SEO Health Check For Your Website

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) can be defined as applying
techniques to a website and its content to get the highest possible
placements on search engines.

Different types of listings are displayed in the result pages of
search engines, including paid inclusion, pay-per-click advertisements
and organic search results.

Effective use of SEO can increase the quantity and quality of visitors to your website.

Each website has its own target market. Directories and periodicals
may look to attract a broad range of visitors covering a wide scope of
interests though most sites target a specific type of visitor looking
for a specific product or service. This is where focussed SEO
strategies can deliver prospects to the point of sale and generate
convertible sales enquiries.

The importance of having a good search engine placement cannot be
emphasised too heavily. A retail comparison would be the difference
between having a gift shop located in a side street with no passing
trade or operating within a city centre retail quarter with thousands
of potential customers passing by each hour of the day.

There are many techniques used to achieve improved search engine
placements though search engines regularly change their algorithms -
the formulas used to calculate search engine placements - so small site
adjustments should continually be experimented with to maintain and
improve a position.

Here are some SEO essentials to check your site against:

1. Title tags should be written in a creative way. They should be
   written around the keywords chosen to draw in the ideal visitor. It is
   the most important optimisation tag of a web site.
2. Carefully select the words and phrases to be assigned to Alt
   attributes. Alt attributes or "tags" are used to render text where the
   element itself cannot be rendered such as images on a hand-held device
   or screen readers for visitors with disabilities. The text chosen for
   the alt tag should describe the image or element and contain a key
   phrase.
3. Manage keyword density. Keyword density is the percentage occupied
   by keywords or keyword phrases in a web page. Ideally, keywords are
   used once in the title tag, the heading tag, and in bold text. Keywords
   should be placed in the first twenty words of the main copy and key
   phrases should be liberally inserted throughout the text though,
   over-egging the pudding could leave you penalised by search engines so
   don't go potty!
4. Determine the appropriate page size for the site. Speed is a vital
   element to the success of a site, and it important to both online
   visitors and the search engines. It is recommended to limit web pages
   to under 15K.
5. Content is king and should be added to the site regularly. Keep it
   concise, authoritative and relevant to your subject and intended
   visitor.
6. Inbound links are vital and the more credible and relevant the
   source, the better. It's of little use having a link to your architect
   partnership from the local tennis club. There's no relevance. It would
   be much better to have links to an established buildings surveyor or
   land agent. The more established the site linking to you, the greater
   credibility afforded to you by the search engines.
7. Make the site design attractive to the viewer. All efforts in
   optimisation will be wasted if the site is poorly designed. There
   should be more text content than (x)html content in the web site.
   Viewers should be able to use the pages in all major browsers and
   JavaScript and Flash should be used sparingly.
8. Stay away from the black hat techniques. Using them may serve you
   in the short term but could incur a blacklisting by search engines.
   Spamming is definitely a bad idea. The following dodgy techniques are
   considered evil and will ruin your business: doorway and identical
   pages, tiny or invisible text, cloaking, usage of keyword phrases in
   author tags etc.

Be aware that a good SEO campaign is planned over a reasonable
period of time. Nothing happens overnight and the best SEO is
sustainable and offers steady and manageable progression.

Beware of SEO companies who offer "Number One Search Engine Placements Within Ten Days":

• No one can offer guarantees of number one placements
• The phrase would have to be so obscure no one would search under it
• There is a good chance that this is a Black Hat operation and your business will suffer.

Article Source: http://www.theukarticledirectory.co.uk