Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of methodologies aimed at improving the visibility of a website in search engine listings. The term also refers to an industry of consultants that carry out optimization projects on behalf of client sites. 

To obtain maximum search engine visibility, it is essential to understand how the target audience is searching for actual information on a web site. When the target audience uses a search engine to find products and services, they type a set of words or phrases into the search box. This set of words is commonly called targeted keywords or phrases.

For the target audience to find a site on the search engines, the page must contain keyword phrases that match the phrases the target audience is typing into search queries.

When a search engine spider analyzes a web page, it determines keyword relevancy based on an algorithm, which is a formula that calculates how web pages are ranked. The most important text for a search engine is the most important text for the target audience - the text your target audience is going to read when they arrive at your web site.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seo

Other useful articles

The 7 Points of Do-It-Yourself SEO By Gordon Goodfellow (c) 2005

1. Relevant Domain name
2. Meaningful Folder / Page names
3. Title Tag Keywords
4. Other Head Tags
5. Keyword Density 5-8%
6. Link Quality & Quantity
7. Important Keywords in Anchor Text for Inbound links

http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2005/feb/21prt.html

Non-Reciprocal Link Building For Higher Search Engine Positioning
By Dave Davies, Beanstalk Search Engine Positioning, Inc. (c) 2005
(http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/)

• Non-reciprocal links have more influence and don't need to be checked as often
• People want to link to your site if it contains good content
• Paid directory and free directory inclusion
• Article submissions allow non-reciprocal links with relevant content (but time consuming to write & submit)

http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2005/apr/6prt.html

MSNBot - Searching For Ways To Make Redmond Rise Again
By Jim Hedger

MSNBot Guidelines, at a glance: 

• Incoming links from other websites with keyword-enriched anchor text used to phrase the links.
• Easily read code that has been W3C validated. 
• As with all search engines, best results are found when you only address one topic per page.
• Keep your page site reasonable, 150kb is the maximum size recommended in the MSN guidelines.
• Apply keyword phrases to well written sentences early in the code. Don't use techniques such as keyword stuffing or invisible text.
• Use a sitemap to ensure that every page in your site is open to MSNBot.

http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2004/dec/22prt.html

Good Google - Writing For The Most Powerful Robot In The World
By Jim Hedger

• Relevant Incoming Links
• Good URLs that are not too spammy
• Easy to follow link paths including a sitemap
• Keyword enriched titles
• Well written Description Meta Tag
• Well written Keywords Meta Tag (less important than Description)
• Topically focused Body Text
• Keyword Enriched Anchor Text
• NO SPAM
• Relevance, relevance, relevance

http://www.sitepronews.com/index572a.html

Search Engine Optimization - A 10 Step Program

http://www.netmechanic.com/conference/search-engine-optimization.htm

Use include files for javascript, so search engines can find the good content in your site more quickly

http://www.ssw.com.au/SSW/Standards/Rules/RulesToBetterGoogleRankings.aspx#Include

Google Cache is only 101K, so any text after this point may be ignored:

http://www.ssw.com.au/SSW/Standards/Rules/RulesToBetterGoogleRankings.aspx#101k

To investigate: whether incoming links should be to homepage or to pages within site. Some stuff to check here:
http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&safe=off&rls=GGLD%2CGGLD%3A2004-29%2CGGLD%3Aen&q=site%3Abruceclay.com+better+ranking+link+homepage+within+site&meta=