The Associated Pest

Introduction

As many of my regular readers know, I’m a web developer by day. One of the most common subjects my clients ask me about is SEO. I’ll admit, up until about a year or two ago I didn’t have a clue about most of it either. There never seemed to be anyone willing to just point me in the right direction. Everyone wanted to sell me their services and didn’t want teach me the nuts and bolts.

This page, which I hope to update from time-to-time, will serve multiple purposes. First it will serve as a summary of gathered wisdom. It will also serve as a repository of links to helpful articles, blogs and tutorials.

The Basics

Whether you’re starting fresh from the ground up or overhauling an existing site there are a few quick things you’ll want to start with. I’ve also included this flash piece I found at portfolio.com explaining how Google actually works.

These will all get more attention in the future, each with a post of thier own. We’re still just barely scraching the surface.

1. Meta Tags: This is the first step everyone should take to optimize their site.
2. Coding: The importance of H1, H2, H3, H4 tags. Optimizing img src and alt tags. When to use img replacement and SWFObject.
3. Redirects: Including NO WWW and 301’s
4. Incoming Links: What to look for, including what may be hurting you.
5. Outgoing Links: What to do and what to avoid
6. Cross Linking: The most important thing you’re probably not doing.
7. Javascript Links: Why JavaScript links must be removed and how to accomplish similar effects.
8. Pretty URLS: A discussion of site structuring and how to avoid penalizing your site.
9. Fresh Content: Often overlooked is the importance of adding fresh content on a regular basis.

Articles

• Search Engine Optimization (wikipedia.org)

Blogs

• Matt Cutts (Google Employee)
• Yahoo Search Blog
• Gary Price (Ask.com)

Tutorials

• The ABC’s of Google Optimization
• Step by Step Instructions

Summary

This is only the beginning. I put most of this info together in the course of just a week or two. In the coming weeks look for more in depth coverage of SEO. The bredth of this topic is far to great to cover in one post.

Contribute

Make this post better! Please contribute helpful info and links that may have been omitted. I will be updating this post every so often with your input. Questions are also encouraged! There is a lot to SEO and one sweep through won’t cut it. Your questions will let me know where I need to expand or clarify.

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