Good practices for images

Use brief, but descriptive filenames and alt text - Like many of the other parts of the page targeted for optimization, filenames and alt text (for ASCII languages) are best when they're short, but descriptive.
Avoid:

• using generic filenames like "image1.jpg", "pic.gif", "1.jpg" when possible (some sites with thousands of images might consider automating the naming of images)
• writing extremely lengthy filenames
• stuffing keywords into alt text or copying and pasting entire sentences

• Supply alt text when using images as links - If you do decide to use an image as a link,
filling out its alt text helps Google understand more about the page you're linking to. Imagine
that you're writing anchor text for a text link. Avoid:

• writing excessively long alt text that would be considered spammy
• using only image links for your site's navigation

Store images in a directory of their own - Instead of having image files spread out in
numerous directories and subdirectories across your domain, consider consolidating your
images into a single directory (e.g. brandonsbaseballcards.com/images/). This simplifies the
path to your images.

Use commonly supported filetypes - Most browsers support JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP
image formats. It's also a good idea to have the extension of your filename match with the
filetype.

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Write better anchor text

Anchor text is the clickable text that users will see as a result of a link, and is placed within the anchor tag a href=

This text tells users and Google something about the page you're linking to. Links on your page maybe internal—pointing to other pages on your site—or external—leading to content on other sites. In either of these cases, the better your anchor text is, the easier it is for users to navigate and for Google to understand what the page you're linking to is about.






Good practices for anchor text

• Choose descriptive text - The anchor text you use for a link should provide at least a basic idea of what the page linked to is about. Avoid:
  

1. writing generic anchor text like 'page', 'article', or 'click here'
2. using text that is off-topic or has no relation to the content of the page linked to
3. using the page's URL as the anchor text in most cases (although there are certainly legitimate uses of this, such as promoting or referencing a new website's address)

• Write concise text - Aim for short but descriptive text—usually a few words or a short phrase. Avoid:

1. writing long anchor text, such as a lengthy sentence or short paragraph of text

• Format links so they're easy to spot - Make it easy for users to distinguish between regular text and the anchor text of your links. Your content becomes less useful if users miss the links o accidentally click them. Avoid:

1. using CSS or text styling that make links look just like regular text

• Think about anchor text for internal links too - You may usually think about linking in terms of pointing to outside websites, but paying more attention to the anchor text used forinternal links can help users and Google navigate your site better. Avoid:
  

1. using excessively keyword-filled or lengthy anchor text just for search engines
2. creating unnecessary links that don't help with the user's navigation of the site

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Make your site easier to navigate

The navigation of a website is important in helping visitors quickly find the content they want. It can also help search engines understand what content the webmaster thinks is important. Although Google's search results are provided at a page level, Google also likes to have a sense of what r apage plays in the bigger picture of the site.

All sites have a home or "root" page, which is usually the most frequented page on the site and the starting place of navigation for many visitors. Unless your site has only a handful of pages, you should think about how visitors will go from a general page (your root page) to a page containing more specific content. Do you have enough pages around a specific topic area that it would make sense to create a page describing these related pages (e.g. root page -> related topic listing -> specific topic)? Do you have hundreds of different products that need to be classified under multiple category and subcategory pages? Example:


The directory structure for our small website on website

A sitemap (lower-case) is a simple page on your site that displays the structure of your website, and usually consists of a hierarchical listing of the pages on your site. Visitors may visit this page if they are having problems finding pages on your site. While search engines will also visit this page, getting good crawl coverage of the pages on your site, it's mainly aimed at human visitors.

An XML Sitemap (upper-case) file, which you can submit through Google's Webmaster Tools, makes it easier for Google to discover the pages on your site. Using a Sitemap file is also one way (though not guaranteed) to tell Google which version of a URL you'd prefer as the canonical one (e.g. http://tutorial-trick-tips.blogspot.com/ or http://www.tutorial-trick-seo.blogspot.com/; more on what's a preferred domain). Google helped create the open source Sitemap Generator script to help you create a Sitemap file for your site. To learn more about Sitemaps, the Webmaster Help Center provides a useful guide to Sitemap files.

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Good practices for URL structure

* Use words in URLs - URLs with words that are relevant to your site's content and structure are friendlier for visitors navigating your site. Visitors remember them better and might be more willing to link to them. Avoid:

1. using lengthy URLs with unnecessary parameters and session IDs
2. choosing generic page names like "page1.html"
3. using excessive keywords like "tutorial-seo-tutorial-seo-tutorial-seo. htm"

* Create a simple directory structure - Use a directory structure that organizes your contentwell and is easy for visitors to know where they're at on your site. Try using your directory structure to indicate the type of content found at that URL. Avoid:

1. having deep nesting of subdirectories like ".../dir1/dir2/dir3/dir4/dir5/dir6/ page.html"
2. using directory names that have no relation to the content in them.

* Provide one version of a URL to reach a document - To prevent users from linking to one version of a URL and others linking to a different version (this could split the reputation of that content between the URLs), focus on using and referring to one URL in the structure and internal linking of your pages. If you do find that people are accessing the same content through multiple URLs, setting up a 301 redirect from non-preferred URLs to the dominant URL is a good solution for this. Avoid:

1. having pages from subdomains and the root directory (e.g. "domain.com/ page.htm" and "sub.domain.com/page.htm") access the same content
2. mixing www. and non-www. versions of URLs in your internal linking structure
3. using odd capitalization of URLs (many users expect lower-case URLs and remember them better)

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