SEO Guide & Online Marketing Tips From The Best

If you build it, they won't come. Below is over 10 years worth of information and links I have collected on SEO that has really helped me with various clients and projects. Be sure to give me a vote above if this page helped.

• Ten things we know to be true
  A required reading for anyone thinking about getting into SEO.
  
  Also watch this video for perspective:
  
• Web Developers SEO Cheat Sheet
  The title of the link says it all. This is an excellent tool for any web developer looking to understand the code behind SEO.
• Search Engine Guidelines
  Take some of the guessing out of what you should and should not be doing in regards to search engine optimization on your website.
• Google Basics
  Learn more about Google crawling, indexing, serving. Also check out Matt Cutt's blog and Maile Ohye's blog.
• Title Tags
  Good advice on how best to approach your title tag.
• Meta Tags Description/Keyword
  A look into how Google handles meta tags. Google does not support the meta keywords tag. Also see their article titled "Meta Description Makeover" which is very helpful.
• Header Tags
  In Googles words "One way Google's algorithms determine the context of content on a page is by looking at the page's headings. The way semantic markup is used throughout a site, including h1, h2, and h3 tags, helps us to understand the priorities of a site's content. One should not fret, though, about every single H tag. Using common sense is the way to go." I interpret common sense as meaning, use em when you need em but dont use when it does not make sense for the page.
• Google Says Link
  "In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages." For me this is one the most relevent sentences Google has out there. Quite simple; Get links!
• How many links does Google allow? | Google Says
  "So how might Google treat pages with well over a hundred links? If you end up with hundreds of links on a page, Google might choose not to follow or to index all those links. At any rate, you're dividing the PageRank of that page between hundreds of links, so each link is only going to pass along a minuscule amount of PageRank anyway."
• Google Adwords Keyword Tool
  A nice free tool from Google to do some keyword research.
• Google - Change a domain recommendations
  Ever wonder how best to move your website to a new domain? This is what you need to read from Google.
• Google - Link Checked
  Check the incoming links to your website.

  Additional Search Operators:

  (link:www.example.org) - Will list a selection of the web pages that have links pointing to the Example.org home page.
  (SearchTerm inurl:www.example.org) - Searches for the search term within a domain you specify.
  (site:www.example.org) - Lists a sampling of example.org pages
  (site:example.org inurl:example.org)
  (site:example.org inurl:/path/somedirectory/) - Limited to one domain and a directory within that domain
  (site:example.org inurl:?this=that&car=sedan)
  (site:google.com filetype:html) - Search for a specific filetype within a site
  
• Google's URL Structure
  Google Webmaster Tools help page about URL structure.
• Google - Dynamic vs. Static Urls
  Understand how Google handles dynamic vs. static urls.
• Googles advice on linking
  Information on how Google looks at external links.
• Canonical Link Element
  Matt Cutts blog post on Canonical URLs. Also see Specify your canonical.
• Hidden Text / Content
  Googles perception of hidden content is really based around the websites "intent" and "accessibility." It's ok to show and hide content if you are doing it for the right reasons ie. not trying to trick Google.
• Google Report Card
  Google's SEO Report Card is an effort to provide Google's product teams with ideas on how they can improve their products' pages using simple and accepted optimizations. These optimizations are intended to not only help search engines understand the content of our pages better, but also to improve our users' experience when visiting our sites.
• Google - Technology
  Here is a glimpse of some key technologies and technical principles behind Googles products.
• Google Sitemap
  Let Google know about your new content or updates just as soon as they happen. Do not build a webpage without it. Yahoo and MSN have adopted this as well.
  » Google Sitemap Generators - A list from Google of 3rd party sitemap creation tools
  » Word Press Add on for Sitemap
  » Sitemap Tool - A free sitemap creation tool.
• Best Place To Put Ads
  Take it from Google, they know better than most anyone else in terms of the best place to put advertising on a webpage. They also go into the best place to put advertising on a forum.
• Google Website Optimizer
  A real game changer in my opinion in terms of radically improving the conversions for a sale page. I've used it with great results. It more than works.




The best placement of Ads on a webpage:

The best placement of Ads on a forum:


Check out my CSS page to see how I did the image effect. (lightbox)
• Trellian Keyword Discovery
  KeywordDiscovery compiles keyword search statistics from over 180 search engines world wide, to create the most powerful Keyword Research tool.
• Aaron Wall Videos
  Some very educational videos on search engine optimization by one of the internets foremost leaders, Aaron Wall. Great way to get started on learning how SEO works.
• 301 Redirects
  Learn more about 301 redirects and how to do it the right way as well as impacts on SEO.
• 25 Online Tools for Freelance Marketers
  Effective marketing doesn’t happen by accident. Targeting the right customers and crafting a message that’s not only eye-catching but also creates sales is both an art and a science. Checkout this great list of effective tools.
• Hittail
  HitTail is the only product that reveals in real time which keywords people use to find your website. When acted on, they can increase the natural search traffic to your website.
• Seomoz Ranking Factors
  An excellent resource on all the many factors that go into a web pages rankings. Many of the industries top experts weigh in here to give you some great pespectives. A must read for anyone looking to do search engine optimization on their website.
• Search Engine Forums
  Great place to learn, ask questions, and get insight into all sorts of stuff! Some even rumor Google operatives hang out there.
• Web Ranking Software
  advancedwebranking.com & webposition.com
• Text Links
  Text Link Ads to either buy or sell.
• Robots.txt Validator
  Make sure your Robots.txt file is all pimped out.
• Neat-O-Backlink Tool
  A cool free tool that lets you check the number of backlinks to your website as well as the anchor text used.
• Rich Snippets
  "With rich snippets, webmasters with sites containing structured content—such as review sites or business listings—can label their content to make it clear that each labeled piece of text represents a certain type of data."
• Schema.org - Google Schema.org FAQ
  "Schema.org is a collaboration by Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! to improve the web by creating a structured data markup schema supported by major search engines. On-page markup helps search engines understand the information on webpages and provide richer results. A shared markup vocabulary makes it easier for webmasters to decide on a markup schema and get maximum benefit for their efforts."
  Additional information - http://www.seomoz.org/blog/schemaorg-a-new-approach-to-structured-data-for-seo

Search Engine Directories To Submit To
* Ranked by order

Search Engine		Cost		Page Rank
Open Directory (DMOZ)		Free		8
Yahoo Directory		$299/year		6/7
Business.com		$199/year		7
Best of the Web		$199/life		7
Joe Ant		$40/life		6
Uncover The Net		$159/life		6
Sevenseek		$50/life		6
Go Guides		$40/life		5
Wow Directory		$40/life		5
Skaffe		$45/life		5
Gimpsy		$40/life		5
Web Beacon		$40/life		4

• Seocompany.ca
  A great list of search engine directories for you to consider submitting your website to.
• Strong Links
  Another list of search engine directories for you to consider submitting your website to.

Local Search:
Local listings are a great way for any new business to get established for local search within the major search engines. This should be a requirement for any business trying to attract local business. My recommendation is that you fill out as much info as possibly allowed and check in on the listing frequently. Utitlize any statistics and or user metrics local provides you to improve your interaction with visitors. If anything changes within your business such as new offerings update your local listings immediately. The best part is that local listings are totally free (for now at least)!

• Google Local
  Google Local Search.
• Bing (MSN) Local
  Bing Local Sign Up.
• Yahoo Local
  Yahoo Local Search.