As the New Year is here, what better way to celebrate than with some Search Engine Optimizing Tips? This is what I recommend …

1) If you use JavaScript drop down menus or image links, be sure to place text links on the page for the search engine spiders to follow. Placing them in the footer is fine, but the higher on the page the better for your important internal links. Also, make sure these pages are in your XML sitemap. GoogleBot isn’t always smart, so giving it a way to always find your content is a good idea.

2) Don’t be fooled by the “Content is King” sermons being preached daily. Content matters little if there is not a compelling offer to go along with it. You must have good MARKETABLE content if you are going to be successful online. Ask for the order. Seriously, it is that easy. Your job online is not just to educate the public on the best option for them, it is also to sell. That is how you make your living and don’t ever forget it.

3) Incoming links are very important part of a successful SEO campaign. Duh, right? How can you do this effectively? Well, first, don’t get involved in link networks, linking schemes, or hiring a company who will work for five cents a link and think that you have found the Holy Grail. All you will get will be garbage links. Focus on getting links with the anchor text for your highest converting keyword phrases.

4) Title Tag. This is where a lot of webmasters just get lazy. Your Title Tags must be unique for every page of your website. No exceptions. You can use your company name at the end, if your boss requires it, but remember, using your company name normally does not help in conversions and that is why you are in this business. I hate to break it to you, but no one cares about your business, all they care about is if you can help them. That’s it.

5) Fresh content may (emphasis on may) help your rankings improve. Keep on adding new, useful, MARKETABLE content to your pages on a regular basis, and if it is a blog, make sure you are pinging GoogleBot. Having a fresh cache date is always a good thing.

6) Don’t listen to “experts” who tell you that you cannot use certain design elements because it will hurt your SEO campaign. They are wrong. SEO is to enhance your online presence, not dictate it. You can get a top ranking with enough links, regardless of what elements your site uses. You can rank #1 for a term with a Flash site in Frames with enough links. Leslie Rohde has achieved a #1 listing on a competitive phrase with a blank page (no content), a good Title and lots of links. Focus on building your site into a “conversion machine” and then add SEO to enhance the traffic so you get more conversions.

7) Use proper keywords in your text links, ALT attributes and even your domain name (and webpage names.)

Check Canonicalization issues – www and non-www domains check is important and must not be ignored. Decide which you want to use and then follow the instructions: Fixing Internal Duplication Content. Don’t ignore this, it is still an issue.

9) The URL file extension you choose to use doesn’t matter as far as SEO is concerned. You can use .html, .htm, .asp, .php, etc. Do what works best for you.

10) Get a Google Webmaster Tools account. If you don’t have one, you are really missing the boat. Focus on which keywords are getting impressions and then focus on increasing the ranking on those keyword phrases, as you are more likely to see faster results than doing keyword research the old fashioned way.

11) When you do link building for your website, think quality first, and not quantity. Always remember that one good quality authoritative link can do a lot more for your website than dozens or even hundreds of poor quality links. Bad links can hurt your website.

12) If you are optimizing your Blog posts, don’t forget to optimize your post’s Title Tag and make it very compelling. You still have to SELL the click … even in Blogs.

13) Your website must be user friendly and easy to use with clear Calls to Action for your products and services. If not, you run the risk of high bounce rates and poor conversions.

14) Search Engines give great weight to .edu domains, so try to get some links from these domains.

15) Don’t optimize one single page for multiple different groups of keywords. Focus each page for a single keyword phrase or similar keywords. They key term here is “focus” with a clear Call To Action.

16) Optimize the text in your RSS feed. Write your Title and Description using keyword rich text.

17) If your page uses images, use captions that are compelling with your images for a strong impact.

18) Create and upload an XML Sitemap to your webmaster accounts with Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft.

19) Find two different ways to NOT to see Google’s Personalized Search results:

(1) Log out from your Google account while doing any search.
(2) In Search bar, append &pws=0 present at the end of your search URL

20) Use absolute links in your website instead of relevant links.

21) If you want your videos to be found by the search engine crawlers, then just create a video sitemap & get it listed in your Google Webmaster Central account.

22) If you are doing link purchase or exchange, remember to check the cache date of the page where your link will be placed. The newer the cache date of the page, the better.

23) Check broken links on your site (internal and external) at least once a month.

24) Check your website server headers. Your URLs must report a “200 OK” status or “301 Moved Permanently” for redirects, else you need to look into the matter more deeply.