Put your keyword phrase in alternative text : Images are a great place to put your keyword phrase - in the alternate text. This is a way to add your keyword phrase into your document without being repetitive to your readers. But be careful not to overdo it - as you don't want to appear to be keyword stuffing. That could get your site banned.
Increase the font size of your keyword phrase : Search engines understand that fonts that are larger than the standard font size on the page indicate text that is more important. Use CSS or the font tag. Apply font size changes to headline tags as well.
Write a descriptive meta description : Search engines use the description meta tag as the description in their index. So it's important to describe your pages accurately. This helps customers find your pages, and search engines to index them.
Keep asking for inbound links : The older the links are the better. If you get 100 links added all at once, it appears to the search engines that you are buying link placement, and that can be construed as spamming.
Get linked in DMOZ and Yahoo! : DMOZ and Yahoo! and other directories show that your page is related to the contentin that section of the directory.
Periodically check your outbound links for page rank : Whenever you add an external link on your site, you run the risk that it changes from the site you linked to into a link farm or "bad neighborhood". By periodically checking the PageRank of the external sites you link to, you can remove links that have gotten bad. This will help you make sure that your page's credibility is not reduced by who you are linking to.
Link all major images : It's important to always link images because people click on images. And search engines value content that has been linked. The key is to always include alternative text, so that the search engine has text to rank. Any image that your customer can see on the page should be linked.
Keep your pages up-to-date : Pages that are regularly updated are given priority over pages that are older and ignored. But you should do more than simply fix typos or make small changes, regular, extensive updates are more effective than minor updates.
Link to your page from within your site : Links are important, and linking from one page to another on your own site is a very easy way to get links. They aren't as important in search engine ranking as links from external sites, but they do help. If nothing else, they help the search engine spider find all the pages on your site.
Format your keyword phrases to stand out : Use strong and em tags where appropriate to make your keyword phrases stand out. Search engines can read those tags, and will recognize that text that is emphasized is often more important than the surrounding text.
If you must use frames, always use the noframes tag : Frames and search engines don't mix well. But if you must use frames, then you should always include an extensive noframes version of your site. And by extensive, the best way to get your site indexed in search engines is to completely rewrite it in your noframes version.
If you must use Flash, always include alternative text : Flash and search engines don't mix well, but if you must use flash you should include alternate text that describes exactly what the Flash element includes. And if you use Flash for your entire site, you should always do an alternate version of the complete site in HTML so that search engines and non-Flash browsers can view it as well.
Use Flash for non-critical pieces of a page : The best use of Flash on websites is as small portions of the site, preferably non-critical portions. Search engines can't view Flash, they see them as images. According to Google Webmaster Central, sites that effectively use Flash "use Flash for rich media but rely on HTML for content and navigation."
Keep your pages close to the root directory : The higher your pages are in your sub-directories, the better they will rank in search engines. This is because pages that are listed right off the root directory are typically more important than pages that are found four or five levels deep in the site.
Use the meta keywords tag and include your keyword phrase : Meta tags are a very popular way to improve search engine results, but the fact of the matter is that some major search engines don't use them at all, and others only use them a little. It won't hurt to include your keyword phrase and any secondary keywords in the meta keywords tag, but don't expect it to work wonders.
Keep your kewords together : Search engines rank keywords in pages regardless of where they are found. But if you're trying to rank well for a specific keyword phrase, keeping the keywords together will insure that the search engines recognize that they are related.
Use your keyword phrase in your meta description : Most search engines use the meta description field as the description in their search results. So it's important to have a good description. Including your keyword phrase in the meta description tag is one more place that the search engines can see your keywords. This isn't a magic bullet, but it is a good idea.
Set your language meta keyword : If your page is in a language other than English, you should set the language meta tag so that search engines (and other user agents) know what language it's in. Most search engines have other ways of telling what language the page is written in, but they do use that tag, and it could help you rank higher in searches in that language.
Optimize for a few secondary keywords : Once you have a keyword phrase, you can choose one or two other keywords to optimize for as well. But be careful with these - make sure that the density of your secondary keywords is no more than 1-2%. Any higher and you risk confusing the search engine and diluting the power of your primary keyword phrase.
Use your keyword phrase in named anchors : A named anchor (also called a bookmark) is a useful tool for creating navigation within a Web page. But for search engines, it also indicates that the text defined by and following the anchor has more significance. If you use your keyword phrase in some of your named anchors, that will give that text more prominence.
