Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a very complicated and delicate science. Unfortunately, not many people understand how search engines like Google rank websites. However, there are some basic things that one should concentrate on to improve SEO, the quality, and the quantity of traffic on a website.
1) Valid XHTML/CSS
Make sure your site source code is valid and you use proper semantics. A valid source code helps spiders better index your site, This improves your SEO performance by getting your site a slight increase in rankings even without considering content.
You can validate your site to see if it follows W3C standards at W3C.
2)Site Title tags
Make sure your site pages have site title tags and the title tags are unique on every page. While many people assume this and forget to put title tags, site title tags are weighed heavily by search engines.
3)Fix Broken Links
You should check out for any broken links and fix them if you find any. Broken links increase the download time of a site. They are turn-offs to crawlers and web visitors.
4)Site Navigation
Your site navigation should be simple and you should interlink your pages. Do not use frames, flash, or image links, especially on your site’s home page. They make it difficult for crawlers to crawl your site.
5)Avoid duplicate content
Content is said to duplicate when the same content is accessible from two different URLs. Concentrate on unique and fresh content, crawlers love fresh content!
6)Header tags
You should make use of header tags i.e. H1, H2, and H3 which are important as Site Title Tags.
7)Search Engine Submission
While many people invest in search engine submission software or services, you should submit your site to search engines yourself. If you order thousands auto submitted directory submissions, google or any other search engine might penalize you. And you should submit to relevant search engines and directories.
8)Sitemap
Build a sitemap for your site and submit it to all major search engines. A site map helps spiders crawl pages more quickly.
9)Use and check robots.txt
Make use of robots.txt to ban certain pages from being indexed. However, while doing this, double-check to ensure that relevant pages are not banned from being accessed by crawlers.
Always keep these simple tips in mind whenever launching a new site. Even if you have an old blog that you wish to monetize, optimize, or advertise on, try these tips.
Happy selling
