Search Engine Optimization is a very hot topic in the World Wide Web. After all, everybody wants to rank higher and come up on the first page of Google search and get more traffic. I have identified and made a list of top 15 SEO practices. These simple SEO techniques if practiced properly can make a significant difference as to how your pages are ranked in the Search Engine Queries.

1. Use rel=”nofollow” tag on low value links to not pass the page rank juice. For example ‘Read the rest of the entry’, ‘About’, ‘Contact’ etc.
2. Use proper anchor text for interlinks. Don’t use ‘here’ or ‘there’.
3. Optimize the images, always create alt tags and write description in the alt tag.
4. Use search engine friendly permalinks. Make sure the URLs do not have ‘&’, ‘?’, ‘!’ etc characters.
5. Use hyphens (-) between words to improve readability.
6. Do not use underscores (_), use hyphens (-) instead.
7. Do not use session id in URLs.
8. Use sticky posts.
9. Use tag clouds.
10. Have a category description paragraph.
11. Let the visitors subscribe to category specific RSS feed. (Use category specific RSS plugin for WordPress)
12. Use internal linking when possible and appropriate.
13. Use sub-directories rather than sub-domains when possible. Sub-domains do not share link love from the main domain as it is treated as a different domain.
14. Research the target audience and aim the site content appropriately.
15. Keep the content up to date. Visitors don’t like outdated content. Updating the content frequently also attracts the Search engines spiders to index the web pages frequently.

This is a good a first post as any for this site. Small business owners can gleam a lot of information from Google. After all, they are the one who will be ranking your site for the most part. Don’t get me wrong, they are not the only search engine to consider, but they are ruling the roost right now and they have a lot of solid SEO information available for free.

Five Tips for Writing Effective Web Headlines by Ginger Makela

You’ve refined your keywords, optimized your bids, and written AdWords text ads that pull in tons of targeted clicks, but after looking at your Google Analytics reports, you realize that your landing page has a bounce rate of 91%.

Which means that 91% of the users coming to your site are quickly glancing around and leaving, deciding immediately that this site isn’t for them. One of the easiest, low-tech ways to make users stick around and look at your products or services is to catch their attention with an engaging headline.Recent research suggests that users decide to stay or leave your site in 8 seconds or less — in that short amount of time, headlines are the one piece of copy that users will actually read.

Here are five tips for writing headlines that will draw in user attention.
Include your paid keyword in the headline.

And as close to the beginning of the headline as you can. When users land on your site after clicking on a text ad or organic listing, they’re a bit nervous.

They have a good idea of what they’re looking for, and hope that your site will deliver it, but they’re a bit skeptical. And they have a good reason to be — there are a lot of junky sites out there that don’t deliver.

Putting the keyword in the headline provides split-second assurance to visitors that they are in the right place. It will make them relax a bit and be more receptive to your message.
Don’t sound like an ad.

Most of us are presented with thousands of advertising messages per day. Our brains have developed sophisticated filters to keep most of those messages out.

Sometimes, the best way to get past that filter is to not sound like an ad. Instead of sounding like an overbearing salesperson, try to sound like a friend delivering valuable information.

For example, instead of:

Fabulous Skin Cream that Makes a Difference!

Try

5 Ways to Reduce Wrinkles in 30 Days.

Highlight benefits rather than features.

Instead of rattling off the cold facts about your product or service, think about what problem your product or service will solve for your user.

Instead of

E-mail with up to 2GB of Storage

Try

Never Throw Another E-mail Away

Make headlines look easy to read.

When our eyes are moving fast looking for something particular, we tend to ignore copy that looks like it will take too much effort to read.

So, make your headline as simple and direct as possible. Try using shorter words.

For example, instead of

Deploy Robust Data Recovery Solutions and Enhance Network Availability

Try

5 Things You Need to Protect Your Data

Don’t forget subheads.

Subheads are another easy way to quickly offer more information about your product. Similar to headlines, they’re usually a piece of text users will be likely to scan.

Let’s say you’re an e-tailer and your landing page is a specific product page, with the product name serving as the page’s headline. A subhead that offers visitors a quick preview of product benefits saves them the trouble of digging benefits out of user reviews and product descriptions that are often visually buried on the page.

Instead of

Computer Satchel

Try

Computer Satchel
Patented protection system cushions your laptop with shock-absorbing, air-filled pouches.

One more thing.

Try using Google Website Optimizer to test different versions of your headlines. Website Optimizer automates the testing process and shows you which landing pages, headlines, and layout combinations result in the most conversions.