Starting SEO

TomStutt

Senior Member
Im just finishing a website and im not too up on the SEO. Whats a start? and whats the best way to do this?

:cheers:
 
JAZAJAY!?!?!?!?!?!? WHERE ARE YOU!??!?!!??!\



and probably the best way is to build the coding foundations properly first, that's where i start.

if you're xhtml/css valid and have good accessibility you'll be much more preferred by elgoog.
 
This is what I've seen so far, this is mostly picked up from Jazajay (who's probably recovering from yesterday :)) and my reading around the web so I expect Jazajay to either rip me to shreads or add an essay onto it :)

valid markup
valid and relevant content - keyword density etc
alt tags - use them
links in and out from high quality and relevant sites
site map can help sometimes too
meta tags such as keywords and description aren't so big these days but most still say stick them in.
302 redirects for www. to non www. site or vice versa


I'd say the best option may just be to do a search for Jazajay posts in this area and work/feedback as 90% of Jazajays posts cover some area of this :)
 
meta tags such as keywords and description aren't so big these days but most still say stick them in.

google says they've never given a ****. i still put it but only for consistency not for anytihng else. :)

302 redirects for www. to non www. site or vice versa

yarr yarr through .htaccess :)
 
ooh I forgot one - title meta tag should describe what and where to help localised searches :)
 
tim said:
google says they've never given a ****. i still put it but only for consistency not for anytihng else. :)

Google no longer uses META keywords, but META descriptions are very important, also worth having them as some other search engines still use the META keywords ;)

glenwheeler said:
Good inbound links always pushes you up the ladder too...

Quality inbound links is the most important thing for SEO in my experience, the on-site stuff is important, but doesn't have as much impact as decent link building would.

Depending on the competitiveness of the phrases you're trying to rank for, you/your client may need to outsource the off-site SEO, as it's a full-time job in itself in some sectors!
 
Google no longer uses META keywords, but META descriptions are very important, also worth having them as some other search engines still use the META keywords

yeah i only use meta description for when i appear on google searches.

and i agree about the other search engines however i've never seen the use as my stats never showed me that anyone else referred me but google!
 
tim said:
and i agree about the other search engines however i've never seen the use as my stats never showed me that anyone else referred me but google!

That just highlights their dominance in the UK market!
My sites are the same, I think Yahoo comes in second with a few visitors, and starting to see a few clicks from Bing now. Will be interesting to see if Microsoft and Yahoo can put up a decent challenge to Google!
 
Hrmmm, I wouldn't discount meta keywords from google, if you look at their adword system that's based upon the keywords people are search on and the relevancy of those keywords not only in body but also keyword tag on a website suggested.

PS. Greg, You'll notice that MS Bing does in fact return much more relevent search results then google. They just dont have the "Brand" yet. I wouldn't be surprised if we dont see a change in Search Engine Dominance within the next few years, granted perhaps not a full swig to another company but at least more competition.
 
Sunburn said:
Hrmmm, I wouldn't discount meta keywords from google, if you look at their adword system that's based upon the keywords people are search on and the relevancy of those keywords not only in body but also keyword tag on a website suggested.

The AdWords system for quality score is something completely different, but see your point, I've always included them as it doesn't have any negative effects.
 
Hay peeps,
@Levi
Not bad Levi, 2 mistakes but otherwise not bad.
Never user a 302 redirect.
A 302 redirect is a temporay redirect and as such wont credit the corressponding pages with equity in 6-7months. Also Google is notorious for screwing up how they are handled anyway well from last time I heard anyway. You want to 301 redirect it to sort out the conicalization issue as that tells the web server and the search engines that the content has permanatly moved. (www. to non www.).

Also it's techncally the title element as it is not a meta tag. :)

Keywords meta, was only used by Yahoo! but as Bing will be bringing Yahoo!'s search results this will very soon be dropped and tbh is just pointless these days. If you repeat words, over fill it then you will more than likely still get penalized though so be careful if for what ever reason you use it.

The meta description tag should only be used if the page is a product page. If so include things like price and technical info in it, don't just use copy, or the page has no content, in which case it shouldn't be indexed TBH.

If the page has decent copy then TBH ignore it as the search engines are pretty good at returning relevant descriptions anyway, and if the copy you put in it is not on the page it will more than likey not be used anyway.

But yeah I only use Bing, when I'm not doing SEO work, and there results are far far better TBH.

@Tom
Whats your site and I'll give you a free SEO review of your home page and you can then take it from there if you want I always find the best way to learn is by improving on what you already have.

Jaz
 
Jazajay said:
Hay peeps,
@Levi
Not bad Levi, 2 mistakes but otherwise not bad.
Never user a 302 redirect.
A 302 redirect is a temporay redirect and as such wont credit the corressponding pages with equity in 6-7months. Also Google is notorious for screwing up how they are handled anyway well from last time I heard anyway. You want to 301 redirect it to sort out the conicalization issue as that tells the web server and the search engines that the content has permanatly moved. (www. to non www.).

Also it's techncally the title element as it is not a meta tag. :)
See I do listen, might not remember everything (always getting the 301 and 302 muddled) but I'm learning :)

Very happy Levi goes back to his CAD work :D
 
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