For the sake of the new SEO blog design, I am going to dump a bunch of SEO knowledge and promotional tasks one can do to improve website performance in the search engines, namely Google. User Experience is super important in the eyes of the big “G”.

You can get free SEO reports from a few good sources online each covering varying SEO factors and other web optimization issues.

Below are a list of things that can be done, checked and modified for better SEO and increased visibility in Google’s search engine results.

Take into consideration:

The time it takes to load your site, or site load time – this has become an important factor to Google.

How many current visitors your website is receiving – a catch-22 – the more visitors the better your site will do in Google (more on how to get plenty of visitors to your site).

You should know how many web pages you have Google’s index versus how many actual pages you have.
You can do a “site:domain.com” to see all your pages in Google and also do a  “site:domain.com keyword”
This asks Google to show all the pages in your web site, in their order of importance that relate best to that keyword and theme.  The page that is listed in the first place position for that keyword should be the page and keyword you are optimizing for, or your homepage.

Your site should declare the language and the proper Doctype.

Text to Code Ratio

You should use compelling and keyword rich Title tags, Description tags, 66 and 154 characters respectively.

Your Robots.txt file should block all folders that do not need indexing, this will help speed up the bots which will then be able to spider more of your site and pages quicker increasing the amount of pages in Google’s index.
(Example:)
User-agent:*
Disallow: /images/

A properly developed XML sitemap will also help get a higher indexed page count. I’d recommend using GsiteCrawler to build your own XML sitemap and set priorities.

Is your site Mobile ready with a properly setup micro format?

Have a QR code yet?

A KML file?

Google Verified?

Tracking Visitors with Analytics?

Utilizing Google Places and Webmaster Tools? (Bing webmaster central also)

Is your website valid or close to being valid by W3C standards?

Does your site use either the www  or non-www redirect and not both. If your site shows up for both versions this could be considered duplicate content, a duplicate home page!  Same with http://www.domain.com/index.html.

Is your content truly unique? Any copied or badly re-written content that resembles already established content on another site will really hurt your chances of your site doing well. Duplicate content ON your site is bad. Google looks at the author or the originator of the content, where it is first indexed as the source… you want to be the source of the content you publish.

Heading (H1 and H2 tags being utilized).

Are theme and related keywords being used within the content of the page and main keyword you are targeting? Do you know how to find Theme or LSI keywords?

Are you internal linking your keywords within the content of the site. Google can distinguish what content is in the sidebar, header, footer and content area, this is why it is important to like within your content to other pages in your site.

Page names, or URLs – short and keyword rich, close to the root?

Describe images with image alt text (not real important but every little thing adds up)

Does your site have a Search function and an on-page sitemap?

Usability and Promotions:

Is your current website design and footprint modernized with top notch graphics that provide clear call-to-actions with your phone number prominently displayed and a form to capture emails to build up your email list?  A list is an asset, you can be building one with a free report or special coupon or deal, be creative but provide value.

Are you utilizing a blog to publish new content. Are you syndicating that content out to your social sites automatically?

LINKS LINKS LINKS

Links pointing back to your site with the keyword text your targeting for a top ranking can be the one biggest influence on your ranking. So how do you get more links.  There are old ways which work okay still and other ways that work very well

Make sure your listed in the top directories in your niche, the general directories and even the top paid directories if your serious about competing for top keywords.

Article directory links via author resource box.

Forum commenting with keyword signature text.

Use classified advertising with a twist to stay on top and drive targeted traffic to your site.

RSS Feed submissions – Top Blog directory submissions

The under-utilized Press Release marketing strategy.

SOCIAL MEDIA is HUGE:

Facebook fans, Twitter followers, LinkedIn, YouTube channel, etc., ALL becoming a MUST to stay relevant.

The various channels of social media marketing:

TOP NETWORKS and NETWORKING sites
NEWS STORY
BOOKMARKING
MICRO BLOG
VIDEO, AUDIO, PHOTO
DOCUMENT SHARING (PDF, PPT) aka Scribd
ANSWERS (Ask, Yahoo Answers)
AGGREGATION/SYNDICATION
RSS, PING, WIDGET
SLIDESHOW, WIKI
BLOG CREATION, SITE CREATION

More about Links:

Things to consider when acquiring links…

Anchor text and PageRank of linking site. The age of the link. The number of outgoing links from linking site. Prominence of link placement, early in HTML is better, in-content links are better.

Whether it is Panda or some other future organic Google algorithmic shift update you need to know the real foundation of good SEO to be less affected or even rewarded when major shifts happen.

Can you remember back to some these Google updates, and how well your site did or did not do?

The good ‘ol Big Daddy update
The “False” Update – This was a big update with many changes
Bourbon Update
Allegra Update
Brandy Update
Austin Update
Florida Update
Esmeralda Update
Dominic Update
Cassandra Update
Boston Update

There is a lot to keep up-to-date on, but good foundational SEO will keep you safe and prospering for years to come.

First Place Positioning provides foundational and expert SEO Services, fully-functional easy-to-update SEO Web Design and Development, Social Media Marketing and Syndication and quality Link Building.

First Place Positioning will also SHOW and TELL you everything you need to know, we lay it all out for you, all about SEO and ranking – then you can do it all yourself and dominate your industry and keywords with the knowledge we gained over the 13 years in the SEO industry… we continue to adapt and refine to help our clients stay on top and continue to modify processes and strategies that work like gangbusters!

We will be putting out a free report that expands on the information in this post, just subscribe to our RSS feed and you will be the first to know about the free SEO/SMO Marketing blueprint that you can readily download when available.

If you want a Internet marketing consultation fill out the form to the top or right and we will contact you with a scheduled time.. no obligation and no initial cost… limited availability.