How to Review Your Website

1. Search Engine Optimization "SEO" is the optimization of content within the website, not marketing outside the website.
2. Google PageRank - PageRank is Google's view of the importance of the page.  Generally, the higher the PageRank the higher the page will show in Search Engine Results.
3. http://validator.w3.org - This indicates whether the site meets current Html standards.  Meeting the standards has a positive influence on the SEO of the site.
4. http://websitegrader.com - Receive an overall grade 0-100
5. Page Title - is the #1 keyword area of the page.  The Page Title should be unique for each page, and be keyword rich for the content on that page.
6. Meta Description - Google will cut off anything more than 155(roughly) characters. Try to limit its length to 25-30 words. Also try to use no more than two sentences.  Every page should have a unique Meta Description
7. Perma-links - Perma-links are keywords in the URL of the page.  Keywords in the URL is very important in the SEO of each page.
8. H1, H2, H3 Tags - is the #2 keyword area of the page.  There should only be one H1 tag on each page.  Try to organize the content of your page by using Heading Titles. To give an idea of how important Heading titles are, think of an H1 Heading Title as being 20 times more important than paragraph text. Think of H2 as being 15 times for imporatant than paragraph text.
9. "Alt" text on your images - This is needed to meet Web Standards and for good SEO.  Hover your mouse over images.  If you don't see a small text box displayed, the image does not have Alt text. As "they" say, a picture is worth a 1,000 words, so chose your Alt Text words carefully, and make sure they support the keywords being used to optimize the page.
10. "Wiki-izing" - When you have a keyword phrase on one page that can be linked to another page.  This improves the SEO for the page you are linking to.  It is important the page you link to is optimized for that phrase that linked to it.
11. Social Networking Icons -  This is great for SEO and lets visitors see comments from people other than the owner of the website.
12. Videos - Google likes to refer traffic to "Content Rich" pages.  Embedded videos help the page to become Content Rich.  We recommend videos from YouTube.com or Vimeo.com.  Make sure to put keyword phrases in the title or meta description of you videos.
13. Outgoing Links - Too many outgoing links on your website will lower your Google PageRank
14. Flash Websites - 100% flash websites traditionally have extremely poor SEO.  Their content cannot be indexed by Search Engines.  Avoid 100% flash websites, and navigation made from flash.
15. META Keywords - There is no need to add META Keywords to your website.  Google stopped using META Keywords years ago.  Please read this article, http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/09/google-does-not-use-keywords-meta-tag.html
16. How to choose the keywords to optimize - How to increase traffice to your website, using Google Keyword Tool.

1. Homepage layout - Make sure only important information is on the homepage.  This is an index page to content within the site, so don't try to education visitor, just quickly get them to their area of interested.  Keep design simple, not cluttered.  The more content you need to display the less  graphical design you need on the page.
2. Use of homepage slideshow - takes advantage of multiple messages in a very short period of time.
3. Use of images - good for visitors and SEO.  Try to use images on all pages of the site.
4. Use of videos - very good for the SEO of the website.  It's OK to use other peoples videos from youtube.com or vimeo.com, as long as you stand behind the message of the video.  Your website visitor is more interested in learning what you stand for .vs you having to be the person in the video.

Content Management Review

1. Homepage "call to action" - You must tell your visitors what you want them to do, if you expect them to take action.
2. Secondary page "call to action" - 
3. Simple Navigation - Keeping all menus at the top of the page is the easiest for visitors to navigate. Try to use sub-menus that stay visible when you are in that section of the site.  If you have a need for many menus, you can use drop down menus.
4. Html website - Html websites are more difficult to maintain because you must go to your Webmaster to post content.  A good Content Management System "CMS" like www.site-ninja.com, allows you to easily add and optimize content. 
5. Crumb Menus - usually under the top level menu.  Used to show the visitor where they are in the site; (i.e. Home --> Services --> Service #1).  Crumb menus should be hyper-linked. Putting keywords in menus helps with SEO.
6. Landing Pages - Every Product and Service should have its own page, which is optimized.
7. Testimonials - Testimonials let your visitors hear other people promote you.  It is very important in the visitors decision to buy from you.  Text Testimonials are good.  Audio Testimonial are even better.
8. Blog - For good SEO results, you should have a blog within the domain of your website.  Product and Service pages are generally static.  It's the blog where search engines look for new content.
9. Opt In Emails - Find ways to collect Emails from your visitors.  Offer them something if they will Opt Into your Email list.  Make sure they know they can Opt Out at anytime.  If the visitor sees you are an authority in an area that benefits them, they will be interested in receiving occasional Emails from you.
10. http://futurenowinc.com/wewe.htm -  Simple utility to see if you talk about yourself more than you customers
11. http://gobbledygook.grader.com - Utility to see if you abuse certain words
12. Content Rich pages - Google considers a page Content Rich if it has 300 words or more.
13. Footer Content - Google likes to see the following in the footer of all pages of your website, 1) Terms 2) Privacy 3) Sitemap

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Review