Search Engine Optimisation Tips
Below is a list of essential considerations when designing a site for maximum effect in search engines, the list is by no means complete, the world of SEO is constantly changing.
Please do note that this is not a page of tricks, these will not be banned by Google some time in the future, they are honest and accurate techniques used to improve your site's ranking.
It's All in a Name
Names are very important, the name of each page, directory and the page title all have an impact on what a search engines sees. Use these places to emphasise your keywords and improve your placement.
For example use web-articles-design-seo.php as opposed to articles.php?a=4653
Meta Data
The importance of Meta Data seems to go up and sown like a yo-yo. It is certainly true that search engines place far less weight in this feature than they used to but they still play there part.
Make your Meta Data unique to each page and only include keywords that actually appear on your site, don't overload it, just be sensible and concentrate on what's important to that specific page.
Sitemaps
Use sitemaps to help search engines find there way around the site, you could use XML ones and submit them direct to the search engines or link to hard-coded ones on a page of your site, or ideally, do both!!
Alt and Title Tags
An excellent place to add a few keywords, sensibly!, is the Alt and Title Tags of your images. Make them descriptive and accurate, but not too long.
Layout and Validation
Use correct code, lay the site out in an orderly fashion and make sure the site validates. This is becoming a more important factor, if nothing else it reduces the rubbish search engines have to look through to get it's content, so emphasise your content and code things properly!
Spelling
There is some evidence to suggest correct spelling and grammar are now being considered by search engines, this makes this one particularly easy to do, just run it through a spell checker!
H Tags
OK this one is an essential one! Use H tags to create headers for your site, this gives the page it's structure and helps search engines work out what it's all about.
Unique!
Make sure your content is unique, search engines hate duplicate content.
Avoid Cheap Tricks
In an effort to constantly improve their results search engines are picking up on more and more tricks used to deceive them, so don't use them, just do it the right way and you'll never have a problem.
Content
The last and final tip is the most important, content is king! Ultimately the best way to achieve a decent search engine place is to deserve to be there!