50 SEO Tips and Tricks for Online Success

The majority of all SEO knowledge can be summed up through 50 tips and tricks. These SEO tips comprise 12 years of SEO evolution, professional insight, and proven results. The SEO tips range from basic concepts to advanced strategies. Work your way down the list, and when you complete it, and understand it, you will be armed with a productive skill set that can contribute to all future online marketing efforts.
#1: Use META tags for your Title, Description and Keywords. Keep META tags relevant to the content of each individual page.
#2: Don't try to optimize too many keywords on one page. Keep a narrow focus and keyword theme on a page by page basis
#3: Perform keyword research to identify phrases used to represent your products and services. Each page optimized to a unique word.
#4: Implement keyword-friendly title and alt attributes to links and images. Similarly, use keywords in your web page names.
#5: Include at least 1 outbound link to a non-competitive authority website in your industry. Google has made this point very clear.
#6: Google has declared that page-load speed will impact search engine ranking. Page load speed should be under 2 seconds.
#7: If you service only a local community, optimize your website for that community. Tap the local business tools for each search engine.
#8: Build an XML and HTML sitemap to ensure thorough search engine crawling. Free online sitemap resources can help you.
#9: For any page intended for SEO, include a minimum of 400 words per page. Make sure the content is supported by keyword research.
#10: Submit to more than only the Tier 1 search engines. Tier 2 search engines can drive traffic, and count as inbound links in some cases.
#11: Don't pass on "link juice" unless necessary. Use the [rel="nofollow"] attribute if you don't want link credit passed on.
#12: Build web pages and not list items [li]. Rather than displaying a list of services/products, dedicate a web page to each item.
#13: There is no such thing as a "duplicate content penalty." Google has confirmed. Factors other than content influence rank.
#14: The use of "301 redirects" are critical for transferring established ranking from an old website to a new web design.
#15: Never allow a 404 error. Implement error handling to bounce 404 errors back to your website. Consider turning a 404 into a 301.
#16: SEO friendly web design begins with keyword research. Keywords should influence domains, page names, tags/attributes & content.
#17: Many Tier 1 search engines factor in the age of a domain name when determining pagerank. It established business maturity.
#18: The length of time your domain is reserved can influence pagerank. A long registration period indicates long-term ambitions.
#19: When you engage in PPC, you can save money by not bidding on phrases where you already have strong organic rankings.
#20: Use Google Webmaster Tools to identify up-and-coming rankings. Optimize these search ranking impressions and watch them climb.
#21: Do not use a pure Flash or graphical home page. Always make sure you have a healthy amount of content and solid navigation.
#22: Don't like begging for inbound links? Try writing articles and submitting them to article submission sites. Target ~450 words.
#23: Implement keyword research when writing articles and newsletters. Host the content on your website with clean navigation.
#24: Regularly add new content to your website. Blogs, tips and articles work well. Search engines favor frequently updated sites.
#25: Use descriptive content for items in your shopping cart. Don't call it "item 13324". Utilize the "title" link attribute.
#26: Don't hyperlink generic text like "buy now" or "click here." Use keyword-based content in your links.
#27: Link quality is more important than link quantity. The sum of the inbound pagerank (link juice) is what matters.
#28: Fast site indexing for Google can occur through Google-owned media, including Blogger, Knol, Buzz, Google News, and You Tube.
#29: Maintain clean website code. Follow WC3 standards, fix broken links & images, remove 404 errors, no frames, use static URLs.
#30: Use the [strong] tag to emphasize targeted keywords. Use [b] for aesthetics, where the phrase is not targeted for ranking.
#31: Don't try to do too much with one web page. Likewise don't try to do too much with one website. Search engines want focus.
#32: The content around a link carries weight for the linked page. Be descriptive and integrate targeted keywords.
#33: Domain registrars sell ownership privacy protection. Don't buy it if interested in SEO! The search engines want transparency
#34: Search engines prefer fresh content over static. Fresh content can come from articles, blogs, site interaction & social media
#35: Human factors matter. SEO friendly efforts must also be human-friendly. Once you gain clicks, you still need to make the sale.
#36: Site ranking cannot be punished for bad inbound links. However it can be punished for linking to bad sites, such as link farms.
#37: Implement search-friendly URLs. Many shopping carts and CMS' use dynamic links that interfere with search engine indexing.
#38: Every web page should include a keyword-based headline tag [h1]. Maintain font size with style tags.
#39: Your [h1] tag should integrate the focus keywords used in your [TITLE] and [META] descriptions. Stick to a tight keyword theme.
#40: Google AdWords states that a "www" before your domain name increases clicks. Carry this through to SEO with canonicalization.
#41: Consider "article swapping" as a means for building inbound links. This technique not only builds links, but boosts content.
#42: You can optimize for more than websites. Depending on your business model, SEO can apply to video, audio, images and articles.
#43: Be patient with SEO. It may take weeks for SEO changes to take effect. Make sure prior changes take root before changing again.
#44: While Google pagerank does not directly impact your keyword ranking, it influences how often and how deep your site is indexed.
#45: Search engine spiders may see "http://WWW.domain.com" and "domain.com" as 2 separate websites, therefore cutting link-juice in half.
#46: If one page has 2 links pointing to the same location, Google only considers the text and attributes of the first link.
#47: If you sell physical products, publish them in Google Products. Implement descriptive keyword phrases in your XML posts.
#48: If you sell products, create merchant accounts with Yahoo Shopping, Amazon, eBay, etc. Let those resources work for you.
#49: Change web pages that consistently rank poorly. [META], [TITLE] and even content. Without improvement, change every 3-4 months.
#50: Build a few web pages for experimental purposes. See how ranking responds to specific tweaks. Log your finding and progress.