Search Engine Optimization

[TheFilmGod]

Search Engine Optimization also known as SEO brings a whole new level of challenges to any web designer. You finally get the code to work and boom! Google ranks you the worse in the keywords of your business. What do you do?..... Optimize the code! I'd like to use this oppurtunity and put down my ideas of SEO, and I'd like anyone else to help those tackling this difficult challenge a hand.

 

Always....

  Use Alternative text tags for images - keep in mind only text browsers and people with disabilities

  Have keyword rich text and descriptions. If you have a video, write a description, same with other multimedia.

  Keep in mind valid code. Doesn't always boost ranking, but if you have one billion errors, it'll create problems

  Trade traffic with other sites, linking to other sites and vice versa is the answer!

  Have a sitemap to make sure all pages are indexed

  Meta Description and a few keywords won't hurt

  Have a doctype declaration

  Also have "title" tags with "alternate text tags"

 

Any other ideas?

[steviewdr]

Avoid javascript and ajax.

Avoid urls with index.php?page=as  Use mod_rewrite to clean them up.

Use "links" or lynx - a text based browser.

 

Valid html or xhtml code is a MUST.

 

Use heading tags. I.e. break up your content into h1, h2 and h3 sections.

 

Do a google on SEO. There are TONS and TONS and Tons of stuff on SEO.

 

-steve

[Koobi]

semantics come into play a lot IMO