SEO doesn't have to be expensive to do the basics yourself, even if you do use an SEO consultant to do it all, you really should have some idea just what he is actually doing.
With the basic ideas you can control what the "expert" is doing, or at least understand when he is pulling the wool over your eyes.
This list is a set of search engine optimization tips and hints that cover most areas of the SEO world, hopefully there will be something here anyone can use. The links below will take you to the various sections of the SEO Tips.
On Page SEO Tips
The text you use in the TITLE meta tag is one of the most important factors in how a search engine will rank your web page
Constantly updated new content will improve your search engine rankings. Update content on a regular basis, this will add relevancy to your site.
If you use Java script drop down menus, image maps or image links, be sure to put text links somewhere on the page for the spiders to follow.
Videos that show up in Google blended search results don’t just come from YouTube. Be sure to submit your videos to other quality video sites like Metacafe, AOL, MSN and Yahoo.
Use the words “image” or “picture” in your photo ALT descriptions and captions. A lot of searches are for a keyword plus one of those words.
Enable “Enhanced image search” in your Google Webmaster Central account. Images are a big part of the new blended search results, so allowing Google to find your photos will help your SEO efforts.
Add viral components to your content. Things like reviews, sharing functions, ratings and visitor comments, etc. Anything that brings a reader back or would make the reader recommend the page to others.
SEO Keyword Tips
The SEO mantra is "Content is King", so be sure to have good unique content that will focus on your primary keyword or keyword phrase. Not only will it make it easier to focus a keyword organically, but it will act as link bait for the creation of real organic backlinks.
Give each page a focus on a single keyword phrase. Don’t try to optimize the page for several keywords at once.
Check your server headers. Search for “check server header” to find free online tools for this. You want to be sure your URLs report a “200 OK” status or “301 Moved Permanently ” for redirects. If the status shows anything else, check to be sure your URLs are set up properly and used consistently throughout your site.
Be sure you have a unique, keyword focused Title tag on every page of your site. And, if you MUST have the name of your company in it, put it at the end. Unless you are a major brand name that is a household name, your business name will probably get few searches.
Use captions with your images. As with newspaper photos, place keyword rich captions with your images.
Surround video content on your pages with keyword rich text. The search engines look at surrounding content to define the usefulness of the video for the query.
If you are promoting a physical location, focus on search phrases, not single keywords, and put your location in your text ("Hertfordshire Wedding Dress Shop"; not "our wedding dress shop") to help you get found in local searches.
Use keywords and keyword phrases appropriately in text links, image ALT attributes and even your domain name.
Search engines want natural language content. Don’t try to stuff your text with keywords. It won’t work. Search engines look at how many times a term is in your content and if it is abnormally high, will count this against you rather than for you.
Not only should your links use keyword anchor text, but the text around the links should also be related to your keywords. In other words, surround the link with descriptive text.
Off Page SEO Tips
LINK BUILDING TIPS
Build a network of backlinks using your keyword phrase as the link.
Give link love to Get link love. Don’t be stingy with linking out. Why would others link to you if you wouldn't link to them?
Be sure links to your site and within your site use your keyword phrase. In other words, if your target is “green oysters” then link to “green oysters” instead of a “Website” link.
Links (especially deep links) from a high PageRank site are golden. High PR indicates high trust, so the back links will carry more weight.
Use absolute links. Not only will it make your on-site link navigation less prone to problems (like links to and from https pages), but if someone scrapes your content, you’ll get backlink credit from it.
Some of your most valuable links might not appear in web sites at all but be in the form of e-mail communications such as newsletters and e-zines.
You get NOTHING from paid links except a few clicks unless the links are embedded in body text and NOT obvious sponsored links.
Links from .edu domains are given nice weight by the search engines. Run a search for possible non-profit .edu sites that are looking for sponsors. That said, .GOV and .EDU links are not as powerfull as reported by many bloggers and sales sites. If they were you would never get into the top 10 of a search engine in the first place.
