I took the liberty of researching some best practices around Search Engine Optimization strategy. Please comment and add your two cents. I will compile all of your responses and repost it.
Derek
Best Practices
- Make sure your website is tested for good load time, dead links and cross-browser compatibility.
- CONTENT IS KING! Make sure the page utilizes keywords and phrases that people will search for.
- Titles should always contain Keywords and meta tags
- If you sell stuff, give some of it away free ( "free" is a top 5 searched word).
- Link to industry specific sites that have high traffic Volume.
- Be sure to post in the correct category for your community.
- Keep the content fresh. Articles, forums, file library, blogs, etc. The more content posted, the more keyword, the higher your community will appear in searches.
- Keep your community focused on it’s business objectives. Don’t let it stray in content. This will not help in stapling your community as the absolute resources in your business realm.
- Use hyphens in file names, not underscores
- Implement and review web stats for trends, visitor behavior, content performance, referring traffic and optimization enhancement opportunities: Google Analytics, WebTrends, ClickTracks, Index Tools, Alexa & HitsLink Enterprise
- Content Calendar – This of your community like a newspaper and have an editorial calendar to drive fresh content.
- Create SEO benchmarks and track them
- RSS feed as much content as possible
- Submit to top directories with related catagories. Yahoo directory, BOTW.org, DMOZ, Business.com
Linking tactics:
- Employ a linking program to acquire incoming links from relevant web sites by researching back links to high ranking competitor web sites
- Contribute articles using keywords in titles to industry publications - not article directories
- Engage in blogger PR and online media relations with relevant industry web sites
- Submit keyword optimized press releases to search engine friendly wire services such as prweb.com, prnewswire.com, marketwire.com or pr.com
- Submit the Community to major directories - Yahoo directory, BOTW.org, DMOZ, Business.com
- Leverage social networks and micro-blogging to promote linkable content (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc) NOTE: A whole case study could be done on utilizing Facebook to drive professional users to communities.
Tagging Tools: Utilize as many social bookmarking tools as possible.
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Article Tag
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Backflip
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Bibsonomy
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Blabb
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blinkbits
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Blinklist
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Blogmarks
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Bmaccess
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Buddymarks
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Citeulike
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co.mments
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connotea.org
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de.lirio.us
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del.icio.us
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digg
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Feedmarker
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Feedmelinks
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Furl
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givealink
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Gravee
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hyperlinkomatic
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Igooi
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Kinja
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lilisto
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linkagogo
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linkroll
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looklater
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ma.gnolia
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Maple
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netvouz
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newsvine
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rawsugar
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reddit
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rojo
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scuttle
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shadows
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simpy
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spurl
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squidoo
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tagtooga
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tailrank
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technorati
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unalog
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Wink
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wists
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Yahoo!
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zurpy
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Blog Search Engine Tools: Utilize these exclusively to your blog content.
Sources:
http://www.pandia.com/features/design.html
http://www.toprankblog.com/2007/10/search-engine-optimization-basics/
http://www.seologic.com/faq/
http://www.google.com
http://del.icio.us/