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Many consider search engine optimization (SEO)—the process of enhancing your Web site's visibility in the search engines through ways other than paid search ads—a sort of black box. But once the essential features of a search-engine-optimal Web site are laid out in a concise list, SEO is not nearly as mystifying.

That's where this checklist comes in. I've designed it for Web marketers and Web developers so that they can easily understand search engine optimization and start tackling it.

Implementing the 15 best practices below (or at least some of them!) and avoiding the worst practices (as detailed in Part 2 next week) should offer you a straightforward approach to better visibility in search engines, including Google and Yahoo!

Best Practice Doing it now Will do it soon Won't or N/A
1. Are the keywords you are targeting relevant and popular with searchers?      
2. Do your page titles lead with your targeted keywords?      
3. Does your site employ H1 heading tags for content titles?      
4. Is your body copy sufficiently long and keyword-rich?      
5. Does the hyperlink text pointing to various pages within your site include good keywords?      
6. Do you have keyword-rich alt tags for all navigation graphics and all product images?      
7. Do you employ text links from your home page to your most important secondary pages?      
8. Does your Website have a site map with text links?      
9. Do the URLs of your dynamic (database-driven) pages look static?      
10. Does your site have a flat directory structure?      
11. Do your home page and other key pages of your site have high PageRank scores (at least 5 out of 10)?      
12. Is your site listed in Open Directory?      
13. Do your pages have keyword-rich meta descriptions with a compelling call to action?      
14. Does your site have a custom error page?      
15. Do your filenames and directory names include targeted keywords?      

1. Are the keywords that you are targeting not only relevant but also popular with searchers?

There is no point going after high rankings for keywords that no one searches for. Compare relative popularity of keywords using WordTracker or Overture's Search Term Suggestion Tool before deciding what keywords to employ on your Web pages. One drawback of Overture's tool is that it combines singular and plural forms together, along with popular misspellings, and only displays the aggregate number.

Despite the popularity of individual words, it's best to target two- or three-word phrases. Because of the staggering number of Web pages indexed by the major search engines, competing for a spot on the first or second page of search results on a one-word keyword will be a losing battle. This should go without saying, but the keywords you select should be relevant to your business.

2. Do your page titles lead with your targeted keywords?

The text within your page title (also known as the title tag) is given more weight by the search engines than any other text on the page. The keywords at the beginning of the title tag are given the most weight. Thus, by leading with keywords that you've chosen carefully, you make your page appear more relevant to those keywords in a search.

3. Does your site employ H1 heading tags for content titles?

In HTML, there are six heading tags, H1 through H6. The search engines consider H1 tags to be much more important than the rest of the body copy. Text within an H1 tag gets more weight than text within an H2 tag, which gets more weight than text within an H3 tag, and so on.

Some Web developers believe that H1 tags "look ugly"—big, bold text that sticks out like a sore thumb. That doesn't have to be the case. The H1 tag's font, size, color and amount of surrounding white space can all be defined using style sheets.

4. Is your body copy sufficiently long and keyword rich?

Ideally, incorporate at least 200 to 250 words on each page so the search engines have enough "meat" to determine the theme of the page. Include relevant keywords, particularly near the top of the HTML, as they will be weighted more heavily by the search engines. Be careful not to go overboard, to the point that your copy doesn't read well.

5. Does the hyperlink text pointing to various pages within your site include good keywords?

Google associates the anchor text in the hyperlink as highly relevant to the page being linked to. So, use good keywords in the link text to help Google better ascertain the theme of the page you are linking to. Keep the link text relatively succinct and tightly focused on just one keyword or key phrase. The longer the link text, the more diluted the overall theme conveyed to Google.

6. Do you have keyword-rich alt tags for all navigation graphics and all product images?

An alt tag is the text that appears in a small box when you hover your cursor over an image. Alt tags should contain relevant keywords that convey the key information from the image that the user would not receive if she had image loading turned off.

7. Do you employ text links from your home page to your most important secondary pages?

Text links are, by far, the better option (versus alt tags) in conveying to Google the context of the page being linked to. Alt tags may have an effect, but it's small in comparison with that of text links. If you have graphical navigation buttons, switch them to keyword-rich text links; if that's not an option, at least include text link navigation repeated elsewhere on the page, such as in the footer.

8. Does your Web site have a site map with text links?

A site map is good "spider food" in that it provides the search engine spiders (i.e., the search engine's computers that periodically explore your Web site) with a number of links to key pages to explore and index. Use text links, since they are more search engine optimal than graphical links, as already mentioned. Bear in mind that about 100 links per page is the maximum you should put on a page, according to Google.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image of Stephan Spencer

Stephan Spencer is the founder of Science of SEO and an SEO expert, author, and speaker.

LinkedIn: Stephan Spencer

Twitter: @sspencer