There are many myths about what SEO can do for your web site. One thing is for sure. It will not immediately get your site ranked first in the search results. But some small changes can go a long way in rising your site up in the SERPs. Here are some things I have heard over and over about good SEO practices.The most common sentiment is to make sure readers of your site are happy and want to come back for more. That will take you further than any SEO hack. Now with that being said, there are some other small SEO changes which can help you out. You should have a unique title on each web page. The title should also be short and concise.
When you do generate URLs, put meaningful words in them that relate to your subject. Lower case URLs are preferable. The text you write should be easy to read, and have top notch content. Yes I know that is a tall order to fill. But you must strive for it. It is best if the content is 100% unique. That will get you extra points.
I have heard people caution you against using too many images. I err on the side of too many images myself. There should be an ALT attribute for images. You never know when somebody is going to read your site with a text browser. The search engines like this as well.
You can link out to other sites. But you should add a rel value of nofollow. This is usually not a problem on my pages. I link mostly to my own sites. However when I do link out, it is for good cause. So I don’t mind losing a little link juice for a worthy cause. Finally you should list your URL on your business cards. I know my cards prominently display my web site URL.
