SEO Process

1	Keyword in URL	First word is best, second is second best, etc.
2	Keyword in Domain name	Same as in page-name-with-hyphens
3	Keyword in Title tag	Keyword in Title tag - close to beginning Title tag 10 - 60 characters, no special characters.
4	Keyword in Description meta tag	Shows theme - less than 200 chars. Google no longer "relies" upon this tag, but will often use it.
5	Keyword in Keyword metatag	Shows theme - less than 10 words. Every word in this tag MUST appear somewhere in the body text. If not, it can be penalized for irrelevance. No single word should appear more than twice. If not, it may be considered spam. Google purportedly no longer uses this tag, but others do.
6	Keyword density in body text	5 - 20% - (all keywords/ total words) Some report topic sensitivity - the keyword spamming threshold % varies with the topic.
7	Individual keyword density	1 - 6% - (each keyword/ total words)
8	Keyword in H1, H2 and H3	Use Hx font style tags appropriately
9	Keyword font size	"Strong is treated the same as bold, italic is treated the same as emphasis" . . . Matt Cutts July 2006
10	Keyword proximity (for 2+ keywords)	Directly adjacent is best
11	Keyword phrase order	Does word order in the page match word order in the query? Try to anticipate query, and match word order.
12	Keyword prominence (how early in page/tag)	Can be important at top of page, in bold, in large font
13	Keyword in alt text	Should describe graphic - Do NOT fill with spam (Was part of Google Florida OOP - tripped a threshold - may still be in effect to some degree as a red flag, when summed with all other on-page optimization - total page optimization score - TPOS).
14	Keyword in links to site pages (anchor text)	Links out anchor text use keyword?
NAVIGATION - INTERNAL LINKS
15	To internal pages- keywords?	Link should contain keywords. The filename "linked to" should contain the keywords. Use hyphenated filenames, but not long ones - two or three hyphens only.
16	All Internal links valid?	Validate all links to all pages on site. Use a free link checker. I like this one.
17	Efficient - tree-like structure	TRY FOR two clicks to any page - no page deeper than 4 clicks
18	Intra-site linking	Appropriate links between lower-level pages
NAVIGATION - OUTGOING LINKS
19	To external pages- keywords?	Google patent - Link only to good sites. Do not link to link farms. CAREFUL - Links can and do go bad, resulting in site demotion. Unfortunately, you must devote the time necessary to police your outgoing links - they are your responsibility.
20	Outgoing link Anchor Text	Google patent - Should be on topic, descriptive
21	Link stability over time	Google patent - Avoid "Link Churn"
22	All External links valid?	Validate all links periodically.
23	Less than 100 links out total	Google says limit to 100, but readily accepts 2-3 times that number. ref 2k
OTHER ON-Page Factors
24	Domain Name Extension Top Level Domain - TLD	.gov sites seem to be the highest status .edu sites seem to be given a high status .org sites seem to be given a high status .com sites excel in encompassing all the spam/ crud sites, resulting in the need for the highest scrutiny/ action by Google. Perhaps one would do well with the new .info domain class. Not so much, now - .info sites can rank highly.
25	File Size	Try not to exceed 100K page size (however, some subject matter, such as this page, requires larger file sizes). Smaller files are preferred <40k>
26	Hyphens in URL	Preferred method for indicating a space, where there can be no actual space One or two= excellent for separating keywords (i.e., pet-smart, pets-mart) Four or more= BAD, starts to look spammy Ten = Spammer for sure, demotion probable?
27	Freshness of Pages	Google patent - Changes over time Newer the better - if news, retail or auction! Google likes fresh pages. So do I.
28	Freshness - Amount of Content Change	New pages - Ratio of old pages to new pages
29	Freshness of Links	Google patent - May be good or bad Excellent for high-trust sites May not be so good for newer, low-trust sites
30	Frequency of Updates	Frequent updates = frequent spidering = newer cache
31	Page Theming	Page exhibit theme? General consistency?
32	Keyword stemming	Stem, stems, stemmed, stemmer, stemming, stemmist, stemification
33	Applied Semantics	Synonyms, CIRCA white paper
34	LSI	Latent Semantic Indexing - Speculation, no proof
35	URL length	Keep it minimized - use somewhat less than the 2,000 characters allowed by IE - less than 100 is good, less is even better
OTHER ON-SITE Factors
36	Site Size - Google likes big sites	Google has caught on and dumped millions of pages, or made them supplemental.
37	Site Age	Google patent - Old is best. Old is Golden.
38	Age of page vs. age of site	Age of page vs. age of other pages on site Newer pages on an older site will get faster recognition.