A good SEO Strategy

What would be a good SEO strategy?

Before you write one line of code:

* Do keyword research to determine what keywords you want to target

While constructing your website you should do the following:

* Use markup to indicate the content of your site
o Optimize your <title> tags on each page to contain 1 - 3 keywords
o Create unique Meta Tags for each page
o Use header tags appropriately (H1 > H2 > H3)
o Use <strong> and <em> tags if appropriate
* Optimize your URLs
o Use Search Engine Friendly URLs (for dynamic sites)
o Use keywords in your domain (http://www.keyword1.com/)
o Use keywords in your URL (http://www.example.com/keyword2/keyword3.html)
o Use dashes instead of underscores to separate words in your URLs (keyword2-keyword3.html)
* Optimize your content
o Use keywords liberally yet appropriately throughout each page
o Have unique content
o Have quality content
* Use search engine friendly design
o Create a human sitemap
o Do not use inaccessible site navigation (JavaScript menus)
o Minimized outbound links
o Kept your pages under 100K in size
* Design the navigational structure of the site to channel PR to main pages (especially the homepage)
* Create a page that encourages webmasters to link to your site
o Provide them the relevant HTML to create their link to you
o Provide them with any images you may want them to use (although text links are better)
* Make sure your website is complete before launching it

Immediately after launching your site you should do the following:

* Submit your site to all major search engines
o Google (Use a Google SiteMap)
o Yahoo (Use the page list option)
o MSN
o Ask (Finds your site via incomming links)
* Submit your site to all free directories
o DMOZ (also powers Google Directory)
o JoeAnt
* Submit your site to relevant directories
o Find more at ISEDB
* Begin a link building campaign (attempting to get keywords in the link anchor text)
o Put a link to your website in your forum signatures
o Reply to relevant blog posts (Don't spam please)
o Submit articles to relevant websites

If you will pay to promote your website:

* Submit your site to pay directories
o Yahoo
o GoGuides
* Purchase text links from high PR (Pagerank) sites related to your site

Finally, as part of an ongoing strategy:

* Continually update your website with quality, unique content
* Continually seek free links preferably from sites in your genre

Do NOT do the following:

* Make an all Flash website (without an HTML alternative)
* Use JavaScript for navigation
* Spam other websites for incomming links
* Launch your site before it is done
* Use duplicate content
o Point several domains to one site without using a 301 redirect
* Use markup inappropiately
o Style <H>eader tags to look like regular text
o Hide content using 'display: hidden' (for the sake of hiding text)
* Use other "black hat" techniques (unless you accept the risk - Banning)
o Doorway/Landing pages
o Cloaking
o Hidden text
o Keyword stuffing

Additional Tips:

* Usable and accessible sites tend to be search engine friendly by their very nature
* Be patient! High rankings don't happen overnight
* Don't obsess with any one search engine. They are all worth your attention.

Midlandi, your post above really summarizes SEO very well.

However, in the Do Not section you have: "Launch your site before it is done"

While this maybe the case earlier on but since Google has been placing new sites in a sandbox, it becomes important to have a few pages up and indexed long before you fully launch your website.

The sandbox is kind of like religion. Some people believe in it, others don't. I have sites that within only 2 days were ranking first page for high volume keyphrases. The trick to staying out of the sandbox is by adamantly marketing your site, and doing it continuously. Although, I think it helps to buy your domain name several weeks, or even months before you begin your marketing campaign. That makes it look like you have spent some time building the site before you actually launched it.

The quality of your inbound links can help you to saty out of the sandbox also. Nice checklist there Midlandi!

Thanks OWG that means alot from you

That was a great post midlandi! This will definitely help newbies in SEO. You've explained it very well. Clear and straight forward.

Regarding this:

* Use duplicate content
o Point several domains to one site without using a 301 redirect

How about if my site was integrated with an RSS feed for my news, how should I use the 301 redirect?

1)Searching by Means of Subject Directories:If you are clear about the topic of your query, start with a Web directory rather than a search engine. Directories probably won't give you anywhere near as many references as a search engine will, but they are more likely to be on topic.Web directories usually come equipped with their own keyword search engines that allow you to search through their indices for the information you need.

2)Searching by Means of Search Engines:This is where things start to get complicated.Search engines are trickier than they look!If you understand how search engines organize information and run queries, you can maximize your chances of getting hits on URLs that matter.

Very in depth information midlandi. That will be very useful nextime I launch a site. Thank You!

Great post Midlandi

The sandbox is kind of like religion. Some people believe in it, others don't. I have sites that within only 2 days were ranking first page for high volume keyphrases. The trick to staying out of the sandbox is by adamantly marketing your site, and doing it continuously. Although, I think it helps to buy your domain name several weeks, or even months before you begin your marketing campaign. That makes it look like you have spent some time building the site before you actually launched it.

Kudos to Midlandi for such a wonderful explanation.
A good start is half the job done. IF you spent lot of time initially while building the site then that will reduce a lot of work (off-page) later on.

A very strong list midlandi, i also think about click through's
to get to certain pages there for when optimizing websites i make sure it only takes 3 Clicks to any page.

Each page on your site should be easily accessible, requiring no more than 3 clicks from accessing the landing page to the last pages of your site. A sitemap is a good way to accomplish this, but also ensure the navigation on your site (disregarding the sitemap) will enable your users to do the same thing.

That might very well be.

Although, that's not ever the case...I usually just don't have the time when I find a new domain name. Like with officiallost.com, I bought it, and it sat dormant for more than 2 months without doing anything to it. When I finally decided to start a forum, it was only a few days before I was on the first page for "Lost Forum"...I think it was 3 days, but it might have been less. I've been there ever since, between position 2 and position 9.....

Do SE till pick up on <strong> and <em> tags? If so when would they be useful?

You all have covered up many things, but I would like to say that you must emphasize on SMO and Blogging. They are the hot trend trends these days.

In addition you can also emphasize your keyword by making it bold, using keyword in the beginning, middle and the end will help you boost your SERP.

How important is the meta tag?

Meta Tag is as important as your name or face. Title tell about the page, what about the page is and what that page provides. Description tells descriptive summary about the title. Search Engines firstly look Title then Description and then all other things. Title and Description appear in search results so they are very important.

I would suggest you to stress more on blog commenting. This shall give you guaranteed quality backlinks.