| Metatags |
|---|
| 35 |
Metatag
<keywords> |
The <keywords> metatag also matters, as with most metatags it usually gets minimal, if any, attention from
Google. It does appear to get attention from MSN and Yahoo! Keep the metatag content reasonable -- 10 to 25 keywords at most.
Don't stuff the <keywords> tag with words that you don't have on the page content.
|
+1 |
| 36 |
Metatag
<description> |
Metatags are becoming less and less important but there are metatags that still matter and should be used. These are the
metatags <description> and <keywords>. Use the <description> metatag to write
the description of your site. Besides the fact that metatags still carry quite a bit of weight on MSN and Yahoo!,
the <description> metatag has one more advantage -- it usually pops in the description of your site in search
results.
|
+1 |
| 37 |
Metatag
<language> |
If your site is language-specific, don't leave this tag empty. Search engines have other sophisticated ways of determining
the language of a page, but the <language> metatag is still considered.
|
+1 |
| 38 |
Metatag
<refresh> |
The <refresh> metatag is one way to redirect visitors from your site or webpage to another. Only consider this
if you have recently migrated your site to a new domain and you need to temporarily redirect visitors. When used for an extended
period, the <refresh> metatag is regarded as unethical practice and this can hurt your ratings. Redirecting
through .htaccess or similiar 301 is much better.
|
-1 |
| Content |
|---|
| 39 |
Frequency of content change |
Frequent changes are favored. It is great when you constantly add new content. Making small updates to exisiting content is
still positive, but is only minimally scored.
|
+3 |
| 40 |
Unique content |
Having more content (relevant content, which is different from the content on other sites both in wording and topics) can be
a real boost for your site's rankings.
|
+3 |
| 41 |
Keywords font size |
When a keyword in the document text is a larger font size in comparison to other on-page text, this makes it more
noticeable. It is therefore usually considered more important than the rest of the text. The same applies to headings
<h1>, <h2>, etc., which generally are in larger font size than the rest of the text.
|
+2 |
| 42 |
Keywords formatting |
Bold (<b> or <strong>) and italic (<i> or <em>) are another
way to emphasize important words and phrases. However, use bold, italic and larger font sizes within reason because you might
achieve just the opposite effect.
|
+2 |
| 43 |
Age of the document |
Recent documents (or at least regularly updated ones) are usually favored and lend more weight.
|
+2 |
| 44 |
File size |
Generally long pages are not favored, or at least you can achieve better rankings if you have 3 short rather than 1 long
page on a given topic, so split long pages into multiple smaller ones.
|
+1 |
| 45 |
Content separation |
From a marketing point of view content separation (based on IP, browser type, etc.) might be great for visitors, but for SEO
it is bad. When you have one URL containg differing content, search engines can get confused as to what the actual content
of the page is.
|
-2 |
| 46 |
Poor coding and design |
Search engines say that they do not want poorly designed and coded sites. There are hardly any sites that are banned
because of messy code or ugly images, but when the design and/or coding of a site is poor, the site might not be indexable
at all. Poor code and design could harm your site quite a bit.
|
-2 |
| 47 |
Cloaking |
Cloaking is another illegal technique, which partially involves content separation because spiders see one page
(which is highly-optimized of course), and everybody else is presented with another version of the same page. Again,
don't be surprised when caught.
|
-3 |
| 48 |
Illegal content |
Using other copyrighted content without permission or using content that promotes illegal, banned, or questionable content
can get you kicked out of search engines.
|
-3 |
| 49 |
Invisible text |
This is a black hat SEO practice and when spiders discover that you have text specially for them but not for humans,
don't be surprised by the penalty.
|
-3 |
| 50 |
Duplicate content |
Your site may, on the outside, appear to be larger when you have the same content on several pages on your site, but that's
when the duplicate content penalty kicks in. To a lesser degree duplicate content typically applies to pages that reside on
other sites but obviously these cases are not always banned -- take for example article sites, directories, or mirror sites.
They do exist and prosper.
|
-3 |
| 51 |
Doorway pages |
Creating pages that aim to trick spiders that your site is a highly relevant one when it is not, is another way to get the
boot and removal from search engines.
|
-3 |
| Visual Extras and SEO |
|---|
| 52 |
Images in text |
Having a text-only site is so boring but having many images and no text is a SEO sin. Always provide a meaningful
description of an image in the <alt> tag but do not stuff it with keywords or irrelevant information.
|
0 |
| 53 |
JavaScript |
If used wisely, it will not hurt. But if your main content is displayed through JavaScript, this can make it more difficult
for spiders to follow, especially if your JavaScript code is a mess. Messy code can definitely hurt your ratings.
|
0 |
| 54 |
Podcasts and videos |
Podcasts and videos are becoming more and more popular but as with all non-textual goodies, search engines usually can't
read them. If you don't have the tapescript of the podcast or the video, it is as if the podcast or movie is not there
and it will not be indexed by search engines.
|
0 |
| 55 |
Images instead of text links |
Using images instead of text links is generally bad, especially when you don't fill in the <alt> tag. But
even if you fill in the <alt> tag, it is not the same as having a bold, underlined, 16-pt. link. Use images
for navigation with care, in moderation, and only if it is really vital for the graphic layout of your site.
|
-1 |
| 56 |
Flash |
Spiders typically don't index the content of Flash movies, so if you use Flash on your site, don't forget to give it an
alternative textual description.
|
-2 |
| 57 |
Frames |
Frames can be very, very bad for SEO. Avoid using them unless really necessary and even then, keep it to a bare minimum.
|
-2 |
| 58 |
A Flash home page |
Fortunately this epidemic seems to have come to an end. Having a Flash home page (and sometimes whole sections of
your site) with no HTML version, is SEO suicide. Don't do it!
|
-3 |
