
Blanco
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1. Avoid Flash, but if you must use Flash, use SWF_Object() and have a text-only, keyword-centric and fully functional backup site loading behind it. This is only compliance, anyhow.
2. Use meaningful filenames such as "turtle-food.jpg" instead of "image1.jpg" for all files including graphics, sound, scripts, etc...
3. Use hyphens in filenames instead of underscores
4. Use the meta description and meta keywords tags and put them immediately after the page title, as high on the page as possible - and make different titles as well as meta tags for each page.
5. Get a list of keywords for EACH PAGE and work them into the tags in number four. Also, use them in the page titles. Put keywords ahead of the company name in page titles, such as in: "Turtle Food Experts ¦ ACME Turtleworld!"
6. Try to use header tags where possible, around keywords. If using css, use css to define the size and characteristics of your header tags. Validate CSS, just like the HTML and XML on the site.
7. Put bold or italics around keywords where possible, and name links using keywords.
8. Link internally, even to anchor text, using keywords
9. Do not put text in graphics. Use text.
10. Use the ALT tag and combine ALT text with keywords
11. Generate RSS feeds for pages with good content and syndicate them. Use something like Feedburner
12. Be sure the site is compliant to coding standards
13. Sites with private content should try to have public pages as well
14. Use robots.txt
15. Use a sitemap, ideally sitemap.xml (registered with Google and at the root of your site), but at the least a header/footer/menu that includes text links
16. Be sure that WebTrends or similar program is installed on the server
17. If using a CMS, try to install a "search-engine-friengly URL" component or mod_rewrite for Apache (is there an IIS equivalent?)
18. Avoid using frames. If you must use frames, use <NOFRAMES> tags
19. Manually submit site to at least Google, Yahoo, DMOZ
20. Try to ensure that at least some page content is static and keyword-relevant
21. Make sure that links are not "click here" but instead consist of keywords and keyword phrases. Shorter is not necessarily better.
22. Have a "links/resources" page that will be used for reciprocal links and other outbound links (to open in "_blank") or better - put contextual links within the site.
23. Make a custom 404 page that looks good and links to the site's main sections or includes a sitemap. Have the custom 404 page do a meta refresh to the main page after a few seconds, and let browsers know "you will be directed to our main site in X seconds"
24. If the site is geared towards a specific geographic area, try to find hosting in that area
Any more?
Thank you,
Blanco
#) Follow The First Letter Capital, Every Other Letter Lowercase naming convention in links with keywords (where it isnt painful or displeasing to do so)
(these are minor, but I wanted to add them for feedback or correction, expansion)
#. If AJAX is creating any of your page content, know that it is probably not being indexed.
Thanks,
Josh Milane
MIT Technical, Boston [mittechnical.com]
