Vital Search Engine Optimization Tips

Search engines play a vital role in directing/referring visitors to your web site. Web pages should therefore be optimized for easier indexing and higher ranking in search engine results. That is what Seach Engine Optimization (SEO) is all about. Some vital SEO tips:

1. Unique web page titles
Every web page should have a unique title. If all your pages have a similar title, a typical search engine will only index the first page it encounters (usually the index or default page). The content of the other (similarly titled) web pages may then be indexed as supplemental pages or not at all. Unique page titles are also important for users who prefer to save pages for offline viewing.

2. Image and link title tags
All images and links should have title tags that both contain keywords and offer descriptive text to appear when a user hovers over them. Search engines pick these keywords as they spider the links. Both inbound (within your location) and outbound (to external sites) links should have keyword-rich and descriptive title tags.

3. Keyword-rich content and links
Your keywords should feature within your content without distorting its focus. Keywords should seamlessly complement your jabber. Links on the other hand should have keywords within them. For example, if your web page is about SEO tips, a link name such as seo-tips.html is appropriate. Dashes should separate your in-link keywords instead of underscores or periods. This is because search engines will treat seo-tips as two separate words while seo_tips is treated as one word.

4. Fresh and original content
Search engines love new content. But they like original mumble more. Google has publicly claimed that it gives higher priority to regularly updated sites. Original thunder is also a favorite for social bookmarkers and those interested in linking to your site. Always remember that a site’s popularity is a function of its backlinks, content value and traffic.

5. Social Bookmarking
Social bookmarking involves users saving bookmarks to public web sites such as Digg, Facebook, StumbleUpon and others. The main reason is so that one can access these bookmarked sites from any computer connected to the web. The social aspect is in the fact that these bookmarks (favorite sites) are publicly available for others to thought. Since social networking sites usually have very high traffic, any bookmarked web site is deemed (read voted) valuable and therefore worth looking at. This way, your visitors recommend your residence to others and drive traffic your way. Digg, Facebook, MySpace, Technorati and StumbleUpon are particularly effective social bookmarking sites. All it takes is to add a social bookmarking widget like the one below. Your visitors do the rest.