SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process of making a web site most receptive to what the major search engines want to ensure a high ranking.
The highest positions in the search engines bring in the most traffic to your web site that in turn leads to more conversions and more money.
In the following you will be provided with a SEO checklist that you should check to see if your site can perform very well in the search engine result pages. You can work online with this list and check the checkbox adjoining each point for every completed task, however, javascript and cookies must be enabled for this to work.
When you are finished with the SEO checklist, go and promote your online business, start by obtaining one-way links. If your PR has still not been updated, go and submit to the directories at this regularly updated list of web diretories.
Whenever you feel something is missing, tell us using the suggestion form.
Factors that affect search engine ranking positively
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SEO Factor
Brief Information
Keyword in Domain Name/URL
Main Keyword(s) should always appear in the URL and if possible in the domain name. For instance instead of naming a file "list1.html", name it "life-insurance-list.html".
Keyword in Title
Main keyword should be as close to the beginning as possible. Don't stuff your title though! Don't use special characters.
Keyword in Meta Description Tag
Use 1 to 2 reasonable sentences in your meta description and use your keywords at least once. Anyway this tag is not that important anymore.
Keywords Meta Tag
Though Google does not put much value on this tag anymore, others do. Don't use more than about 10 keywords. Don't repeat any single word more than twice!
Keyword Density in the body
There is no recommended or perfect keyword density, but don't use more than 15% to 20% per main keyword.
Keywords in header tags
It's very relevant to use your keywords in header tags. Most important is H1, then follow H2, and H3. The others are proably not that important.
Keyword proximity
The closer the keywords are, the better they might rank.
Order of key phrases
Try to order your keywords so that they form key phrases that might be queried for more often in search engines.
Keyword frequency
The most important main keyword should be repeated more than the others. However, don't spam the keyword in nonsensical points.
Keyword prominence
The earlier the main keyword appears on the page, the higher its relevance.
Keyword in ALT and TITLE tags
Describe the image and if possible with one of the main keywords, however, never spam the ALT tag, this is a common SEO mistake!
Keyword Anchor Text
Try to have keywords in your inbound anchor texts, that are links that direct to subpages of your site.
Keyword Stemming
Stem your keywords. Use singular, plural, past forms, etc.
Keyword Semantics
Make use of synonyms and don't spam your site with one and the same keyword.
No excessive deep linking
Check that all your pages can be reached with no more than 3 or 4 clicks!
Page to Page Linking
Try to link to appropriate subpages from a related subpage.
Domain Name Extension
.EDU and .ORG seem to be very important. For any .COM domain it is a little more difficult to prove trustworthiness and relevance due to the huge amount of spamming sites.
File Sizes
Never exceed more than 100kb per page. Try to keep below 40kb per page. Small pages seem to be more useful.
Hyphenate file names
This is the favored method to substitute spaces. Do never use more than 4 words in the file name, as this indicates spam.
Fresh and new contents
Every search engines, esp. Google loves new and regularly updated contents, so do your visitors!
Total length of URL
Keep it at a minimum. That does not mean that you should not use mor than 60 characters, but don't excessively use folders for any information.
