Please share the search engine optimization tips and tricks that you know. The obvious ones, the hidden ones, the ones known only to you, the little tricks, the dos and donts, etc. Any ideas you have about making a site search-engine friendly and getting top rankings. Thanks.

Layi, Seun, My2cents, Kazey. Hope to hear from you guys.

IAH,

Since you mentioned me as #3, I was going to wait until Seun responded, but I just couldn't wait to chip in

Layi has basically said it all. I would however like to add the following:

1) In your content section, make sure to use more of h1, h2, etc tags for headers and paragraph tags as a separator b/w paragraphs. Also use UL and LI for your lists, which includes menus.

2) In your keyword section, use phrases as opposed to single words. Research shows that most people search for stuff online using 2 or more words

3) To make your site SE-optimized, as opposed to SE-friendly, you really need to plan it out before you write your first line of code. That means everything from directory structure (so "abc.com/products/hammers.html" as opposed to just plain "abc.com/products/product1.html" to how you name your photos.

4) Make sure that your content is scattered with references to your keywords

5) I forget the meta tag, sorry, but there is one that tells the crawler to re-spider the site after a certain date.

I hope this helps. Now, go conquer the world!!

Lol, Thanks Layi and My2cents. Ha! Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned names then. it's probably going to limit people from participating. Everybody contribute o!!

I like this topic

Now you guys are making me intrested in something i learned but never used.

is it too late start again?

and what is IAH trying to sell?

kajad,

I don't understand your question about "start again"

Pls clarify

Layi, great post! I learnt a thing or two there, even though I felt I knew something about SEO.

The Key to making your site rank high in search engines with respect to keyword of relativity is Good Site presentation. Try to understand the analogy that, your site is the host and the search engine is your guest. So how you best accomodate your host, would determine how well he speaks of you, and also determines whether he would pay you another visit or not.

If you want search engine optimization to work for you, you have to determine one phrase that best describes what your website is all about. This is precisely what is called a target phrase. In choosing target phrase, following points should be kept in mind:

- It should be accurate.
- It should be popular .

Overture is an effective tool for assessing popularity as well as brainstorming ideas for target phrases.

Word Tracker will be of your help in assessing popularity and also comparing how the competitors use the target phrase you're after.


Evaluating your competition.

Attempt an analysis what's working for them; how they market their products and services, and even evaluate their target phrase and description tags. Mind you I didnt stay steal !!, I say analyse !!

- Check out Yahoo and Google to see what shows up when you search for your target phrase.

- Examine the pages on the first page; analyze where and how they use your target phrase. You can use the "Cached" page option in Google to get your targeted phrase highlighted.

Make your website content driven.

Search engines, especially search giant, Google loves content, content, and content. The more rich content you provide using your keywords or target phrase the better your page rankings will be. The best method employed here is to update your pages 2 to 3 times a week, for an instance Monday, Wednesday and again Sunday. While updating the content regularly, you may work well on focusing on your keyword or target phrase.

The tricks you need to know.

- The index pages should have links to all the pages on your portal if possible with the title tag if possible in the url construct.

- Include your target phrase twice in the meta title tag.

- Include your target phrase in the title or headline for your page. Put that headline using a header tag for your headlines, as search engines quite often weight words in these tags higher.

- Do not forget to include your target phrase in subheads, using header tags there too.
- Include it in other locations on the page, like external links, headlines, and sidebars.


Go for your site promotion


Make sure that when you announce your page everywhere you happen to go. Forums, blogs, anything.

List your site in Link Directories that provide a specific category for your services, these are also effective ways to create inbound links as the more inbound links you have generated to your web-site the higher the page rank you are likely to get in Google.

List your sites in Link Directories that provide a specific category that best suits your site content and services.

Check Your results in top of the rankings

Remember that this can not be done in a single shot; it is long, continuous process putting your patience to the test.


Search engine optimization strategies at a glance


- Ensure that your website is tested for good load time, dead links and cross-browser compatibility . Netmechanic.com is a good website to do this.

