While there most definitely is more to the subject and process of SEO (as evidenced by the several hundred pages in The SEO Bilble by Jerri Ledford), this a good streamlined list to compare your site against and get started optimizing. If you have any questions about search engine optimization or would like to optimize your website, please contact Applied Web Vitals anytime.

In the Myrtle Beach area? Join us for the Web Technology Discussion Group every Wednesday at 6PM.

SEO Punch List:

Page structure
- Great content
- URL, title, meta description, meta keywords
- Keyword/keyterm density ~5-7%
- Anchor text (incoming & outgoing)
- Image (file name, alt text, link)
- Formating (H1-2-3, Bold, Italics)
- Fresh content
- Great content (that’s right, first and last!)

Concerns
- Duplicate content
- Hidden content

Content generation
- Forums
- Blogs

Accessibility
- Splash page
- Navigation (text links)
- Flash vs. HTML
- Java Script
- ASP & PHP (dynamically built pages)

Inbound link strategy
- Press releases
- Requesting links
- Writing articles
- Web 2.0 contributions
- Affiliate programs
- PPC (pay-per-click) and Paid Links

Outbound link guidelines
- Relevant links to quality highly ranked sites
- Keyword anchor text
- Be ware of excessive links, including link directory pages
- Check frequently for broken links

Robots, Spiders and Crawlers
- Robot Exclusion Protocol (robot.txt)
- Robot Inclusion Protocol (sitemap.xml)

Podcast Topic: Blog Plugin Recommendations

Akismet: A discussion anti-spam plugin that utilizes a central and ever growing database. You will need to create a user account at wordpress.com to gain an API KEY that is required to activate the plugin.
All in One SEO Pack: Create custom page titles, meta description & meta keywords
- Also enable Permalinks in your blog settings and be sure to include the post name (%postname%). Permalinks in tandem with the All in One SEO Pack will produce keyword rich posts with keywords appearing in the page title, url, meta data, and of course the post body.
podPress: This plugin is a must-have for podcasting. It ads a flash audio (and video) player to your post when attaching a media file. In addition, it handles the RSS podcast feed options, including iTunes settings.
Ultimate Google Analytics: Track your blog site traffic with Google Anayltics. You’ll need to create an Analytics account at http://www.google.com/analytics/

Podcast Topic: Blog basics

• Hosting your own blog vs. free blog sites (like blogger.com and wordpress.com)
• Moderating comments
• Creating user accounts

Please return for future podcast episodes. We look forward to coving topics such as web design, content management systems, Internet marketing, search engine optimization, blogging and more…