30 Quick SEO Facts You Should Know

30 Quick SEO Facts You Should Know

One of the biggest myths about search engine optimization (SEO) is that it’s hard – it’s really not. But because SEO techniques are shrouded in mystery, many webmasters, designers and marketers are given the impression that there’s some sort of secret process to making webpages rank well in search engines. Here are 30 SEO facts that you can use to improve your web site’s search engine rankings immediately.

30 Quick SEO Facts

  1. You don’t need to submit your site to Google – they discover you through inbound links to your site. However, you should submit to Yahoo! and Bing.
  2. You don’t need to worry about any other search engines – their traffic isn’t significant enough to warrant the extra effort.
  3. You don’t need meta keywords on your web pages – search engines stopped using this tag years ago.
  4. You do need to ensure you use meta title and meta description on every page (this is so important that tips #1 and #2 in my book should how to set this up). But curiously it’s only #4 on this list.
  5. You must make sure all your pages load quickly. While Google seems to be using this now, it’s even more important for the user experience.
  6. You do need ALT tags on your images – it’s really easy to do and search engines cannot ‘see’ pictures.
  7. Never use splash pages – these really irritate users and do nothing for SEO.
  8. You should add a blog to your site – it makes a huge difference to how Google ranks your site, almost without exception. (I say ‘almost’ as a hedge, since I’ve never seen a case where it doesn’t).
  9. You must determine your canonical name (i.e. www.ranking-number1.com or ranking-number1.com). I personally like the name without the www because it’s redundant.
  10. You must not use link farms or other services claiming to achieve page  one ranking for $19.95. They don’t work, and may even harm your rankings.
  11. You should use press release services like Wired PR News.
  12. You should analyze your competitors, see their incoming links and targeted search terms, and use this knowledge to gather more inbound links and strengthen your own keyword phrases.
  13. You don’t need free listings on business directories – many have low PageRank scores and cause a tsunami of spam and junk mail.
  14. You must claim your business name on Twitter, Facebook and as many other social networks as you can. Even if you never use the account, it prevents others from registering before you.
  15. You don’t need AdWords to improve your organic rankings – the two systems are completely unrelated.
  16. You should register for a free Google Analytics account and install the tracking code on your site – the data is invaluable.
  17. You should start creating videos for your site – video now represents nearly 50% of search and visitors often prefer it over text.
  18. You don’t need to worry about your PageRank score – the published version is out of date, and there are plenty of popular, well-respected sites with low PR scores.
  19. You must ensure your URLs are search engine friendly (like http://ranking-number1.com/30-seo-facts rather than http://ranking-number1.com/pageserv.aspx?id=HJHJKH?source=blahblahblah).
  20. You don’t need a massive site to rank well – but you do need more than a couple of pages.
  21. You should ensure you have a business listing in Google Places.
  22. You should focus on one topic per page to reinforce the semantic meaning of the page.
  23. You must not be concerned with keyword density, keyword stuffing or keyword density or keyword stuffing. Or keyword stuffing.
  24. You must use header tags on your pages effectively.
  25. You should avoid Flash-only sites, although you can use it for minor elements on your pages.
  26. You must add your site to Google Webmaster Tools.
  27. You should add a sitemap to your website – it’s very easy, free and usually helps.
  28. You must avoid duplicate content (e.g. multiple URLs point to the same pages, using manufacturers’ product descriptions, or even just stealing content).
  29. You should be standards compliant, so any modern browser can render your page identically without any bias to a single browser or technology.
  30. You must include quality outbound links on your web pages.

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