Give people reason to link to your site. Linkbaiting is simply good content.
When link building, think quality, not quantity. One single, good, authoritative link can do a lot more for you than a dozen poor quality links, which can actually hurt you.
Got a new web site you want spidered? Submitting through Google’s regular submission form can take weeks. The quickest way to get your site spidered is by getting a link to it through another quality site.
Google SEO Tips
Don’t be obsessed with PageRank. It is just one part of the ranking algorithm. A site with lower PR can actually outrank one with a higher PR.
To create the best chances of your videos being indexed, make a video sitemap and list it in your Google Webmaster Central account.
Optimize the text in your RSS feed just like you should with your posts and web pages. Use descriptive, keyword rich text in your title and description.
Pay attention to the context surrounding your images. Images can rank based on text that surrounds them on the page. Pay attention to keyword text, headings, etc.
You’re better off letting your site pages be found naturally by the crawler. Good global navigation and linking will serve you much better than relying only on an XML Sitemap.
There are two ways to NOT see Google’s Personalized Search results:
(1) Log out of Google
(2) Append &pws=0 to the end of your search URL in the search bar
See if your hosting company offers “Sticky” forwarding when moving to a new domain. This allows temporary forwarding to the new domain from the old, retaining the new URL in the address bar so that users can gradually get used to the new URL.
SEO Advice
The most important of the SEO Tips to bear in mind are Text, Links, Popularity and Reputation.
Make sure your site is easy to use. This can influence your link building ability and popularity and, thus, your ranking.
Search engines like unique content that is also quality content. There can be a difference between unique content and quality content. Make sure your content is both.
If you have your main page as a splash page that is all Flash or one big image, place text and navigation links below the fold.
SEO is useless if you have a weak or non-existent call to action. Make sure your call to action is clear and present.
SEO is not a one-shot process. The search landscape changes daily, so expect to work on your optimization daily.
Don’t design your web site without considering SEO. Make sure your web designer understands your expectations for organic SEO. Doing a retrofit on your shiny new Flash-based site after it is built won’t cut it. Spiders can crawl text, not Flash or images.
Check for canonicalization issues www and non-www domains. Decide which you want to use and 301 redirect the other to it. In other words, if http://www.domain.com is your preference, then http://domain.com should redirect to it.
Check the link to your home page throughout your site. Is index.html appended to your domain name? If so, you’re splitting your links. Outside links go to http://www.domain.com and internal links go to http://www.domain.com/index.html.
Ditch the index.html or default.php or whatever the page is and always link back to your domain.
Frames, Flash and AJAX all share a common problem - you can’t link to a single page. It’s either all or nothing. Don’t use Frames at all and use Flash and AJAX sparingly for best SEO results.
Your URL file extension doesn’t matter. You can use .html, .htm, .asp, .php, etc. and it won’t make a difference as far as your SEO is concerned.
If you are on a shared server, do a blacklist check to be sure you’re not on a proxy with a spammer or banned site. Their negative notoriety could affect your own rankings.
Be aware that by using services that block domain ownership information when you register a domain, Google might see you as a potential spammer.
SEO Blog Tips
If your site content doesn’t change often, your site needs a blog because search spiders like fresh text. Blog at least three time a week with good, fresh content to feed those little crawlers.
When optimizing your blog posts, optimize your post title tag independently from your blog title.
If you have pages on your site that are very similar (you are concerned about duplicate content issues) and you want to be sure the correct one is included in the search engines, place the URL of your preferred page in your sitemaps.
Google now support a format that allows you to specify your preferred version of a URL. This gives you much more control over the URL returned in search results. It also consolidates link popularity your preferred version.
Putting the following line in the section of your HTML will allow you to designate the source for the data. (Obviously modify to suit your requirements)
Cater to influential bloggers and authority sites who might link to you, your images, videos, podcasts, etc. or ask to reprint your content.
Source from : Seo-myths.com