If you were asked to sum up in just a paragraph or two what would be the characteristics from an SEO point of view, a website that ranked somewhere on page 1, what would your answer be?
I'm sure others will add important points to this, but I would say that some key factors to help a webpage rank on a search engine's first page for a specific keyword include: • Having that keyword in the title • Having that keyword in the URL — e.g., www[dot]yoursite.com/keyword.html • Even better would be www[dot]keyword.com, if you can get it. • Having that keyword sprinkled throughout the text of your page, but without overdoing it. • Having that keyword in the anchor text of links pointing to your page Let's hear some more ideas.
I don't understand the question, try asking it a bit differently and generalize your meaning of characteristics. Check out this url: http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=182915 That is an excellent SEO FAQ by stymiee at sitepoint and I feel this would sum up your main question in the thread.
Proper Internal linking of web pages. Anchor text is a big key with internal linking as well. Try to use heading tags properly, only one set of <h1> is recommended per page. Make sure each pages title and meta description element is unique & relevant to that specific page. Do not stuff them with keywords. Again, inter-linking internal web pages is important. Try to inter-link when possible in content, not just in navigation menus. Natural flowing content, do not try to add in keywords when not nessessary. Content is made for humans, not search engines. Following the above quote on backlinks and anchor text, make sure to get "relevant" backlinks, they should come from sites directly related to your site's subject. Use robots.txt to block web pages that don't need to be indexed. Make sure to build backlinks to your internal web pages along with the top-level domain.
Why should I not launch an incomplete website? 1) Users will remember that your site was incomplete and will be less willing to come back 2) Search engines may index incomplete pages and cache them and then not refresh their cache for months or years 3) Other webmasters will not exchange links with incomplete sites 4) Directories won't accept submissions from incomplete sites Keep in mind this generally covers your "under construction" kind of incomplete sites. You certainly can launch a site and then continually add to it and grow it. Even adding whole new sections. But a site that is obviously incomplete just shouldn't be set loose in the wild until it is ready to go.
Nice Post Jim, you have pretty much nailed it as far as onpage SEO is concerned. I really don't think you can do much now as far as on page seo is concerned. Make sure you use both H1 and H2 tags as well in pages.
The tips are great, but it's far from all the possible on-page optimization techiques that can be used. Also, the backlinks would be considered off-page.
1) I agree. That's why I said, "..some key factors ... Let's hear some more." You added some good ones. 2) Yes, backlinks are off-page factors. The OP did not say on-page only.
I was referring the poster who quoted you, not what you posted directly As was the off-page comment, I assumed he thought they all were on-page factors that you listed.