There are loads of rules for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Things like “Use metatags” (or: don’t use metatags), “don’t use frames”, “use text links wherever possible”, “don’t use ‘home’ as the link to your homepage”, etc, etc, ad nauseum.
But you know what, I don’t really care much for these “rules”. Rules, to me, equal “you need to fix this”, and the tendency is for site owners to randomly and haphazardly try and tackle their SEO issues based upon what they are reading at that moment.
This is what I’m calling reactionary SEO, which, to me is evil. You aren’t identifying an issue, finding an appropriate solution and then implementing it. You are merely reacting to what someone else is saying.
My first and biggest piece of advice in relation to SEO is always to be systematic. If you realised your site’s design needed updating you would never do that piecemeal until it worked, you would always take a big-picture view, do some analysis, etc.
Okay, here’s today’s really really deep tip: DO THE SAME FOR SEO!
It’s really simple, do an analysis of what you’d like SEO to do for you, figure out which of those goals your site is currently fulfilling, and then solve your issues.
Those rules I mentioned earlier? Fantastic if you know that they will help you in fulfilling your goals. Beyond that they’re just fluff and rules of thumb: to be used when appropriate.
