Search Engine Optimization, SEO - the tailoring of a websites to make it more favourable to higher search engine rankings. We've all seen and heard SEO, all asked our questions, some of us are full time consultants... But what do we need to do to optimize? What criteria do search engines use? I though it about time to create a list of search engine optimization criteria for all to see. So here goes - you can chime in your own suggestions at the end 1) Inclusion of keyword in meta title 2) Inclusion of keyword in meta description 3) Inclusion of keyword in meta tags 4) Inclusion of keyword in URL 5) Inclusion of keyword within first 90 characters of a page 6) Inclusion of keyword within headline 7) Inclusion of keyword with image alt tags 8) Inclusion of keyword within anchor text on the page 9) Inclusion of keyword within anchor text off the page 10) Maximum of two similar keywords within meta tags 11) Maximum of two keywords in meta description 12) How far left the keyword is in the meta headline 13) The number of characters after the keyword in the URL 14) Number of backlinks to the specific page 15) Number of backlinks to the website in total 16) The keyword-relevance of those backlinks 17) The PageRank of the website 18) The PageRank of the webpage 19) The total number of links from one third-party website linking in 20) The appearance of the website in Yahoo Directory 21) The appearance of the website in DMoz 22) The appearance of the website in news channels 23) The appearance of the website in topical forums 24) The appearance of the website in topical blogs 25) The appearance of the website on DigitalPoint - lol 26) The number of link farm participations 27) The number of reciprical link exchanges with related websites 28) The location of inbound links relative to related text 29) The location of inbound links relative to other links 30) The editorial value of the backlinks Ready, go add some more ideas. Let's create the biggest list on the interweb!
You can add... LSI keywords. Bolding of keyword. And also, main keyword should be mentioned 2-3 times per 400-500 word article once in the first 2 sentences and once in the last 2 sentences, and a 400-500 word article should contain 3 LSI keywords.
17/18) Irrelevant for ranking, a PR2 page can easily outrank a PR5 page. 20) Not necessary, you can do fine without it. 21) Dmoz has lost most of it's relevance in the last years, so not necessary. 26) This could seriously harm your rankings. 27) Reciprocal links won't help you as much as one way links, spend your time on one way links. The rest of the list is pretty complete, you should also take into consideration the website structure, avoid duplicated content and in-site link optimization. PR sculpting used to be worth the effort but with the latest Google update on the subject there still isn't a reliable solution to it.