1. Search Engine Optimization
It is a standard technique and not some kind of magic tool which can help you rank a website. The ability to understand the proper tags, category, word limitation for a content are some of the worth mentioning parts of SEO. It is all about how one can define the skeleton for his/her website. It has nothing to with the content, although it is one of the most important part of the Google ranking scale. An article should have proper headings and the Title should reflect the ability to explain the complete article as a whole.
2. Keyword Analysis
The niche has to be very specific. You cannot rank an article with content and simple SEO only; Keyword Analysis is an inseparable part of the SEO curriculum. This has to be done very carefully and accurately. The limit between spam content and providing a class A article is very slim. You cannot stuff keywords to an article without making any sense. The flow of the paragraph should be retained and it should in no way look like that "a few words" has been inserted forcefully.
Another important factor is the bundle keywords for a particular niche. Many webmasters allow the content to be from a genuine source but makes a mistake most of the time. They are fond of keywords and love to insert as many words as they could to the content/article. This is a very bad practice and should be rectified. It is advisable to write multiple articles targeting multiple keywords but a single article with multiple keywords mash together usually do not work quite well. If the article performs worse the keywords are lost forever as well. But if an article underperforms for a particular keyword you have the chance to optimise the other remaining keywords in your next publish.
3. CMS Vs HTML
It has been widely debated that CMS are better than the static html designs. This is not quite true. There is a reason for which the CMS does better in the search engine results. The Google bot has no problem while crawling a CMS based site such as word press, Joomla or any other as they have well defined structure and follows the guidelines on segregating the categories and other important factors. While under HTML system you have to design everything for every individual requirement - Tags, Categories, and Archive etc. If you can do the same thing in the HTML section, chances are that they might do better than the "Sheepy" CMS trend that everyone is implementing now a day.
4. Load-time and Cache
This is one of the most crucial aspects of the ranking system done by Google and almost every other search engine. If the load time is more than a few seconds it degrades the quality of the site in the eyes of search engine bots. In the modern world where information is meant to be available in a few clicks and a few second the load time becomes an important factor. If you are a webmaster whose sites used to rank better for unique results earlier and now has been hit hard check the webpage load time. This is a simple tool to check the load time.
The cache is the last view of the crawled pages. This is what Google offers to users in case your site goes offline for a while. The bots make a screen shot like back up of every page hey have crawled inside your page and is made available as a cache. The previous version if any gets modified and the recent ones are added to the Google Cache Database. If you want to see how you page cache looks like you can do so by typing "cache:www.exxample.com" (without quotes), where example is your website name.
5. Do-follow and No-follow tags
It might seem that having a unique content and acquiring a good position in the SERP is the end of Webmaster's responsibility but it is not. The comments play an important part is the page performance as well. The spam comments are needed to be deleted and people posting blah blah and having a link to their unworthy website in the text part should be blocked and this can be done with the simple "no follow" tag. The no follow tag will order the Google bots not to follow the websites mentioned in the comment section. This will hence reduce the outgoing spam juice and maintain proper quality of the commented page.
The Do follow tags are meant to be used with authentic and genuine contents. Say for example you have written an article about Microsoft help and support. It is obvious that the written article is a reference to the main Microsoft KB article so you should provide a link to it and set the search engine tags to "do follow". This will help Google identify the original source and authenticity of your article and hence rank them better in the SERPs.
6. Link exchange and Illegal Buy-Sell
This is one of the few techniques that is very hard to resist. The link building has been the basic principle of landing pages and most of the mid level sites as well. The effects are clearly visible within a month and the ranking system seems biased. But this is not the end game - Google finds such sites and kicks them out at the end of the final examination (if any). The major algorithm changes are applied and they are all taken down with a single blow. So better be in the safe side of the business and stay out of trouble during such updates.
There is only a simple instruction for people who buy and sell links. Once you are identified by Google research system that you are buying and selling links you will be punished hard and your AdSense account might be terminated as well. So be aware before you play with Google guidelines that you are taking a full blown risk.
7. Forums and Discussion Board
If you are a webmaster of a site which requires a forum for better interaction try providing one. Simple Machines is one of the few forum developers which offers free license to everyone. Just install the php forum to the root server and link it from the "Webmaster Forum" menu item. Discussion boards help users to interact amongst themselves without having to bother the webmaster for every individual query. You can hence relax back and provide help only if no one is able to do so. Recruit a few Mods who have a good understanding of the said topics and they can keep a check on SPAM postings as well.
8. Automatic Search Instructions
Do not write a code which has the capability to change the URL in the run time. The basic concept is to neutralise the SPAM links and abusive redirections. In case you find that your site has a few codes which do so, you need to change them ASAP to avoid being penalized in the search results. Try not to build codes which send automated requests to Google/Bing to show data in your website. This is not allowed by them and if found will result in termination of your website.
9. Porn and Illegal Content
Illegal contents are needed to be taken care of in file sharing sites. Do not link them from you page directly to provide adult ads which breaks the standard principles of online advertising. This will have a two side impact on your site. First the site will lose users and then your host might screw you as well. If someone files a DMCA complain you need to remove the illegal link or else Google and all other search engines will blacklist your site and then you lose traffic completely.
10. Moral Obligation
A webmaster is just like a teacher for the online word. The words you allow/write/publish gives a thought to the users which shape their knowledge about the particular topic. Providing unbiased point of view helps the users to get the real picture whereas making a biased point shadows the judgement. It is also the responsibility of the webmaster to provide proper categorization and hierarchy to the topic. If you have a doubt about it Wikipedia is for your help. Also do remember to give proper credits to the original post if you are republishing the topic. This ensures that the data is a reprint and a hijacked content. Do not deviated from the topics and try to stick to a single epicentre which reflects the core theme of the article.
