25 SEO Tips You Shouldn't Overlook

I was browsing a few sites for website tips and suggestions today and came across an interesting post.  Most the time when I see lists of SEO tips, they include a lot of hear-say or guesses as far as SEO goes.  Some may be valid, such as tips that have been tested on sites they have worked with, while others may be just suggestions that in theory would work.  Whatever the case may be, these lists of SEO tips that I typically run into often have some things I have never heard of or some things that seem strange. This particular list went through and numbered 30 different SEO tips for your website, and all of the tips were ones that would be listed in SEO 101. I was surprised at the number of responses to this post.  There were many people who were really glad for this post.  I thought to myself that these are things that people who own websites should absolutely be doing and that they probably are doing.  However, I quickly realized that there are many people who may know some of these, but not think about others, and there may be some people who forget about some of these basics and need a reminder.  Whatever the case may be, here is a list of all-purpose SEO tips for your website.  Note: these tips are in no particular order.

• Title Tags - make sure that each of your web pages has a title tag which includes some of the keywords for that particular page.  An important part of title tags is that no two pages have the exact same title.
• Meta Keywords - include meta keywords for all your web pages, and make the keywords page-specific.  If a page does not contain a particular word (even if it is a big keyword on your website as a whole) don't include it.
• Meta Descriptions - these should be on all pages, and again, they should be page-specific.
• Image Alt Tags - especially now that there are search engines specifically for images, your images should have alt tags that are descriptive of both the image, and the page that the image is on.
• Link Title Tags - links typically consist of regular href statements, but you should also include a title for search engines.  An example may look like <a href="link-url" title="Page Name">Name</a>.
• Keyword Specific File Names - all of your pages should have page files names that are specific to that page by incorporating some of the keywords from that page.  For example, if it is a page for pants, the file name could be "pants-jeans-khakis.html."
• Not Too Many Folders - your web page URLs should not have more than three directories (folders) in them.
• Repeat Keywords - keywords should be in all places where search engines are looking.  You should highlight your page keywords in the title, meta keywords, alt tags, title tags, etc.
• Content, Content, Content - lots of relevant (and original if possible) content is a long-lasting search engine go-to. The content is what's important on a page, so the content should be a focus when you are creating the page. Too often the images and banners are the focus and the content is an after-thought. 
• Update Content Regularly - you can even include "this was last updated" in the code so that you remember.  Link to new relevant information, and have those links refer back you your website.
• Never Use Frames - I think that about covers it...never use frames.  Any content in a frame is content that search engines don't see as part of your page.
• Use Flash Sparingly - I prefer not to use flash at all, but I understand the aesthetic appeal of some flash.  Any information, text, links, or images in a flash file cannot be indexed by search engines.
• Keep Design As Expected - some people want to have their website be different and unique and will have their layout different than other websites.  Web surfers are used to looking for information in the same general areas.  By putting information somewhere unexpected it requires the visitor to search for it on your page, and makes your website more work.
• Keep Your Pages Small - keep images small, keep 'fluff' coding off, use image sprites if it helps.  The smaller your pages are (with images, CSS, JavaScript, etc) the faster they will load, and the happier your visitor is with their visit.
• Use hyphens - rather than _ underscores - when you are setting up your keyword-focused page file names, you will want to separate your keywords with hyphens.  Search engines will often read those as spaces, whereas underscores are just taken out.  "Pants-jeans.html" will be read as "pants jeans" whereas "pants_jeans.html" will often be read as "Pantsjeans."
• Robots.txt File - this is there to help search engine spiders. Review guidelines on setting this up so that it includes the relevant information for your website.
• Text Instead Of Images - wherever possible, use text rather than images.  If you have a banner with text in it, have the banner be a background and put the text over it.  If you have a tabbed navigation, see if you can have your designer repeat the tab images and just have regular HTML text over each for the image. Search engines can't read the text in your images.
• Use Headings Correctly - heading tags, such as <h1>
  </h1>should be around page specific headings. Keywords should also be included in these heading tags.  So for my pants-jeans-khaki.html page, my heading may look like <h1>Browse Our Jean Pants & Khaki Pants</h1>.  Don't get relaxed and use heading tags for things such as <h1>Similar Items:</h1> because neither "similar" nor "items" are keywords on your page, so they should not be in a heading or title area.  Use HTML or CSS to make the "Similar Items" text as large as you want, but don't use heading tags.
• Get Inbound Links - do link sharing and referrals to get traffic coming to your website.  Not only is this good for more hits, but if many sites, specifically credible sites, are linking to you, search engines will take your site more seriously.
• Create A Sitemap - there are two main types of sitemaps, and both should be created.  Setup a Google Sitemap that you submit to search engines including Google.  Also have a sitemap on your website.  This gives search engines a quick page with links to all your other pages so they are easy to find.
• Do Your Own Research - check your website in many browsers.  Setup things such as Google Analytics so that you can track your website visitors.  Make sure you know what is going on with your website.  If there are trends with your visitors, make sure you know about those.  If your statistics change, make sure you are checking up so you are aware of the changes.
• No Broken Links - there are free tools out there to check your website for broken links.  Make sure you don't have any broken links or missing images.
• Research Your Competitors - find out what your competitors are using for keywords, what they are focusing their content on.  If they are ranking better than you, find out why that is and improve upon those areas.
• Don't Let Your Site Sit - search engines like websites that are active.  Don't put your website up, setup the content once and think that you are done.  You should get excited about your site. Let your customers know you are excited about it, and that there is a reason for them to come back to see new information or changes.
• Be Picky With Advice - don't try everything that you hear on every "this is how it's done" website. Pick a few ideas, implement them, and see how your site does.  Check if the tips improve or hurt your traffic.  See if they effect your Google ranking. Some advice is great, whereas other advice may hurt your web page standings.  If it is good for your customer, then it is probably good for your website.  If you are being sneaky to trick search engines into ranking you high, it may help you temporarily, but will often hurt you in the long run.