There are some no brainers too: Web sites with abnormal amounts of hyperlinks, bold or italicized text, improper use of heading, alt, or comment tags can also expect to see low rankings.

5. Choosing a Domain Name. The golden rule to web development of any kind is to keep your visitors in mind above all else - even search engine optimization. When choosing a domain name, one should pick either your business name (if you have a high-profile business name such as Chapters or Coca-Cola) or a brief description of your products. Domain names can always help with search engine optimization, as it is another area of your web site that important keywords can appear. Forget about long-winded domains such as www.number-one-best-books-on-earth.com as no one will ever remember it and it will be hard to print on business cards or in ads.

If you need to change your domain name for any reason you obviously don't want to lose existing rankings. An easy way to do this, and one that is currently supported by most search engines, is 301 redirect. It allows you to keep your existing rankings for your old domain name, while forwarding visitors to your new web site instantly.

6. Using Frames. Don't use frames. Frames are a thing of 90's (and in Internet world that is eons ago) and are not even supported by some search engines. The search engines that are able to index your site through frames will most likely frown upon them. Whatever you are trying to accomplish by using frames can usually be done with help of PHP includes or CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Some browsers are not frames-compatible, so there is danger of some visitors not being able to see your site at all. Bookmarking of individual pages within a frame becomes difficult without lengthly scripts being written.

7. Update Your Information. Not only does information printed two or three years ago look badly on your organization when it is read by a visitor, it is also looked down upon by search engines. Web sites that continuously update and grow their web sites usually experience higher rankings than stagnant sites. When trick to SEO is offering visitors most relevant information, you can bet that age of web pages is taken into consideration by search engines. Consider creating a section of your site devoted to news within your organization, or have a constantly updated resources area.

Many shortfalls of web sites can easily be attributed to designers who just don't keep user or search engines in mind. Search engine algorithms are quickly improving to try and list most user-friendly sites higher, given that content and link popularity are there to back it up. So first and foremost, know your target market and make your web site work for them before focusing on search engine optimization. If you build it (properly), they will come.

Further Investigation – My Hopes Continue to Diminish.

To investigate my thoughts as thoroughly as possible, I spent some time reading FAQ located at http://labs.google.com/suggest/faq.html. Nowhere in this FAQ does it say anything as to what “results” indicate other than that ranking of suggested terms are based on popularity of searches done at Google. That does NOT come right out and say that number reported for “results’ in any way indicates actual number of searches for particular search term, but yes, one could infer that meaning, especially SEO’s and webmasters so desperately looking for another way to help “properly” optimize their pages for Google. I can understand this thought process, and would have fallen prey to it had I not thought about it in a little more detail, but facts speak for themselves, and common sense rules out.

Comparing Google’s Usage of Term “Results” Throughout Their Site.

The other proof I offer to substantiate my claims stems from context Google uses everywhere else word “results” appears on their site. They tend to use that word EXCLUSIVELY with results being returned for number of matches for a particular search term from their database. Add to facts that Google has never been one to openly give webmasters or SEO’s ANYTHING that can be used to manipulate their SERPs and it just goes to further prove that experts are wrong in assumption that “results” are an indication of search term’s search popularity at Google. The way terms are ranked to provide best possible suggestion IS based on search popularity at Google, but number has nothing to do with actual number of searches conducted. That synched it. I have no choice but to believe that article written by Mr. Valentine is misleading, and that many other SEO’s are jumping gun to tout “new salvation tool” to help us demystify Google search term popularity, or help us improve our page optimization. This “tool” isn’t going to give SEO’s and webmasters anything but a preview of number of SERP results they will have to wade through to find their information.

Taking Final Plunge – Getting Information Straight from Horse’s Mouth.

Nevertheless, being I’d rather hold on to some shred of hope that I am wrong, I have taken liberty to question Google and am still awaiting their reply. Although order can give some insight into search term popularity for particular search terms, there is still no way to know just how much of a difference exists between first and second terms suggested. In all reality, there could be thousands more searches for first term over second, or their could be just a few more for first over second, but either way it really doesn’t give us useful information that I’d like to see for SEO work like Overture’s suggestion tool does. When Google responds to my question, I’ll be more than happy to try to edit this article or post results to forum. Until then, hopefully I am wrong, but I just can’t hold out hope that Google would make things that much easier for SEO’s and webmasters looking for ways to “optimize” their pages for Great Google Bot.