Guide for optimizing sites for search engines

[Bulldog13]

I recently created some webpages for friends / family while on vacation.

http://www.elliscounseling.com
http://www.aircraftspares.info

Short of submitting the sites to google, what else can I do ?
Are meta names / keywords still used ?

I am basically looking for a decent guide on optimizing / submitting sites to search engines. I am not sure where to begin.

Also, feel free to critique both those sites.

 

[CTho9305]

The helicopter in your Important Information section overlays the last letter of "Small-Business".

 

[Bulldog13]

^

 

[Agnostos Insania]

Personally I always add a block of text at the bottom for every sexual fetish in existence.

 

[stndn]

From a few readings scattered all over, here are what I gathered:

- Use correct <title>page title</title> that makes sense and relate to your site contents
- Use <h1>heading 1</h1> for your page heading
- Use meta keywords, despite the fact that it's not as highly regarded as before

- Get people to link to your sites with proper title and description.
For example, links like <a href="yoursite" title="my site title">site title</a> has higher score than <a href="yoursite">click here</a>


I'll see if I can find the link that talks about all these.
I think I remember reading something that search engine puts more weight in the first few hundred (200? 300?) characters than the rest of the page. So if your page description is buried somewhere down below inside tag soups, it will score lower than if your page description is somewhere on top of the page.


Also, like Agnostos Insania mentioned, putting the big bold blinking FREE PRON or SEX TIPS will help draw people to your site and thus increase your linkage. But ... well, you know how it works ,p

(btw, do not take the last one too seriously )


As far as site comments, I like the second one better (Mental Health Services)
(Yah, I realize it doesn't help much, but oh well ..)

 

[crisscross]

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