Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tips and Techniques [Page 7]

Miscellaneous tips for organic (free) search engine optimization

1. Earlier we mentioned that Google likes header tags (h1,h2,h3) because they help identify webpage subject matter. Using the same reasoning, some SEO experts suggest bolding one or two keyword phrases on each page to make them stand out.
2. Try slowly mousing over this link. Adding the "title" attribute to link tags gives Google some additional information about the target page relevancy. Here's the code:
    
   
   <a href="index.html" title="Search Engine Optimization Page">this link</a>
    
   
3. Choose just one subdomain for your website. In other words, use either "MySite.com" or "www.MySite.com", but not both. Redirect traffic from the unused domain, and you'll build stronger primary domain recognition, which is beneficial to search engine optimization. Here's some useful code that you can place in an .htaccess file or the apache configuration file of your server:
    
   
   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^clicktropolis\.com
   RewriteRule (.*) http://www.clicktropolis.com/$1 [R=301,L]
    
   This is how I redirect all "clicktropolis.com" requests to "www.clicktropolis.com". Just swap the www. if you want to do the reverse. Obviously, you'll want to change the domain name to your own.
    
   *The exception to my "one subdomain" rule would be if your site encompasses multiple/divergent topics. In that case, creating special subdomains for special subjects would be wise. For example, "seo.clicktropolis.com" and "telemarketing.clicktropolis.com". If you do this, keywording the subdomain has SEO value.
4. Create a page on AboutUs.com - it's a free link from a quality site, which never hurts search engine optimization. And Google seems to like websites that are upfront about who they are.
5. Create a privacy policy and link to it from all your pages. The Adwords documentation states that one component of it's quality score is whether your landing page discloses how you use a customer's private information. This implies that Google's natural search ranking might also consider the existence of a privacy policy. Whether or not it's a big component, I don't know - but how hard is to to create a simple privacy policy and put a link to it on your pages?
6. Host your website in your own/target country. Geolocation of IP addresses is a simple matter these days, and Google is unlikely to display websites in countries that don't match the IP address of the searching party. Furthermore, make sure your TLD (e.g. ".com" or ".net") corresponds to your target country. For example, use .com/.net/.org for the US, ".co.uk" for the UK, ".ca" for Canada, ".cn" for China, etc.
7. Do NOT submit your website to link farms or low quality directories. If you see any service offering to submit your site to hundreds of directories and search engines, stay away - do not be tempted. Inbound links from non-relevant sources will only hurt you.
8. Do submit your website to high quality directories related to your business type. The only general directories I might recommend at this point are Yahoo Directory (paid) and DMOZ.org (free, but don't hold your breathe for inclusion). For either, be sure to submit to the proper category.
    
   Your particular industry may also have respected associations/organizations that maintain directories of members. That sort of directory is usually beneficial to be listed in.