1. Avoid the seduction of using Flash animated headers on your site if they can’t be indexed on a search engine. (Only the newest versions of Flash are okay). A meaty, informative site is best and positions your business well. Imparting or sharing information or solving problems that others have is a great way to garner influence. You are more likely to receive SEO-friendly link backs if you’re communicating something important. Or entertaining. Or compelling in other ways.

2. The more your site’s content is relevant or unique, the better. Assuming you have a CMS site, add blog posts, press releases or news bits– especially on your landing page — and change them frequently. Add correctly-spelled, grammatically-sound keywords or phrases relevant to your industry. When it’s not a stretch to do so, offer unique content within these posts — words or phrases that are uncommon and therefore stand out in the competitive web environment. Start by thinking of the obvious keywords, then sprinkle in a few synonyms (if appropriate.) The more relevant text you can include, the better—especially on your landing page. Keywords should be placed high in the text block and to the left. If at all possible, place unique (or just standard) keywords as follows: In the 1st sentence of the 1st paragraph; in the last sentence of the 1st paragraph; once in every paragraph after; in the last sentence of the last paragraph. Know that anything more than 5% in what is referred to as “keyword density” may be flagged as spam. How do you determine “keyword density?” Use a free, online keyword analytics tool.

3. Post blogs, articles and e-newsletters, or post others’ material to which you have added your own comments and a link. If you can summarize material first and add the summary, too, that’s even better. For a lengthy article, summarize it in a few lines on your site, and then add a link to the full article.

4. Add related links within your web content pages, but only if they’re authentically relevant. If possible, include links in the first paragraph of your blog posts, press releases and news stories. If your material is meaty and informative or in other ways important or entertaining to browsers, you will receive those all-important link backs.

5. All the above may change tomorrow, so stay on top of the action. Gogglebots rule!