Search engine "do's" and "don'ts"

Search engine "do's" and "don'ts":

1) Make sure you use correct html. Most of my pages are "powered by Notepad", meaning that I hardly ever use an html editor to program them. The advantage of this is that you can have the layout you really want, but the huge disadvantage is, that at some point you will make mistakes in the code. Especially when you start with web pages I suggest, you use something like "Frontpage" to do your pages, and don't try to code in html yourself.
Do avoid fancy banners, marquees, scrolling text and animations that run all the time. Apart from the fact that it is annoying for the visitors, search engines will simply ignore all information that might be displayed.
2) Meta Keywords: These are easily forgotten if you use programs like Frontpage or other html editors: It looks OK for you, so you upload it, but be aware that what looks good for you, might not look good at all for a search engine.
Meta Tags are only a small part of your ranking. As a matter of fact their significance has decreased a great deal in the last years, and crawlers don't pay a lot of attention to them anymore, because a lot of people started overloading their meta tags with keywords that were not always relevant, just to make search engines believe that their page was interesting and full of content.
Today search engines index pages themselves, and might just compare what they have to your meta tags.
It can be helpful to use a "keyword suggestion tool" when making your meta tags (http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/). Make sure, not to overload your Meta Tags, because some crawlers might consider that spamming.
In a nutshell: The fact that Meta Tags are not that important anymore today does not mean you can leave them out.
3) The Page Title: Another thing that is easily forgotten when using an html editing software, but this title is even more important than meta-keywords. For some reason search engines seem to pay great attention to the page title.
Make sure, that you don't use the same words in each of your pages. Don't use your company name if you can avoid it, because -I hate to tell you - people will not search for your company name when using a search engine, but they will look for products. So instead of having a title like
<title>MyCompany INC - great prices and great service</title>
try something like
<title>Quality handmade wooden toys for children - PRODUCT</title>
For pages that are in your shop you can replace the word PRODUCT with a specific product name that can be found on this particular page. For other pages on your site find other descriptive titles.
Paying a lot of attention to these Page Titles will also help you to make a site map easily. Programs that generate site maps for you usually automatically rely on what you used as page title.
4) ALT tags: When using images on your page, you should make extensive use of the "ALT" tag. Use the important key words for this product to describe it. A lot of html editing tools will insert something like
"image001.jpg - 56KB - 300x233"
as a standard alt-tag for your image. Needless to say, this is not going to earn you any brownie points with a search engine.
If you have a wooden rocking horse for sale in your shop and you have a picture of it, use an alt-tag like:
"wooden rocking horse, children toys, hand made"
Apart from giving the search engines a hint on what the image is all about, it also increases the validity of your page, because words reoccur, which is another ranking criteria.
5) Words, words, words: Describe everything in detail. Make sure you put the most important criteria in the beginning of a paragraph, so instead of
Special introduction offer! I have been working on this design for years and now it is ready to launch. The wood used is grown in my own yard and has been drying in my shed for 3 years now. No sharp edges, very sturdy and for small and big children I proudly present my Rocking Horse 1.0.1.
use:
The Wooden Rocking Horse. Ideal for big and small children. No sharp edges and in a very sturdy design. I have been working on this design for years and now it is ready to launch. The wood used is grown in my own yard and has been drying in my shed for 3 years.
Special introduction offer!
All key words you use in your descriptions should reappear in your meta-tags and in your alt-tags.
Try not to use text as an image. It might be tempting to do so, because you can place the text exactly the way you want to, and it will not move, when you use a different browser or screen resolution. Search engines cannot read images! They are only looking for html text.
6) Search engines love content! And they remember.
The more content (or pages) your site has, the better. Don't try to fit everything in one page. If a page gets over one or two screen pages long, or it has more than about 600 words, try to split it. Splitting a page means more links, more pages and because of that more content for search engines.
Another side effect is, that the pages will load faster and it will make it more interesting for your visitors - (after all we don't want to forget the real humans, that visit your site).
7) Links - important stuff!
Most of the important issues have already been covered in the chapter "Referrals: like links from and to other pages". This is more meant as a reminder: Make a link page. Maintain it. Make sure you have no broken links, encourage people to link to your page: It's good for you!
8) Your URL: also relevant to search engines.
It is not only humans that will remember a short and accurate domain name better: Search engines do the same thing. Also this point here is just a reminder, and the better part of it has been covered in "Finding a domain name". Bottom line:
Everybody (including search engines) will rate an own domain name higher than an URL like "http://www.somehoster.com/your-business-name".
9) Frames: No, but….
Sometimes you just got to do it: Frames make navigation for humans very easy - for example you always have a navigation menu on the left side of your page and the right side of your page has the content. I strongly doubt that there are at this point still any web-browsers around that can not handle frames. This was an issue 5 years ago (which is about 35 years in dog- or technology years, so loooooong gone.)
Nevertheless: most search engines (yes: also the big ones) have trouble following links on pages that use frames. So if you must use frames, here is a work-around that I found works pretty well:

In your index.html file use the normal frameset commands:

- Make sure, you have the complete set of META tags defined, even if they will not show in your browser! Search engines will still see them!
See the footnote for an outline of how your index.html should look like.

- Define a <noframes> </noframes> section on that page. Nobody who's browser is supporting frames will ever see this section, because their browser will automatically show the menue.html and main.html file, but search engines look beyond the frameset command. Give them food:

- Put a detailed description of what your page is all about in the <noframes> section. Use html command to format the section as well: Yes: it will be noticed by crawlers: Most crawlers will rate a bold word or a word in <h1> tags higher than regular text!)

- Include a completely linked site map of your page. Crawlers will happily follow the links you provide on your site map, and index all pages linked from there.

Again: it is better, not to use frames at all, but the above tips will help you a great deal: It did the trick for me.
10) Check your success: Have an eye on your web counters and check the "referring pages" - Try out a lot: The search- and index algorithm used by search engines is changing all the time. The only things you can never go wrong with:
Loads of content, frequent updates, define tags, clean code.