Best SEO Practices

[nusani]

I've been doing SEO for quite some time now but with the recent updates I've been told that I'm doing some things wrong now. I just want to make sure that I'm not missing anything from a SEO standpoint, let me know what your thoughts are.

On-Page
Max of 3 keywords on homepage linking to internal optimized pages
Links to these pages on other pages using your keywords
XML and HTML sitemaps
Using only WWW or no-WWW version of the site, make sure this is also set in .htaccess and google webmaster tools

Each optimized internal page should have this:
content is king, write for readability
max 2 keywords per page
keyword in slug or html page name
keyword density of 3-5%
keyword 2 times in title and meta description (preferably at beginning and end)
keyword in bold, italic, and underline
keyword in h1
keyword in h2-6 if possible
keyword in image alt tags
low code to text ratio
valid HTML

Off-page
Link directories
article directories
social media links and likes/+1s
web 2.0 links
forum profile and signature links
pdf links (slideshare, google docs, pdfcast, scribd)
social bookmark links
blog comments on related sites
yahoo answers
edu and gove links
authority sites carry much better link juice
build backlinks to your backlinks

From what I understand forum profiles and web 2.0 aren't as powerful as they used to be, is all of this correct?

[VentaMarketing]

Link directories and the web 2.0 backlinks to backlinks strategy is not very effective anymore. Blog commenting is typically marked with a nofollow link, so that will not do much for you. Many of the other

Several of the elements on your list are still very important for SEO, but knowing this is only the start, especially regarding off-page. Knowing where to get the links is good, but the more important factors is knowing how to get the links, which is best done through out reach and creating things for your link targets that merit a link.

Also, your off-page list is missing one very effective link building tool which is guest posting. This is a great way to acquire quality links.

[nusani]

Thanks, I forgot about that one. Are the on-page factors still important such as the keyword density or has this changed too?

[VentaMarketing]

Hi Terry,

It is important to include exact match keywords and related keywords in each page's meta data, headers, and content. As for an exact keyword density, we do not use this as an on-page factor anymore. Just make sure you use the keywords you want to show up for in the meta data, headers, and content, while keeping the content user focused.

[VentaMarketing]

Hi Terry,

It is important to include exact match keywords and related keywords in each page's meta data, headers, and content. As for an exact keyword density, we do not use this as an on-page factor anymore. Just make sure you use the keywords you want to show up for in the meta data, headers, and content, while keeping the content user focused.

[nusani]

Thanks for the info!

[Vizergy]

I would drop the "keyword in bold, italic and underlined" as well as worrying at all about density.  I would only do that if it enhances the page for the reader rather than bolding etc... a word simply because it is your targeted term for the page.  Also - alt tags are very important, yes, but remember to describe the image, don't just throw keywords in.  I think will all of the recent talk about 'Over Optimization'  those are things that the algo's could potentially be looking for etc...

[WhoWuddaThunk]

Latent dirichlet allocation is the newest school of thought on content: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/lda-and-googles-rankings-well-correlated

Essentially focusing on contextual clues to reinforce the idea of what a page is really about.

Writing about Jaguar the animal, talk about fur.  Writing about Jaguar the car, mention spark plugs.

Here's a followup article to SEOMoz's that's quite informative: http://www.seangolliher.com/2010/seo/185/

It get's into the actual math of the data.