Last month the IFRA asked me to write a "Top 10" style cover story on Search Engine Optimization. I had a great time putting this together and hope to work with IFRA in the future.

Below is the version of the story I submitted. Note: there are subtle differences to what was published and what was submitted - such as the spelling of Optimization.

Search Engine Optimization

Millions of people use search engines every day to find content on the web. By performing minor changes to the design of your site, you can increase your site's page rankings. This allows you to easily tap into a larger share of the search engine market.

Below I outline SEO (search engine optimization) tips that will naturally increase your results with search engines.

1. Content is King

Search engines attempt to yield results for pages that are the most relevant for the user. By far the single most important aspect of SEO is having relevant, compelling content. The content should be keyword rich, up to date, and interesting for the user.

2. Automation

To ensure consistent SEO results from day to day, page to page, and employee to employee, SEO principles should be built into the content management system. Realities dictate people will be more interested in meeting daily deadlines
than in checking for SEO details.

3. Page Title

Search engines most value keywords in the page titles. Page titles should be unique, include keywords for the page, the site's name, and if the site is regional, the region. One way to ensure uniqueness is for the CMS to build the page title with the page headline, site name, and region.

4. Cross Linking

Search engines get additional keywords for a page by the words used in the links to the page. Use your
site to your advantage by making extensive use of keyword rich cross links between sections and pages of your site.

5. Navigation on all pages

Make sure to have navigation on all pages. There should be no “dead” pages where the search engines, or user, will get stuck and not be able to continue browsing the site.

6. Do not use Link Farms

Do not attempt to gain links by either joining or linking to link farms. Search engines see this as a way to game the system and often punish sites who attempt this.

7. Meta Keywords / Descriptions

Use meta keyword and descriptions to complement the keywords for a page. However, do not stuff these fields with meaningless keywords. These fields are not as important as they used to be because of widespread abuse in the past. They should be limited to 6 to 12 words.

8. Alt Tags

Use alt tags to describe images. This will help search engines understand the contents of the image as well as assisting users who use text only browsers.

9. Site Maps

Site maps are used by search engines to quickly index the important pages of a site. Visit www.sitemaps.org for details on the search engine site map standard.

10. RSS Feeds

Search engines, like users, are able to learn what content is new and considered important by reading the RSS
feeds.

11. Redirects

Almost all redirects should be “301” permanent redirects. When a site uses the “302” temporary redirect, the search engine maintains separate page rankings for both the redirect and the redirected page. The “301” permanent redirect instructs the search engine to consider both pages to be the same page so the page ranking for both pages will be combined.

12. Visit site as a Search Engine

Occasionally visit your site with a legacy text only browser like Lynx. The results do not have to be pretty, however, if you can not find your relevant content, or navigate your site, then chances are the search engines will have very similar difficulties.

13. Google Webmaster Tools

Create a Google Webmaster Tools account (http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools). It is free and will allow
for the easy submission of site maps. The tool also offers insight to what search engines see when they crawl your site.

14. Google Webmaster Central

The web is full of old or misinformation about SEO techniques. Periodically visit http://www.google.com/webmasters/ to keep up with the latest changes of search engine optimization rules.

Site optimization for search engines is becoming increasingly important as the competition continue to optimize their sites for search engines. There is no single answer when it comes to search engine optimization. It is a multi-step process that needs to be monitored and updated over time. By following these easy guidelines, you should be able to increase your search engine presence and maximize your share of the search engine market.