Hey, further to what David had to say, here's a few tips and hints for search engines in 2008.
1) Separate Style from content.
If you are developing sites which aren't separating content from style, or are not using web standards then your search engine efforts are suffering. Web spiders have a much easier job crunching content which isn't surrounded by heavy multiple embedded tables. The benefits are multiple. You will get spidered faster, as well as having less load on your servers. On heavier sites it can sometimes take multiple crawls to get your site fully indexed. Make it easy as you can on them, through the use of light standards compliant HTML and CSS style sheets.
2). Tag based SEO.
Ok, so you have created a beautiful CSS based site. Is it semantic? Get heading tags in the right place. Place your keyphrases inside H1, H2, H3 tags etc etc, put it in <b>bold</b> tags at least one. Mention your phrase once or twice in your main content, Naturally. No keyword stuffing. Place it once in the description, and have a few variations figured out for your description and meta keyword tags. Title tags are also extremely important. Remember Title and Description tags are your "entry points", in other words they are the first thing that a potential visitor will see when they are searching for your keyword term. Your title and description tag should be written with the same care and attention that you pay to existing PPC adverts.
Use keywords wisely, and write these for humans. Tempt them in with Beautiful widgets perfect for x. Rather than - Beautiful widgets, sexy widgets, widgets for your granny..Looks too spammy, both for human visitors and for the search engines, I'd be more inclined to click on the first result.
3). On site Linking.
Use keyword linking inside your site. That means cross linking heavily to alternate pages on your site internally first and foremost. Let the search engines no what keywords is relevant for what page. Link text and <a title="" are your weapons of choice here.
4). Incoming Links.
Get as many as these as is humanly possible. That means begging for them if you have to. Get your site into the major directories. DMOZ, Yahoo. etc. When you have done that, get yourself over to Vilesilencer. Start working your way through that list to start with. Do 10 directories every month. Wait two weeks, rinse and repeat. You dont want the search engines to freak out at the speed that links are appearing for your site. Alternate your link text with each directory, for example have 5-10 different phrases you wish to rank for and vary them for each link you drop. Again, you dont want the spiders to think you are Googlebombing.
5) Start a blog
Get yourself a blog. Why? Blogs are loved by search engines because they are a source of fresh content. They are the key to them breaking stories on Google news for example. Think of a blog as a realtime website which is representative of either society or industry at a particular time. Hence relevant, non stagnating content. Start trading links with other bloggers, if you can. Start reading and posting relevant comments on other peoples blogs. This gives a link back to your blog.
6) Start writing content for your blog.
One post a day. Easy does it. Make sure you are writing really really good content that is likely to attract links. Learn how to write the titles of blog posts to attract links from people. Create linkbait which will get you maximum exposure, and ultimately new links. Good content will continue to acquire links naturally over time.
7). Start writing content for other people
You can get quality backlinks from various websites by contributing quality content.
8). Be passionate.
If you aren't passionate about your topic, site or business. No one else is going to be, nor are you going to be able to generate worthy content on your site. So get off your ass and start promoting. Get your site on bumper stickers (give to friends and family). Paint on the windows of your house. Do whatever it takes to get noticed.
9). Social bookmarking, and social networking.
These can be powerful in getting subscribers, and in getting your good content noticed. Dont expect the visitors to stick around long, so optimise your landing pages. Social bookmarking can get you listed in the search engines extremely quickly, (within 24 hours). So you can only imagine how frequently DIGG gets spidered. Use social bookmarking tools to promote any linkbait you create.
10). Analyse.
Get yourself Google analytics, and feed the search engines with the phrases and keywords that your visitors are finding you with. Rinse and repeat.
11). Site Structure
Make sure you point all links to the same homepage URL, or you will leak page-rank, get yourself a sitemap, which will map out your blog content so its easier to crawl. If your site is a blog you should also consider showing all of the posts within each category in some shape or form. For both traditional websites and blogs
consider naming directories utilizing keywords.
12). Spend time keyword researching
Brainstorm for keywords: spend some time finding out how people are searching for your topic/products. It's not always what you expect. Weave these products and keywords into your copy and copywriting ideas.
13). Domain name
Keyword domains are out, easily branded memorable domains are in. No one wants to visit your-spammy-keyword-here.com, and the search engines will mostly likely flag these as spam when they detect this in the URL. Keep your URL as short as possible, and if possible get a domain that will attract direct type in traffic (for example business.com or similar). You will however have to fork out for these. Spend a bit of time working on domain branding to come up with cheaper alternatives.
14). Trust
You want your site to be deemed trustworthy, likewise you would want your visitors to do the same. So going around spamming people's comments on blogs with your keywords is not going to do you any favours. Far better to build on your trust by providing useful and on-topic feedback to other sites, which will result in getting noticed online as an authority, and again result in backlinks.
15) Rich Media
Many of the webs major players are now concentrating on utilising video, image and audio search. Google is and I believe Yahoo and MSN will be offering big incentives to move into these areas, provided you can utilize this according to your current ad structure, demographics and product or service. Youtube tutorials, or exclusive videos can provide links back to your site and thus improved SEO exposure. Getting your video to go viral, will also result in increased exposure for yor site - especially if you decide to brand the video itself (maybe put a link at the end of the video, or a product website addresss).
17) Networking
Social networking and hanging out in forums (you are doing the right thing being around here) can result in new links. Talk to people, mention your content, join relevant groups in your niche, and get to know the people who matter. Add them to your twitter account, and provide useful information for them, become a resource that gives personal content directly to the people that matter through twitter. Eventually sooner or later these people will start to take notice of you, and follow the trail back to your website. If you can persuade these people to read your blog, you are again in a place that will attract incoming links and this is still where the emphasis is placed with SEO.
Dont expect traffic to land at your door, or there to be a magic wand to wave. If you build it they wont come. If you promote it, and work at content you stand maybe half a chance at getting a decent amount of website traffic.
