Your first heading (h1) tells search bots what your page is about. Usually I rank best for whatever I place in my first heading. If your interested in learning about seo I just posted about it in my website marketing blog which you can find in my sig.
Unique content for sure. Make sure the content is aimed at a few long-tail keywords and optimize for a handful of them on each article.
Do a search on keywords that pertain to your site. Then check the source of the sites that are on page one. Copy what they are doing, and then tweak it to match your site. Example: <html> <head> <title> Unheard Of Dating Tips Sex Tips That Actually Works</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"> <META NAME="description" content="Double Your Dating! Double Your Sex! Keep A Conversation Going! Conversational Openers Women Love! Over 500 Unheard Of Tips!"> <META NAME="keywords" content="Dating Advice."> <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX,FOLLOW"> <META NAME="GOOGLEBOT" CONTENT="INDEX,FOLLOW"> </head> Another one: <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="tip.css" /> <title>The Top 10 Tips To Seduce Her Men Gave Thumbs Up. TheList.FM</title> <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="Seduce her this way, guys."> <META NAME="description" CONTENT="TheList.FM's Cutting Edge, REALISTIC, Tips On How To Seduce Her That Have Worked, Time After Time. For Guys Who Hate The Typical BS Seduction Manuals."> <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX,FOLLOW"> <META NAME="GOOGLEBOT" CONTENT="INDEX,FOLLOW"> There are a couple of more variations, but you get the idea. But do not copy and paste their code! It may screw the formatting up in your site! Many blowhards on seo say to make sure that it is in order. Title, then the keywords, then the description.... Again, look at the other sites. Many have different variations. It doesn't matter. Some have: META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX,FOLLOW"> <META NAME="GOOGLEBOT" CONTENT="INDEX,FOLLOW"> while others don't. Pretty confusing, huh? That's why you shouldn't put much stock in seo. Did you know that many high-ranking sites don't put keywords in their HTML? Instead they put it in the content on their page. Just goes to show you that sometimes it isn't necessary. 2. Do NOT overuse the keywords on your pages. Use just a few, and put them in the first quarter of your page. 3. Bold and italicize SOME keywords. It isn't known for a fact if it works or not, but nothing is lost by doing it. Rule of thumb from me: When questioning a method on whether it works or not, if it doesn't hurt a site, put it in anyway. Cover all your bases. 4. Put a keyword in your anchor of the text in the inbound link. 5. Put a keyword in your pages' URL. Example: TheSite.com/dating-advice. 6. Put a keyword in the incoming link text. For example: If you wrote an article for a site, have at the end of your article: "Click here now for more dating advice." When you hover your mouse over the link, it will show your URL, while at the same time it has a keyword. Now, this isn't full proof, but, again, cover all your bases. 7. Put keywords in text surrounding the incoming link text. Again, not full proof. 8. Keep the landing pages short, fast loading, and change the content every now and then. I call any page in your site a "landing page," since you will have visitors landing on your pages from a search. 9. Can you write short articles for websites to carry? If so, submit it to them. The more sites that have your link, the higher your ranking. Obviously. 10. Submit to the major directories. There are hundreds of them, but only a half a dozen or so carry any real weight. But I think that it is a waste of time. Maybe five or so years back it would have made a difference, but not much now. But there is no loss in trying anyway. 11. Make a site that visitors want to link to. 12. Copy your competition. Click on "view" in your toolbar, and then click on "source." Again, do NOT copy and paste their seo code as this may screw up your site’s formatting! Don't bother with old sites and content sites. Askmen.com and About.com are two such sites. Yahoo and Google loves these kinds of sites because they have been around for years, and they are loaded with fresh content every day. They can, basically, do no wrong. 13. If your site has less than, oh, say... 10 pages, for example, forget site maps. They are worthless. Search engine computers can go through your few pages at a blink of an eye. 14. Resubmit to the search engines. Be sure. It doesn't hurt. Do it only one time! 15. Find a good seo firm that buys QUALITY backlinks that matches the same subject your site is on. If you have a site on web hosting, you don't want backlinks on automotive. 16. Make more info pages in your site. Articles, tips, "how to," directories... Have a goal of making at least two pages every week. They don't have to be long pages. It can be just a few short paragraphs. In a years time you will have over 100 keyword-enriched pages. Double it, or triple it if you have the time. And, remember, the older and more active your site is, the higher your odds goes up on being placed on page one...and staying there. Your luck improves. 17. Contact Google and Yahoo for “how to†seo information. They will help you. It's part of their business to help you. 18. You may have heard that you should have a style sheet. That way the search engines can easily read your page. That's BS. As long as it is not a large site, their spiders can go through those tables just fine. Again, look at all the sites that do have tables. They even beat out the overrated sites that have style sheets. 19. Do NOT use frames in your site! 20. Don't use too much java script. 21. Make sure you have text in your picture. Some search engines put more weight in sites that tell visitors who can't see the picture what is in that space. Of course this too isn't full proof, but since you are building a page, why not do it anyway? Build the page, optimize it just like the overrated seo experts do, and then move on. 22. Optimizing your site for long tail keywords is an option to improve your odds in getting ranked high. For those of you who do not know what the term, long tail keywords means, it those three and four keyword phrases which are very, very specific to whatever you are selling. For example: California mountain climbing tours. But, again, everybody who knows about seo is doing the same thing. But at least doing this may, MAY increase your chances. 23. If you have a lot of information, break it up in several pages. The more words there are on a page, the higher the odds are that they could, COULD drown out the keywords. It is not known for sure if this works, but why take that chance? Besides, I think it makes sense. I'm not sure, but I think that is the main reason why such content sites like Askmen.com and About.com don't have a whole lot of text on one particular page. That's it! Not rocket science, right? And it is certainly not hard, long hours of work, like so many claim it to be, like what you may have read on message boards! When I create another page for my site, it takes me less than five minutes to optimize it. Do the list, put everything in place, don't rack your brain over this overrated seo, and then move on to concentrating on doing the methods that bring in REAL traffic. One more thing before moving on… When putting in the title and the description in your html, make sure you make it appealing, a cut above all the others. For example: In the title, put in the price of your product, or put in the word “free.†If you are lucky enough to land high, they should see something like this, as an example: Frontline Plus – Wholesale Price $30 Frontline Plus is monthly flea preventative that kills 100% of adult fleas on your pet within 18 hours and 100% of all ticks within 48 hours. Frontline Plus contains an insect growth regulator, S-methoprene, which kills flea eggs and larvae. See where I underlined one of the most important lines when selling? Do the same. The keyword in this section was repeated 3 times. Repeat it a couple of more times down your page, and that’s it! Don’t over do it! Don’t forget to create duplicate pages on such products, in case they type in “dog†or “cat.†Have 3 pages, one for dog, cat and pets. But rearrange the title, description and the actual page a little bit, for the obvious reason. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t have to be a lot. There are, literally thousands upon thousands of sites, pages that look very similar. Google, Yahoo, and all the other creators of search engines know this already. Doorway Pages You can create a doorway page that could, COULD increase your chances in getting ranked higher, because there are fewer words on that page. Fewer the words, while having the keywords there, increases the chances because, of course, your keywords are not as drowned out as what a regular homepage may do. But, just know that many users don't like them. For me, as an example, if I go to a site, and I have to click again just to see the actual homepage, I may not do it. Hey, we are a click happy society, and you will get many who are clicking over to your site, JUST to click. They are also bored. You want to immediately grab your visitors' attention! So keep that in mind. I would suggest doing a lot of short, keyword-enriched subpages (subdomains) instead, and update them a few times a month.