SEO CheckList

Last time, I talked about the need, or lack thereof, to optimize your web site for each particular search engine. As was said, it might not be possible for one to fully optimize for one search engine and hope to do well in the other. You should optimize for all of them collectively and as long as you do the job properly, chances are you’ll rank decently for all the search engines as long as your keywords are not that competitive if your web site is new. Now, you won’t be able to form your own search engine combined SEO technique unless you know the subtleties of optimizing for each major search engine. Since up ’til now I’ve been talking of Google, this time, let’s put the spotlight on Yahoo.

Here are the suggested optimization techniques for Yahoo:

1. Keyword Density

As is common knowledge, Google prefers a 1-3% keyword density — anything over than that might get thrown into the supplemental for keyword stuffing. Yahoo, however, reportedly prefers 7-8% keyword density. Karen Scharf says the Yahoo algorithm is designed to recognize conjugations and plural words so it might actually be easy to create content with 7-8% keyword density yet not get flagged by Google.

2. Meta Tags

I’ve discounted meta tags whenever I write about Search Engine Optimization and I’ve discounted meta tags in my own web sites. However, Yahoo apparently still cares for meta tags. Select around three keywords and around 2 sentences for the description.

3. Title Tags and Header Tags

Yahoo would prefer seeing only around 5-6 words in your title tag. With regards to header tags, usual specifications apply, including using one H1 tag only per page.

4. Alt Tags and Filenames

Provide alt tags for your graphics so those who use text-only browsers could still enjoy your site. You should also use keywords for your filenames as added optimization method.