We’ve talked a little about what SEO is and how you can use it in a broad sense to generate traffic for your site. Now we’re going to get into the finer details of optimizing a website for search.

Don’t make your site more complicated than it needs to be. Flash apps, podcasts, and videos might look nice, and feel fancy, but search engines can’t index the information in them. If you’re going to include those things on your site, be sure to use text to reiterate the information in your media files. Search engines can’t hear your podcast, or watch your videos, so it’s very important that the information in them be converted to test, and placed on your site. We’re not suggesting that you transcribe your entire podcast, but rather that you write a couple paragraphs detailing what’s covered in the podcast.

It’s also important to provide a well organized navigation system on your site. Consider adding a nav bar just under the header that includes links to all the major sections of your site. If your site is broken down into a lot of subsections, add a drop down menu for each section that shows all of its subsections. You should also add a sitemap to your website. Not only does it make it easy for your visitors to find what they’re looking for,  but it also makes it easier for search engines to index your site.

Be careful about the quality and quantity of links on your site. If you have more than 50 links on any given page, you may be damaging your search rank. Also, keep an eye out for broken links on your site. From time to time, a page on another site will get deleted, or moved. If you have a link leading to content that isn’t there anymore, it reflects poorly on your site. There are a lot of free link checkers out there that will browse your site, and give you a report on the status of your links. If you’re using WordPress, there are several highly effective plugins available to help you avoid broken links.

The most important thing of all is to have good, original content on your site. Your content should be keyword rich, and each page should be completely original. If you have two pages with near identical content on your site, search engines will view them as duplicate content, and your search rank will be damaged because of it.

By keeping a well organized site with a lot of quality content, you can boost your search rank significantly. Keep your links up to date, and make sure there’s some text to go with your media, and your site will climb it’s way to the top of any major search engine in no time.