Everyone is concerned with SEO, but unfortunately there’s a lot of confusion and misinformation on the topic. Luckily, the folks at iMedia Connection have put together a fantastic article that details the best practices for Search Engine Optimization, brought to you by some of the leading experts in the field. And wouldn’t you know it: we’re one of those experts!

Read “How To Avoid SEO Failure”

Here are a few excerpts:

See what the search engine sees

The old rule against Flash-heavy sites is changing since Google starting working with Adobe to make graphics searchable. But search remains a text-focused medium, and that means it pays to see your page as the search engine sees it, according to Steve Gavette, managing director of the search agency Visible.

To do that, Gavette recommends looking at your site in a browser like Lynx. Or, you can click on the “cached” link in Google search for your site and then follow it to the “text-only” link, says Chris Wallace, founding partner and COO The SuperGroup.

Either way, both methods will give you better insight into what the search engine sees when it looks at your website. If you don’t see anything at all in the text view, you definitely have a problem, according to Gavette. But according to Wallace, a Flash-heavy site will be just fine, provided that each page’s content (Flash or otherwise) is located in a universally accessible location like an XML file.

Ask about relevance everyday

If you’re not asking about relevance, you’re definitely failing at SEO, says The SuperGroup’s Chris Wallace. “Much like a credit score, no one knows exactly how specific factors affect rankings,” he adds. “But as a general rule of thumb, always ask yourself: What more can I offer the users who I want to attract? How can I be the most relevant website on a particular topic? This means an abundance of informative content, and a diversity of content that a user might be interested in. Don’t just load your site down with text. Make sure to include PDFs, videos, and even links to outside resources that would be helpful for your users. Do anything you can to make your site extremely relevant and useful for a visiting user, even if that means providing links to outside resources. This will rank you higher in search engines.”