Search Engine Optimisation

Best Practices Explanations

• Are the keywords that you are targeting not only relevant but also popular with searchers?

• Do your page titles lead with your targeted keywords?• Is your body copy of sufficient length and keyword-rich? • Does the anchor text pointing to various pages within your site

include good keywords?• Do you employ text links from your home page to your most

important secondary pages?• Does your Web site have an XML Sitemap, as well as an HTML site

map with text links?• Are the URLs of your dynamic (database-driven) pages short,

simple and static-looking?

Best Practices

• Does your site have an optimized internal linking structure? • Do your pages have keyword-rich meta descriptions with a

compelling call to action?• Does your site have a custom error page that returns the correct

“status code”?• Do your filenames and directory names include targeted

keywords?• Are you actively building links to your site?

Some Key Factorswww.seomoz.org/article/search-

ranking-factors

Top 5 Ranking Factors

• Keyword Focused Anchor Text from External Links – 73% very high importance

• External Link Popularity (quantity/quality of links) – 71% very high importance

• Diversity of Link Sources (links from many unique root domains) – 67% very high importance

• Keyword Use Anywhere in the Title Tag – 66% very high importance

• Trustworthiness of the Domain Based on Link Distance from Trusted Domains– 66% very high importance

Next 5 Important Factors

• Keyword Use in Internal Link Anchor Text on the Page– 47% moderate importance

• Keyword Use in External Link Anchor Text on the Page– 46% moderate importance

• Keyword Use as the First Word(s) in the H1 Tag– 45% moderate importance

• Keyword Use in the First 50-100 Words on the Page– 45% moderate importance

• Keyword Use in the Subdomain Name– 42% low importance

• Keyword Use in the Page Name URL– 38% low importance

On Page : Keyword Specific Factors

On Page Considerations

• Keyword Use Anywhere in the Title Tag– 66% very high importance

• Keyword Use as the First Word(s) of the Title Tag– 63% high importance

• Keyword Use in the Root Domain Name (e.g. keyword.com)– 60% high importance

• Keyword Use Anywhere in the H1 Headline Tag– 49% moderate importance

• Keyword Use in Internal Link Anchor Text on the Page– 47% moderate importance

• Keyword Use in External Link Anchor Text on the Page– 46% moderate importance

• Keyword Use as the First Word(s) in the H1 Tag– 45% moderate importance

• Keyword Use in the First 50-100 Words in HTML on the Page– 45% moderate importance

On Page Considerations

• Keyword Use in the Subdomain Name (e.g. keyword.seomoz.org)– 42% low importance

• Keyword Use in the Page Name URL (e.g. seomoz.org/folder/keyword.html)– 38% low importance

• Keyword Use in the Page Folder URL (e.g. seomoz.org/keyword/page.html)

• 37% low importance • Keyword Use in other Headline Tags (<h2> – <h6>)• 35% low importance • Keyword Use in Image Alt Text• 33% minimal importance

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On Page Considerations

• Keyword Use / Number of Repetitions in the HTML Text on the Page– 33% minimal importance

• Keyword Use in Image Names Included on the Page (e.g. keyword.jpg)– 33% minimal importance

• Keyword Use in <b> or <strong> Tags– 26% minimal importance

• Keyword Density Formula (# of Keyword Uses ÷ Total # of Terms on the Page)– 25% minimal importance

On-Page (Non-keyword factors)

On Page: Non-Keyword

• Existence of Substantive, Unique Content on the Page– 65% very high importance

• Recency (freshness) of Page Creation– 50% moderate importance

• Use of Links on the Page that Point to Other URLs on this Domain– 41% low importance

• Historical Content Changes (how often the page content has been updated)– 39% low importance

• Use of External-Pointing Links on the Page– 37% low importance

On Page: Non-Keyword

• Query Parameters in the URL vs. Static URL Format– 33% minimal importance

• Ratio of Code to Text in HTML– 25% minimal importance

• Existence of a Meta Description Tag– 22% very minimal importance

• HTML Validation to W3C Standards– 16% very minimal importance

• Use of Flash Elements (or other plug-in content)– 13% very minimal importance

• Use of Advertising on the Page– 11% very minimal importance

Page-Specific Link Popularity Ranking Factors

Links

• Keyword-Focused Anchor Text from External Links– 73% very high importance

• External Link Popularity (quantity/quality of external links)– 71% very high importance

• Diversity of Link Sources (links from many unique root domains)– 67% very high importance

• Page-Specific TrustRank (whether the individual page has earned links from trusted sources)– 65% very high importance

• Iterative Algorithm-Based, Global Link Popularity (PageRank)– 63% high importance

Links

• Topic-Specificity/Focus of External Link Sources (whether external links to this page come from topically relevant pages/sites)– 58% high importance

• Keyword-Focused Anchor Text from Internal Links– 55% high importance

Site Wide : Non-Link Based

Site Wide: Non-Link

• Site Architecture of the Domain (whether intelligent, useful hierarchies are employed)– 52% moderate importance

• Use of External Links to Reputable, Trustworthy Sites/Pages– 37% low importance

• Length of Domain Registration– 37% low importance

• Domain Registration History (how long it’s been registered to the same party, number of times renewed)

• Server/Hosting Uptime• 32% minimal importance

Site Wide: Non-Link

• Length of Domain Registration– 37% low importance

• Domain Registration History (how long it’s been registered to the same party, number of times renewed, etc.)– 36% low importance

• Server/Hosting Uptime– 32% minimal importance

• Hosting Information (what other domains are hosted on the server/c-block of IP addresses)– 31% minimal importance

Social Media

Social Media Related

• Delicious Data About the Domain or Page– 21% very minimal importance

• StumbleUpon Data About the Domain or Page– 19% very minimal importance

• Twitter Data About the Domain or Page– 17% very minimal importance

• LinkedIn Data About the Domain or Page– 15% very minimal importance

• Facebook Data About the Domain or Page– 12% very minimal importance

• MySpace Data About the Domain or Page– 11% very minimal importance

Search Engine Land - Worst Practices

Worst Practices

• Does your primary navigation require Flash, Java or Javascript to function?

• Is your web site done entirely in Flash or overly graphical with very little textural content?

• Is your home page a “splash page” or otherwise content-less? • Do the URLs of your pages include “cgi-bin” or numerous

ampersands? • Do the URLs of your pages include session IDs or user IDs? • Do you unnecessarily spread your site across multiple domains? • Are your title tags the same on all pages?

Worst Practices• Do you have pop-ups on your site?• Do you use “click here” or any other superfluous copy for your

hyperlink text? • Do you have superfluous text like “Welcome to” at the beginning

of your title tags? • Do you have any hidden or small text meant only for the search

engines? • Do you engage in “keyword stuffing”? • Do you repeatedly submit your site to the search engines?• Do you incorporate your competitors’ brand names in your meta

tags? • Do you have duplicate pages with minimal or no changes? • Are you submitting to (“Free For All”) link pages and farms?