SEO Findings

1. Search engines don't release the details of their ranking algorithms to the public.

2. Search engine rankings can be gamed but not for long.

3. If you're not in the top 10, you're invisible for that particular search term.

4. If your website throws errors (404, etc.) when search spiders crawl it, those spiders will not index problem pages. (We use error notification to let us know when our sites throw errors. You should too.)

5. If you change the address of a webpage, use a redirect (301) to indicate the new address. Otherwise, search engines won't know where the page went, and your site might produce errors the next time it gets crawled.

6. Build a sitemap. It's easy, and it helps search engines understand your site.

7. Use Google Webmaster tools to get a better idea of what search engines are seeing when they look at your site. It's also easy and free.

8. Keeping #1 in mind, the two items that most heavily influence search results are content relevance and external links. Search engines survive by providing their customers with the best results possible. They do this by knowing which sites offer the most relevant content for specific searches. They also let other websites "vote" by linking to other websites.

9. Remember #2. Adding random links to your site in exchange for other sites linking to you does not necessarily help your rank. Links also have to be relevant. For example, if a taxidermy site were to link to our site, it wouldn't necessarily affect our page rank. What do taxidermists know about web development?

10. Metatags don't help or hinder search ranking. Think about it. What do metatags add that helps with content relevancy? Metatags are just a way for people to try to game the system which, as we've already established, doesn't work.

11. Google currently owns 62% market share for search. Optimize for Google.

12. After you purchase a domain name, you will receive junk mail offering to submit your domain to search engines for $X per month. Said junk mail is a scam. Tear it up and throw it away.