Even SEO experts need updates to stay on top of changes in the world of search engine development (duh?!?). But for the rank and file developer or designer there are some very germaine and timely ways to optimize your website for search (Stay with me here!). So - here it is the latest 12 Top Tips for SEO:

1) Frames, Not Good - The debate on whether designing with frames is really stupid or whether its a freakin’ catastrophe continues. But you don’t gotta be a genius to know that if search engines have trouble getting sense from your content to index your pages then its time to smell the coffee. (Wake up stupid!)

2) Flash is Iffy - From an search engines point of view Flash is a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing - they cannot index content in a Flash file. So, a big tip here from Mommy Dearest - use it sparingly and with unimportant content!

3) Error Pages - Yes, look over your search engine crawl error reports to find out what exactly is the problem. Checking the error reports can help you find where Googlebot or other crawlers are dropping off of the edge of the Earth, and interestingly, this can help you find a solution to problems.

4) Robots.txt and sitemap files - Yes create and update these files because search engines feel good about your directions, and when they feel good, they help you.

5) Look at Googlebot activity reports - Googlebots tell on you all the time - you might as well look at what they are saying. Like how long it’s taking Googlebot to access your pages. If it is taking search engine crawlers too long time to index your page then they “bug out”.

6) Different Browswers - One of the best ways to see how your site looks to a spider is to look at your pages in a browser with image and JavaScript support disabled. Mozilla’s Firefox browser has a plug-in available called the “Web Developer Toolbar” that adds this functionality and a lot more to the popular standards-compliant browser.

7) HTML Navigation - Make sure your navigation is in HTML, not images. Pictures are worthless for search engine crawlers, but HTML is valuable and makes your links a text for search engines.

8) Check Images - This is another place search engines look (as if you wouldn’t know) but can’t see, they see only see your ALT text, IF you’ve provided it. (Well, DID you?!?! - Well?)

9) Unique Title and Meta description tags - yes, that’s your job. Any webmaster must be aware to use unique tags because duplicate tags for multiple pages don’t allow spiders to differentiate your content. If you run a search on your keywords then look at your competitors’ text that shows in the title bar for that window you can tell right away that this is a key place to include target keywords for your pages. (Get it????)

10) More HTML - Make sure important page elements are HTML - Spiders are looking at source code. Anything like a Flash movie, image, or multimedia component is probably invisible to spiders.

11) Target Keywords - Use the same keywords in your texts as well as tags and titles. You will not get found even for niche keywords unless you use the target keywords in your page content. (Well, I wouldn’t have to mention it if you already had your top 5 ranking, now would I?)

12) 404 error code - You don’t want to create a “custom error page” to replace the 404 error code page. Why? If you generate a custom error page then crawlers can spend time following broken links that they won’t know are broken. A 404 error page is recognized by spiders and they stop following links that generate this page instead of reporting you to Lord Google’s High Executioner.

Well that wraps up today’s attempt to make something out of you and your website. (Smirk!)

Yours Is Not To Reason Why,
Only to Consume and Pay Taxes on Petroleum,
And Then You May Die,
Arthur Browning