If you’re creating the layouts for your own sites but want to make sure that everything is on the up and up as far as search engine optimization is concerned, consider implementing these five basic SEO tips:

1. CSS (style sheets), extensive Javascript code and other scripts should be placed in external files, then called via includes in your main HTML page. This prevents bloat, which means your site will load faster — always favorable when considering your visitors as well as search engine bots.
2. Always use the ALT attribute for images. This’ll enable mobile device browsers and those users who turn off images in their browsers to know what the image is about. Also, the use of ALT attributes in images (and the TITLE attribute in links) has SEO benefits, particularly if you use keywords in the attributes.
3. In addition to using the ALT attribute for your images and TITLE attribute for your links, use relevant keywords or short descriptions for image file names and download links. This makes sense not only for your visitors, but also for search engine bots.
4. Use heading tags, particularly H1, H2 and H3. Highlight important text and distinguish sections of text from one another with heading tags, and emphasize any keywords that are in them to search engines.
5. Keep the use of Flash to a minimum. Or, if you absolutely must use Flash, make sure you have plenty of non-Flash content on your site to draw in search engine bots and visitors. Remember, search engine bots can’t parse or index Flash, so it’s important to have traditional HTML/XHTML content available.

Google PageRank is an ever-changing beast. This year alone there have been several updates, including an update on August 8th, 2011, and then another on November 8th, 2011. But there are many things you can do to maintain your PageRank, and if you’re lucky, even improve it.

Here are the DOs of search engine optimization / Google PageRank support:
1. Blog frequently
2. Get comments on your blog
3. Leave comments on other blogs
4. Submit your blog to directories
5. Get back links via internal links and external links

Things not to do:
1. Paid links
2. Poor content
3. Duplicate content
4. Neglecting your blog

Good luck! If you’re lucky, the Google gods will smile upon you.

Can you tell I’m all about search engine optimization? Well, if not, then you should know that I LOVE SEO. What can I say? It’s my job, but it’s also my passion. Anyway, here are five random SEO tips that you can take away with you when you read this blog (but feel free to stick around for a while!):

1. Optimize your META tags. Your META tags determine your blog’s title, its description, and its keywords. Use primary keywords in all of these, and sprinkle some supportive keywords in both your description and keywords list.
2. Make use of heading tags. Heading tags are H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, and sometimes, H6 and H7. Heading tags distinguish different sections of content from one another. Search engines will give more “weight” to keywords in heading tags than keywords that are in bolded or regular text.
3. Use keywords in ALT and TITLE elements. Add the ALT and TITLE attributes to all of your images and links, and make sure to place keywords in them.
4. Update your content frequently. Do your best to blog several times a week. Schedule posts if you know you’re going to be away, or consider accepting guest posts from interested contributors.
5. Keep up to date with what Google is up to. Subscribe to a blog like Search Engine Watch so you’ll know exactly what’s happening and when!

Search engine optimization is where it’s at, baby. So without further ado, here are five great SEO tips for SEO newbies and novices alike!

1. Keywords should be present in every element of your webpage, from your title tag to your paragraph tags. And don’t forget about the meta tags — they’re great for primary and supportive keywords!
2. Did you know you can add ALT and TITLE descriptions to images, and TITLE descriptions to links? Take advantage of these for keyword placement.
3. When uploading files and other images to your website, use descriptive keywords and descriptions for the file names — great for SEO and visitors alike!
4. Build a network of quality back links to help boost you in the eyes of Google.
5. Quality content beats quantity content every single time.