Have you ever wondered what types of strategies the top search engine optimizers use for their own sites or the sites of their clients?

In an industry like the search engine industry, where no one can possibly know everything, it’s important to learn from trusted experts in the field. So for this article, I interviewed some of the best SEO’s in the business in an effort to share their winning strategies with you.

Important facts about these tips

Please remember that these tips aren’t necessarily the fundamental strategies that should always be used when working on a Web page, such as including your keyword phrase in your title tag or capitalizing on headline tags or link text. Instead, many of these tips are meant to be applied to the top of the basic strategies in an effort to give you an edge over the competition.

Also, these tips aren’t in any particular order of importance. The first tip in any category isn’t necessarily the most important, and the last tip certainly isn’t the least important.

I’ve identified each tip with the SEO who wrote it. Then, at the end of the article in alphabetical order, I highlighted the various SEO’s who participated in this article, along with brief information about their qualifications.

Enjoy these tips from some of the best SEO’s in the business!

Basics

Stick to the basics of search engine optimization for your existing Web pages (i.e. optimized titles, header content, keyword density, the order your text is presented in the code, etc.), before you move into supplementary techniques like doorway pages, doorway domains, and the like. The odds are that if you have not mastered the basic skills to optimize your existing Web pages, you are not going to be able implement supplementary techniques successfully. (J.K. Bowman with Spider Food http://www.spider-food.net)

My advice to everyone is always to remember the basic, simple things that have not changed rather than get lost in details that may change on a regular basis. I find that even very advanced people sometimes need a reminder of the basics to see the forest from the trees. (Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Watch http://www.searchenginewatch.com)

Content

Focus on building useful “research content.” Remember that the Internet is constantly being used for all types of research. Take advantage of this and develop content that will appeal to the people who are doing the research. What is it that people want to know? People are looking for “how to” articles, “inspirational” articles, reference material, financial advice, technical advice, comparison charts, phone numbers, historical information, serial numbers, and the list goes on and on. Don’t just do up a general page on a topic. Do a little research. Talk to some real people and see what it is that fascinates a specific group. Look for a newsgroup and see what they talk about. From your research, try checking a few keywords in WordTracker. From WordTracker, you can discover trends that people are using to conduct research. If you have a garden center online, perhaps you’ll want to build a content rich doorway page that offers detailed blue prints for building a birdhouse or an article on “How to attract hummingbirds to your garden,” etc. If you have an online jewelry store, perhaps you’ll want to offer articles on how to determine the real value of a diamond or a tutorial on Victorian gemstones. (John Alexander with Beyond-SEO.com http://www.beyond-seo.com/)

If your site makes heavy use of graphics and has no substantial real text content, this will severely impact your ability to get good search engine listings because there is nothing for the search engines to read when they index your Web site. You should consider redesigning some of your pages to include real text rather than graphical text. (Paul Bruemmer with Web Ignite http://www.web-ignite.com)

Customize content for each page. Every URL is a potential entry point. Keep content in the header tags focused and terse. Simplicity is so important in search engine optimization. (Marshall Simmonds with About.com http://www.about.com/)

Use cgi-based date scripts to keep the site fresh. (Ginette Degner with ServiceBrokers.com http://www.servicebrokers.com)

Directories

Proper submission to the major directories is critical. One of the most significant changes in search engine marketing in recent years has been the rise in popularity of human-reviewed directories and catalogs like LookSmart, Yahoo, and Open Directory. Some search engines prominently display directory listings for many popular searches. MSN is a prime example. Some of the other major engines also list directory results prominently, or at least emphasize them in various ways. You can recognize directory listings since they are often called “Web Site” results rather than “Web Page” results. Once you submit to a directory, it’s difficult to go back and correct mistakes later. Some of them like Yahoo and LookSmart charge you for the privilege of simply being reviewed for inclusion. Therefore, it’s of utmost importance to get it right the first time. (Brent Winters with FirstPlace Software http://www.webposition.com)

Get listed with the human-powered directories of Yahoo, LookSmart and the Open Directory. If this is all you do, you’ll get plenty of traffic. All either get lots of visitors or “power” other sites that get plenty of visitors. In addition, getting listed with them helps crawler-based search engines locate your site and perhaps help it rank better, because of the link importance these sites provide to you. (Danny Sullivan with Search Engine Watch http://www.searchenginewatch.com)

Diversify

It’s important to experiment and diversify your optimization strategies. The algorithms of each engine change frequently to keep content fresh — so should your techniques. It is important to abide by all the rules and regulations as set forth by the engines to avoid spamdexing. (Marshall Simmonds with About.com http://www.about.com/)

Due Diligence

First comes content, then optimizing your pages for the search engines, checking your HTML code, etc. Next comes the submission of your pages to the search engines. Possibly resubmit your older content, depending on ranking and various other factors. (Introduce at least some minor changes before you do.) Follow the rules of the craft. Later, check your logs daily. Learn how to recognize search engine spiders to see if your submissions were successful. Check out all search engine generated hits to determine: a) your ranking, b) what people are really searching for and finding you under -you may be in for a surprise or two on that score. (Ralph Tegtmeier, a.k.a. Fantomaster http://fantomaster.com/)

