SWARM PROJECT SEO CHECK LIST

Positive Search Engine Optimization Factors - Basic

Site URL

Include the keywords in the URL but keep it short!

http://www.YourSite.com/SEOkeyword.html

Site maps

Include a sitemap

Site navigation

Navigation links should be text links and include keyword

Site structure

Allow access to any page in two clicks

Do not have pages more than 2 clicks away from home page

URL length

Keep URLs to less than 100 characters

Age of site

Sites that have existed for a long time are favored

If you have been in the game longer it helps

Size of site

Add lots of quality content

The more "quality" content the better

Unique IP address

It is better to have your site on a unique dedicated IP

Bigger, better sites invest into their own IP address

Meta tags

Site title tag

Include SEO keywords at beginning of title

Short relevant title, max 60 characters

Site description meta tag

Include SEO keywords in meta description field

Max of 200 characters in description

Site keywords meta tag

Include SEO keywords in meta keywords

Max of 5 keywords per page

HTML tags

H1 header

Include SEO keywords in H1 header

Use H1 font style

H2 header

Include SEO keywords in H2 header

Use H2 font style

Body text

Keyword density

Ensure that SEO keyword shows up in body text

Do not exceed 5% threshold

Keyword style

Bold, italics, underlined

Show SEO keyword in each style

Keyword prominence

Keywords at the top count more

Include SEO keyword in bold towards top of copy

Keyword stemming

Include related keywords

Use a thesaurus

Images

Image alt text

Include SEO keywords in alt text

Describe image, do not spam, include if not appropriate

Internal linking

Use text links

Include SEO keyword in anchor text

Where appropriate include SEO keyword in link text

Cross-linking

Have links from your internal sites to other sites

On topic cross linking

Have links from topic pages to sub-topic pages

E.g. link from "Learn to play guitar" to "Learn guitar chords," etc.

Outbound linking

Quality links

Link to quality, authority, on topic sites

Never link to poor quality sites or link farms

Validate links

Ensure that links are valid

Text links

Always use text links

Have descriptive anchor text

Page content

Keep pages fresh

Ensure that page is updated, new content is added

Google in particular likes fresh content

Keep site fresh

Add new content and pages over time

Negative Search Engine Optimization Factors - Basic

Site structure

Use of frames

Do not use frames, use tables

Splash pages

Don't start out with a splash page

Splash pages are very bad for SEO

Dynamic URLs

Dynamic URLs are bad

Drop down navigation

Don't use drop down navigation, use text links

Graphics

Minimize flash

Flash is not indexed by spiders

Minimize images

Image files don't help with SEO

Image text

Never display text such as headers in images

Search engines cannot read image files

SEO penalties

Balance is the key to SEO! Don't go over board!

Title tag

Don't repeat keyword in title

Keyword tag

Don't repeat same keyword

Keyword description

Don't repeat same keyword

Body text

Don't exceed keyword density of 5%

Excessive cross-linking

If you have many sites don't have too many cross links

Keyword dilution

Pick one keyword phrase per page only

Constant changes

Constant changes are artificial, for SEO only

Bad linking practices

Link farms

Don't link to spammy sites such as link farms

Redirects

Don't automatically sent visitors to another page

Single pixel links

Why would you have this? Only the bad guys do

Javascript

Don't use javascript redirects for links

Bad language

Profane language

Keep it clean

Sneaky practices

Single pixel links

Why would you have this? Only the bad guys do

Invisible text

Don't add your keywords as invisible text

Search engines see this and don't like it!

Duplicate content

Make sure your content is unique

Never copy and paste content from articles, etc.

Positive Search Engine Optimization Factors- Advanced

Authority sites

PageRank of site

Get links from on topic sites with a high page rank

The higher the PR the better

PageRank of page

Get links from specific pages on site with a high PR

Topic of site

Theme of site / page

Get links from related sites only

Expert sites

Some sites are deemed to be "domain experts"

Getting links from expert sites is a big boost!

Link Structure

Text links

Include your keyword in the text links

Anchor text

text links with relevant and rich descriptions are better

Age matters

The older the link, the more valuable it is

Link Acquisition

The more links the better

The more quality links you get the better

Build links gradually

Don't build links too fast or it might look artifical

Links on page

Getting links from pages that have fewer links is better

Position of link on page

The higher up your link, the better

Directory listings

DMOZ

Get your site listed in www.dmoz.org

Get site listed in the right category

Yahoo! Directory

Get your site listed in the Yahoo! directory

Listing costs $299 per year

Wikipedia

Get your site listed as an external resource

Great good content sites to be an external resource

Negative Search Engine Optimization Factors - Advanced

Link structure

Change of anchor text

Why would a site change the link text?

Only for SEO so it is bad

Link buying

If you are caught

Link buying corrupts Google algorithm

Buying links from related sites can work but DON'T get caught

Sneaky pracices

Cloaking

Presenting one link to spiders and a different site to users is a big no no

Inbound Links

Bad neighborhoods

Don't collect links from link farms, etc.

©2007 Toni Shrader