Follow up on SEO Article

A few months ago, I published the article Getting Started with Search Engine Optimization. Based on some of the feedback I received, I decided to add a few practical tips as a supplement to this article.

First, feel free to contact me directly with any and all questions as you read through this. I'm just dorky enough to find this stuff fascinating.

Below are a few things you can try to improve search engine rankings.

1. Submit Any New Site for Indexing

For any new site, be sure to submit it to Google, Yahoo, and Bing. You could wait on them to spider your site and index your content, but I recommend being proactive here.

You should be able to visit each of these links and type in your website.
http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl
http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit
http://www.bing.com/docs/submit.aspx

2. Use Alt Tags for All of Your Images

Search engines cannot read images. They can only read text. Because of that, it is very important to include the 'alt' tag with descriptive text for every image. An 'alt' tag ties descriptive text to the picture itself. This text is displayed in a browser as the picture loads, and can also be seen if you roll over an image. This is also what Google uses to locate pictures in their image search.

Existing images may read like the following example (don't forget to add the '<'): img src="http://www.blogger.com/design/Graphic.gif" / Here is the image with the alt tag: img src="http://www.blogger.com/design/Graphic.gif" alt="IMS Neptune Web CMS" /

3. Use Keywords for Links
When linking to your site, use your keywords in the link text. Phrases like "Learn More" or "Click Here" actually hurt your search rankings since those phrases are associated with your website address.

Instead, use the keywords you want associate with your site for any links you create.

What About You?
Have you employed any of these tips for your website? What has worked for you?