Welcome to the ever expanding list of SEO facts from Ignite Visibility. Please read, share and comment on this post to make it the best possible list of facts on search engine optimization.
URL SEO Facts (7)
Example of SEO Fact- Keywords are Highlighted
Dashes are a best practice rather than underscores or no space
The shorter the URL the better
It is a best practice to have a trailing backslash, but any URL can get indexed
Directories and subdomains are both OK according to Google
You should not have multiple URLs with the same content
Tagged URLs for tracking can create duplicate URL issues
The main ways to deal with duplicate URLs are 301 redirect, rel=”canonical”, setting URL parameters and robots.txt
Page Title Facts (3)
The page title needs to be less than 70 characters
Google looks to see if your keyword is in the page title
If page titles are longer than 70 characters you will get a …
Meta Descriptions SEO Facts (6)
Meta descriptions should be 160 characters
Many times Google will use text other than what you have listed in the meta description for the listing in the serps.
If Google features a rich snippit it will not show the meta description
Meta descriptions are not a ranking factor, other than CTR
The higher the CTR of the listing the better it ranks
If keywords in the meta description are in the search query they will be highlighted in the search results
Meta Keywords Facts (4)
Having too many meta keywords can hurt you
Meta keywords do not help search rankings
The Google news meta keywords does help search rankings for Google news
It is a best practice to have 2 to 6 meta keywords per page
H1 SEO Facts (3)
The h1 is an important element on the page
The h1 should hold the main keyword for the page
Other words can be used in the h1 outside of the main keyword
Other Heading Tags Facts (2)
Other heading tags can be used to reinforce the theme of the page
Subheading tags can help readers jump to the content they are looking for
Content Facts (4)
The better the content, the better chance it has to get ranked
Content should interlink to other relevant content with anchor text
Content should use the keywords you would like that content to rank for
Content should NOT be stuffed with keywords
Image Facts (5)
Images should be optimized for the same keywords as the page
Image URLs should be optimized
Image link titles should be optimized
Image alt tags should be optimized
Sitemaps SEO Facts (6)
You should have an HTML sitemap
You should have an XML sitemap
You should have a mobile sitemap (if your mobile site has a different URL structure)
You should have a news sitemap (if you publish news regularly)
You should have a video sitemap (if you have enough videos)
You should have an image sitemap (if your website has images)
Robots.txt Facts (2)
You should have a robots.txt file
You should block areas you want private with your robots.txt file or a meta robots (described later)
Rich Snippits Facts (3)
You should use rich snippits whenever possible
Rel Author SEO Facts (2)
You should use rel=author if possible
rel=author can increase CTR
Share Buttons Can Improve Exposure and Linking - SEO Fact
Share Buttons Search Engine Facts (4)
You should add share buttons to your website to build backlinks
Share buttons can help your content get more exposure
The most popular share buttons are Google +, Pinterest, Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook and StumbleUpon.
Social shares are now a ranking factor for Google
Blogging SEO Facts (3)
Blogs allow fresh content to easily be added to a site
Blog post can rank for longtail keywords
Blogs can improve internal linking
Google + SEO Facts (4)
By adding a Google + badge to your website you make it appear in search results
If you get a +1 on your website, your website will appear higher in search results for people in the network of the user who +1 your page.
If you get a +1 on a YouTube video, your YouTube video will appear on the home page of YouTube for people in the network of the user who +1 your page.
The more circles your Google + profile is added to the higher the authority
Robots Tags Facts (2)
Meta robots tags allow you to tell Google whether or not to index content or follow links on a page
There is also an x-robots HTTP header that serves the same purpose
Technologies with Issues SEO Facts (4)
Google can have issues indexing flash
Google can have issues indexing Ajax
Google can have issues indexing JavaScript
Apps cannot be indexed on mobile phones unless they are made available in other ways
Multilingual Websites Facts (6)
There are many different ways to do URL structure for multilingual websites
rel=”alternate” hreflang lets your specify the language and region of the content
You should have a multilingual sitemap
You should be using user agent detection to deliver the correct location
You should make other languages available via hyperlink
You can specify region in webmaster tools, not language
Mobile SEO Facts (3)
Responsive design is the best option for SEO
Having one URL structure helps consolidate external links
Google is open to many different mobile site options, but recommends responsive design
Absolute Links SEO Facts (2)
Absolute links are preferred by Google
If someone copied your HTML, absolute links can get you links back to your site
Absolute links are preferred for rel=canonical
This list is always expanding and changing. Comment and share below!
