Bing Search Results - Getting Started Checklist
Here’s list of things you should be thinking about when starting to build or optimize your website. It’s not an exhaustive list, but each item will take you time to research, plan and execute. If you manage to cover them all, you’re doing very well.
Ready to get started driving more traffic to you site? We've brought together key information to help you get up and running quickly. For each of the five main areas we touch on (Crawlability, Site Structure for SEO, On-Page SEO, Content & Links) ask yourself if you have performed the task. Some of these will be easily handled, while others may require more planning and work to implement. If you hit a wall and simply cannot accomplish something on the list, don’t panic. Move on to something else.
Crawlability
- Create XML sitemaps and upload them to the root of my site
- Ensure navigational structure can be accessed by search
crawlers
- Ensure content is not buried inside rich media (Adobe Flash
Player, JavaScript, Ajax)
- Ensure a clean down-level experience to expose content when
rich media is used
- Ensure a clean, keyword rich URL structure is in place
- Create a robots.txt file and place at the root of my domain
Site Structure for SEO
- Ensure content is laid out in a logical hierarchy
- Ensure content is well linked to with internal links
- Ensure a clean, keyword rich URL structure is in place
- Ensure URLs contain no extraneous parameters where possible
(sessions, tracking, etc.)
- Create both HTML & XML sitemaps for humans and search crawlers
respectively
- Ensure JavaScript/Adobe Flash Player/rich media does not hide
links from crawlers
On-Page SEO
Inside the <head> code
- Titles should be unique, relevant, and approximately 60
characters long
- Descriptions should be unique, relevant, grammatically
correct, and 160 or fewer characters
- Must have only one title and description per page on my site
Inside the <body> code
- Should have only one <H1> tag - content held in tag should be
keyword rich
- <ALT> tags should be available for all content-related images.
They should contain content that explains the image and uses targeted keywords
- Ensure the keyword targeted by your page appears within the
actual content of the page
- Use targeted keywords in anchor text when pointing links to
other internal pages
Content
- Ensure content is built based on keyword research to match
content to what users are searching for
- Ensure a dedicated down-level experience exists to enhance
discoverability of content held in rich media
- Ensure as much written content as possible is kept out of rich
media and images
- Produce deep, content rich pages; be an authority for users by
producing excellent content
- Set a schedule and produce new content frequently
- Be sure content is unique – don't reuse content from other
sources
- Use 301 redirects to transfer value to new pages when content
is moved or retired
- Use the <rel canonical> tag to help engines understand which
duplicated pages should be indexed and have value attributed to them
- Use 404 error pages to help cleanse old pages from search
engine indexes
Links
- Plan for incoming & outgoing links – plan how to encourage
users to link to content
- Create a plan to manage internal links ensuring the engines
see deeper content
- Create a social media plan to promote content via social
spaces
- Be sure to manage anchor text to help define content inside
the site
- Avoid buying links in an attempt to influence search rankings
Original Article: http://onlinehelp.microsoft.com/en-US/bing/hh204497.aspx
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