Valid code - run it through http://validator.w3.org. Yes, most big sites don't have valid code, but you're not a big site. They have other things going for them, including large SEO budgets.

Write your site semantically (if you have to look it up, you proably aren't doing this...)
Write content that is unique, relevant and comprehensive. The more quality content you have to offer, the better.
Use Alt tages on all images.
Use good page titles in the <title> and <meta description> tags
Don't waste time with long keyword lists in meta tags. Most search engines don't care about them. Stick a few in, but don't spend much time.
Don't use dirty tricks, hidden text, sliding doors (redirects to other pages) or keyword hijacking to get better hits. These could get your site blacklisted.
Don't use excessive Flash and images.
Read your site as a blind person would - because Google is blind. Easiest way is to check your site in Lynx.

If all else fails, a big enough budget ($50,000+) will get you a dedicated Google Adwords team.

HTH,

Pete.

Very good advice, I would also add to that list generating a Google Analytics account, as this free reporting application will let you see what trends people are using when discovering your site, and what demographic areas are your strongest supporters.

I'm starting to do some research about this side of things, as this has definitely never been my strong point. I currently have a website that I'd really like to increase traffic on, and am doing quite a bit of work right now to make this happen, including adding content and more things for my visitors to do.

I just ran a SEO report on my website for the first time at http://www.websitegrader.com. It came out with some suggestions for improvement. I only got a 49% out of 100. I assume that this is pretty bad. Even though I'm no where near a pro, this is still a bit disappointing.

The website has also dropped in Google PR over the past few months from a 2 down to a 1. I'm hoping to pick that back up. I'm wondering if anyone is experienced with things like this websitegrader.com, and how helpful you think their suggestions would be. It HAS helped me see some things I need to improve on sub-pages.

It also makes the suggestion for a Heading Summary. I'm not really sure what it means by this - marking some of my text as "head" in my html? I use an external CSS page for my design work, and have one of them labeled "title."

Here's a surprising discovery: It complains that I have too many keywords. Pete, it kind of makes the same argument that you made about that. I'll have a look at that, and try to reduce my keywords.

I also read that having a domain that is set to expire in less than a year will sometimes not be a good thing. Mine is set to expire in about 4 months, and I typically only renew it about 30 days out... Maybe I should start keeping a pad of about a year or two? This financially used to be impossible, but as I only have 1 more left in college, I think I can start to pull this off.

Other specific thoughts / suggestions?

This thread might be helpful if you haven't seen it: http://www.christian-web-masters.com/forum...showtopic=12871

I also created a small program to scan your site for basic SEO problems etc (all "on-page" seo) which I would love feedback on.
http://joey101.net/static/SEOjolight-setup.exe
http://freehg.org/u/joey/seojo/ (source)

In addition to proper mark-up structure, and what everybody else has said, I want to reiterate: Content Content Content. That's the key.

What has worked for me is get a good sitemap.xml ofcourse with no errors, submit it, and get an add words account in google and yahoo and focus on trigger words.

Wow, lots of great comments and ideas already listed in these responses.

I've spent a lot of time and effort working at this myself, since I rely more on search engines than any other kind of promotion for traffic. I recently put together a list of some of the basic things I practice for a young fellow who started up up a brand new site. After doing that, I decided last week to put the list on the web. You can find it here: http://www.123basics.com/index.htm

Since a number of my sites are graphics sites, I could not cut back on the use of graphics. I have had to take the time to make sure my pages were at least identifiable to Google, etc. I agree that we need to use alt tags for most images. I also make regular use of the title tag, since I use Firefox, and it doesn't show the alt info unless the image is missing, and I like human visitors to be able to have that info. In addition to tags, some descriptive content in a sentence or two, at least, helps the search engines to know why this page is different from the others with similar images, titles, etc.

For some reason, a lot of webmasters avoid writing in an otherwise great site (SEO speaking). Yet the little extra meaningful text you can place on a page can make a huge difference in how the search engines treat you.

I discourage heavy reliance on Google AdWords because such promotion doesn't offer the same residual benefits that you can get from print ads, online directories (real directories that center in some way on the subject matter of your site), good links on similar or related sites, and some other methods. If search engines matter to your site (as they absolutely do to mine) then the coding, navigation, tags, etc. of your site is where you want to focus your attention, along with meaningful link exchanges, directories, and so on.

Site and page ranking is a constant job, since many other sites that compete in the very same field of interest are also working hard to get at or near the top. I have always found it very useful to study the first two or three sites in search results, to see how they build the page, how they code the page, and then to notice what kinds of other online promotion they use (which you can find by using their site, or specific pages from their site as your search term in Google, Live Search and Yahoo.

I just wanted to add a couple of points here for anyone who sees it, even though it's an old post.

If someone advises you to use a formula - Title should be 50 - 77 characters - be careful. These things change all the time and can't be nailed down to a formula.

If they tell you to use the Page Rank in the google toolbar be careful. This is broken and has little to no value.

If they tell you anything to trick the search engines stay away. These tactics will be discovered and usually penalized in one way or another.

Write your site for people, not search engines. Google will not buy t-shirts or "get saved" while at your site but people may.

Look for solid advice on the web. There are a lot of people out there that like to say things they guess about and don't know so be careful. Search for a site named High Rankings - the forum has a lot of good advice from good people, IMO.

Above all, don't expect quick results. It's not possible except by fluke and anyone who promises it should be avoided.

Peace

Write for people not search engines is so true. Search engines are looking for pages that write for people and note search engines anyway. As people start using RDF we will see more of writing for people that compatible for search engines and other machines as well.

If you go to http://www.masteringdrupal.com/ you can sign up in right column to receive a free video course. I found the videos helpful. He list a number of modules related to SEO.

Hi,
No sure how in depth you would like to get on the subject of SEO, but I have found that seobook.com is a great resource...and no I am not affiliated :)

The single biggest factor is links. Sure, content is important, but it takes time (usually a year) before it starts to pay off. I know just when I was ready to start giving up on my text message blog site it started to pay off.

Look for places to obtain links that are Do Follow. You can download the add on to your Firefox online to check if the links are do follow or not. Just Google "do follow add on for firefox" and don't worry they are safe to download.

Yours in God.

THe key to SEO is proper key word selection. You must focus on keywords that users will type into the search engine. If you perform SEO using the incorrect keywords, then the proper results will not be returned in your search.

Dee
Dee's Solutions

Thanks for this thread!