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SEO Checklist
There are "over 100 SEO factors" that search engines use to rank pages in the searchresults (SERPs). Here is the popular speculation - educated guesses. Because these rulesare ever-changing, one of the biggest parts of SEO is continued maintenance. What mayhelp you today may hurt you tomorrow.
POSITIVE ON-Page SEO Ranking Factors
Note: The term "Keyword" below refers to the "Keyword Phrase", which can be oneword or more.
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Keyword in URL - First word is best, second is second best, etc.
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Keyword in domain name - Same as in page-name-with-hyphens
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Keywords – Header
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Keyword in title tag
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Keyword in Title tag - close to beginning
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Title tag 10 - 60 characters, no special characters
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Keywords in description and Meta tag - Shows theme
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Less than 200 chars.
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Google no longer relies upon this tag, but frequently uses it.
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Keywords in keyword Meta tag - Shows theme
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Less than 10 words.
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Every word in this tag MUST appear somewhere in the body. If not, it willbe penalized for irrelevance.
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NO single word should appear more than twice in the Meta tag as it isconsidered spam.
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Google purportedly no longer values this tag, but others do.
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Keywords – Body
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Keyword density in body text - 20% (all keywords/ total words)
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Individual keyword density 6% - (each keyword/ total words)
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Keyword in H1, H2 and H3 - Use H1 font style
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Keyword font size - In strong, bold, italic, etc.
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Keyword proximity (for 2+ keywords) - Adjacent is best
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Keyword phrase order - Anticipate query - match word order.
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Keyword prominence (how early in page/tag) - Most important at top of page, in bold, in large font
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Keywords – Other
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Keyword in alt text
Should describe graphic - Do NOT fill with spam
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Keyword in links to site pages (anchor text)
NAVIGATION - INTERNAL LINKS
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Link should contain keywords.
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The filename "linked to" should contain the keywords.
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Use hyphenated filenames, but not long ones.
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All internal links valid.
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Continually validate all links to all pages on site.
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Efficient - tree-like structure
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Two clicks to any page - no page deeper than 4 clicks
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Intra-site linking
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Appropriate links between lower-level pages
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Breadcrumb style links where possible.
NAVIGATION - OUTGOING LINKS
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Link only to good sites. Do not link to link farms.
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Outgoing link Anchor Text - Should be on topic, descriptive.
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Link stability over time - Avoid "Link Churn"
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All external links valid - Validate all links periodically.
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Less than 100 links out total
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Google says limit to 100, but readily accepts 2-3 times that number.
OTHER ON-Page Factors
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Domain Name Class
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.edu seem to be given the highest status
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.org sites seem to be given high status
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.com sites excel in encompassing all the spam/ crud sites, resulting in theneed for the highest scrutiny/ action by Google.
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File Size
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Absolutely do not exceed 100K page size.
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Small files preferred <40K (lots of them).
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Hyphens in URL
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Preferred method for indicating a space, where there can be no actual space
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One or two= excellent for separating keywords
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Four or more= BAD, starts to look like spam.
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Ten = Spammer for sure, demotion probable?
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Freshness of Pages - Changes over time
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Newer the better - if news, retail or auction!
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Google likes fresh pages.
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Freshness - Amount of Content Change
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New pages - Ratio of old pages to new pages
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Frequency of Updates - Frequent updates = frequent spidering
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Page Theme - Page exhibit theme? General consistency?
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Keyword stemming - Stem, stems, stemmed, stemmer, stemming, stemmist,stemification.
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Applied Semantics - Synonyms
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URL length - Keep it minimized - use somewhat less than the 2,000 charactersallowed by IE - less than 100 is good, less even better
OTHER ON-SITE Factors
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Site Size - Google likes big sites
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Larger sites are presumed to be better funded, better organized, betterconstructed, and therefore better sites.
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Site Age (URL AGE) - Old is best.
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Age of page vs. age of site
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Age of page vs. age of other pages on site
Negative ON-Page SEO Ranking Factors
This is list of things to avoid when designing and/or grooming a site for SEO. Keep inmind that a lot of these items are not only unhelpful but in some cases they can beharmful to page rank.
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Text presented in graphics form only.
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No ACTUAL body text on the page.
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Text represented graphically is invisible to search engines.
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Affiliate site are not all good.
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Recent Google updates went after affiliates with a vengeance.
Avoid flower, real-estate and travel affiliates.
Avoid cookie-cutter sites with massive inter-linking, but littleunique content.
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Link to a bad neighborhood
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Don't link to link farms, FFAs (Free For Alls)
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Don't forget to check the Google status of EVERYONE you link toperiodically. A site may go "bad", and you can end up being penalized,even though you did nothing.
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Redirect thru refresh metatags - Don’t immediately send your visitor to anotherpage other than the one he/ she clicked on.
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Vile language
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Ethnic slurs
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Foul language.
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