Read, read, read - learn the trade from scratch. Test out stuff - your mileage may vary immensely from the gurus’ -every Web site is different, or, at least, should be. (Ralph Tegtmeier, a.k.a. Fantomaster http://fantomaster.com/)

Frames, JavaScript, and Dynamic Delivery Systems

Framesets need NOFRAMES content added to the FRAMESET section. Also, sites using frames, image maps, or JavaScript navigation do not get properly indexed by search engines because the frame containing links to other pages within the site gets overlooked. A remedy for this is to create a redundant set of text links in as many of the frameset component pages as is practical, such as at the bottom of your main content page. (Paul Bruemmer with Web Ignite http://www.web-ignite.com)

Build crawler-friendly. Avoid using frames or dynamic delivery systems, and ensure that you have good internal linkage between your pages. (Danny Sullivan with Search Engine Watch http://www.searchenginewatch.com)

Consider putting your JavaScript in external files. This also will streamline your source code and make your pages load faster and more search engine friendly. (Bill Gentry with The Selling Source http://www.sellingsource.com)

Keywords

Know what you want to be found for. You should know the top two or three terms that are most important to your Web site and have incorporated them into a 25-word description that doesn’t use marketing hype, which can then be submitted to human-powered directories. You should also know a list of the top 10 to 100 terms you’d like to be found for and ensure that you have pages within your Web site with good, solid content for these terms to please the crawlers. (Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Watch http://www.searchenginewatch.com)

Don’t make the mistake of picking the wrong keywords. Nothing is more disappointing than taking the time to achieve top rankings and then seeing no increase in traffic from all your efforts. Also, don’t pick keywords that are too popular or broad like “games” or “entertainment.” You’ll not only get visitors that are far less likely to buy your product, but the amount of work needed to gain that ranking will not be worth the trouble. You’ll then join the ranks of misinformed critics screaming “search engine optimization doesn’t work - don’t waste your time!” SE optimization works and works well, IF you take the time to do it right. (Brent Winters with FirstPlace Software http://www.webposition.com)

Research your search phrases. If you can, also check your referrer logs or other traffic tracking program to help you. If you don’t have referrer logs, install a traffic tracking program such as Web Trends Live on your site and let it gather stats for you for a couple of months before you decide on your search phrases. A program such as this or your referrer logs will tell you which search phrases are currently bringing you search engine traffic. You might want to use some of these for your optimization, since you already know that people find you using these. Then, check your rankings for the search phrases that you researched from WordTracker, or other search phrase research tools, as well as those from your traffic tracking program or referrer logs. I suggest this because you may find that you are already doing fairly well with some phrases and you may not want to mess with those. (Bill Gentry with The Selling Source http://www.sellingsource.com)

Build focused pages around “real world” queries. Use phrases exactly how they are typed into a search engine, such as “How can I” and “Where can I.” You will notice that sites with FAQ pages like this can end up garnering an awful lot of top placements and traffic. (Ginette Degner with ServiceBrokers.com http://www.servicebrokers.com)

Searching for the key phrase in Yahoo and noting the Yahoo Categories returned can suggest key themes and words useful to the site for optimization as well as showing the quantity and quality of the competition. (David Johnson and Annam Manthiram with Position Research http://www.positionresearch.com)

I like to thoroughly explore all possibilities when researching keyword phrases. I like to think of keyword phrases as “fuel” for specific topics. After much study using a resource like WordTracker (one of my favourite tools), I like to identify several “high performance” keyword phrases. Then I try not to simply settle for the first ideas that come to mind for how that topic might be employed. I try to “think outside of the box.” Learn to develop topical content with a unique spin on it, always keeping the visitors in mind. In a nutshell, understand your visitors’ demand for useful topics and then give them what it is they are seeking. Focus should not just be on how to get tons of general traffic to a page. Use page optimization strategies to create useful pages with content that is “in demand” by a target audience. When you start thinking this way, it has a wonderful compound effect on making actual sales or achieving your site objectives. Isn’t this why you started a Web site in the first place? (John Alexander with Beyond-SEO.com http://www.beyond-seo.com/)

Check log files for user country location and most often used keywords in search engine search. This may demonstrate the need to offer the site in another language (or to provide a link to Alta Vista’s Babelfish or the Lycos equivalent) if there are a lot of hits from another country. Knowing the keywords used to arrive at the site helps to decide on variations and changes to the site theme. (David Johnson and Annam Manthiram with Position Research http://www.positionresearch.com)

Did you know that the KEI Factor used in WordTracker is an excellent guideline to follow? According to WordTracker, an excellent keyword phrase has a KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index) of 400+. Are you having trouble finding appropriate phrases with high KEI factors? Try using one single word (appropriate for your site) in the “comprehensive search” feature. I very often extract excellent phrases with a KEI level well into the thousands or even into the hundreds of thousands. Always ensure that the search phrases you select are solidly related to site content. (John Alexander with Beyond-SEO.com http://www.beyond-seo.com/)