- Optimize you web site pages . Make sure your top keywords appear in your title, meta tags and content.

- Provide quality content that have something unique to offer and that have keywords or key phrases people might search to find your site. If you are into selling products, give something away free (The word "free" is one of the top most searched for words on the net).

- Continually build quality links to your site pages from other well ranked sites on your target search engine.

- Enlist your top keywords and key-phrases and track your listings/ranking in the top 10 search engines and analyze it in a periodic manner

- Focus on your web site attractiveness and easy-to-use feature with clear navigation and easy to read layout and fonts.

- Stay focused to cater to your visitors needs - don't throw in a free-for-all links program to just attract traffic. In the long run your website will be recognized for what it is.


And last of all, always remember that the SEARCH ENGINE IS YOUR GUEST !! , How well you treat it determines, how well it rates you!!

Before I forget

1. Do not use image maps without accompanying text links.
2. Do not use drop down menus without accompanying text links.
3. Do not use frames.

Thanks for sharing, i've learnt a lot, but you guys should endeavour to name your sources!

Mine are:

- Google for webmasters (a google search shd pull this up)

- a book I bought off of amazon. Sorry, but at this time of the day, I don't remember the name

my2cents:

kajad,

I don't understand your question about "start again"

Please clarify

Oops!

I did training on web design, and some internet programming languages like JavaScript, Java, etc. I never practiced for one day after the long training.

Now considering the speed things change I was just wondering how possible. . . _{i just hope you guys will be there for me if i venture back into this.}

I get it now

As in all things with life, as supported by Darwinian theory (zealot christians, make una no crucify me o, na fact), if you don't use something, u lose it. So if you haven't used what you learned, chances are u have forgotten it. As for picking it up again, u can always do so at any time, as long as there is an urge.

As for things changing, that is the very reason I am thinking of either getting out of web design and/or operating as a consultant. The web world is now like the greek character Hydra - u finish reading AJAX and think u know it, but just when u close your books are about to update ur resume/CV, AFLAX, LAMP and a ton of others are waiting in the queue ready to be learned. It never stops

In conclusion, I would say, if you aren't willing to do it 100%, don't bother. Nonetheless, you can always know the theory so you can have an intelligent conversation with someone.

I hope this helps.

Thats why I always encourage speciality in any web field of choice. If you are an interface developer, for example. Be extremely good in it. So does it apply to php code, html and css coder etc etc.

No doubt Kazey, I agree with you to an extent:

When you specialize in a field, you stand the risk of becoming a dinosaur as well as being labelled as someone who isn't willing to go with the flow. In today's global economy, unlike of old, from my experience, the key is remaining employable, not employed. By that I mean, always improving on your skill set so you can adapt to whatever comes along. Remember the COBOL guys? Whatever happened to them after Y2K?

In conclusion, while I am not saying you should be a jack of all trades and a master of none, you still need to know at least 2 or 3 new technologies out there. Sure, in the end, programming is all about logic - only syntax changes. Nonetheless, one should always no y it is good to use one over the other.

As always, just my 2 cents

@ my2cents

Thanks man!
If i ever decide to go into this stuff
you will be my main consultant.

_{but you go charge me small small o}

-> Focus on the content and content structure of the site
-> Select your particular industry and add Nigeria to it - be country specific
-> Use text where you can instead of graphics/ if you use graphics add an alt tag explaining the image
-> Do not use a flash intro page!
-> Submit site to search engines
-> Check your ranking now and then - not religiously!

Hope this helps - we rank ok on google.com with http://ip4properties.com on real estate related terms e.g.
'houses for sale in lagos nigeria'
'nigerian properties'
'nigerian houses for rent'
'estate agents in Nigeria'
'nigerian estate agents'
'property developers in nigeria'

Hope this .

Tim (eMarket)

http://www.darwin.com.ng
http://www.ip4properties.com
http://www.ip4hotels.com
http://www.purefoto.com

I am sure that your link spamming also helps.

Sorry Seun,

I will remove the links from my post.

Thanks