Guidelines to "Pop to the Top"

"Following these guidelines will help Google find, index, and rank your site. Even if you choose not to implement any of these suggestions, we strongly encourage you to pay very close attention to the "Quality Guidelines," which outline some of the practices that may lead to a site being removed entirely from the Google index or otherwise penalized. If a site has been penalized, it may no longer show up in results on Google.com or on any of Google's partner sites." Take it from Google, they mean it!

Getting Started:

• Have other relevant sites link to yours. The keyword here is relevant. Everything you post on your site needs to fit with your site.
• If you belong to an organization or directory, make sure they have your URL to post on their site.
• Check out other directories that such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!. Just as important look for industry-specific expert sites.
• Make sure your Web site is linked to a blog, such as Google’s Blogger.

Web Design guidelines:

• Design your web site so the menus are simple to follow. It should be very shallow (two clicks) and easy to navigate.
• Include a site map so users can quickly find the specific page they are looking for.
• Include lots of good information that will help the reader understand more about the industry, product, or service that you offer. Tips, ideas, hints are all good additions to your site.
• Key words tie the information on your site with the words that people type into the search box on Google, MSN, or Yahoo! Think like a user and come up with a list of words they might type in to find your Web site THEN make sure you use the word in the text on your web pages. Bold the most important words on the page.
• Use text instead of images to display names, content, or links. The Google crawler doesn't recognize text contained in pictures or graphics. If your Logo includes your name and it is in the header as a graphic, make sure you include your name in text on the page. Not just once but several times. Don't forget to bold it.
• Make sure that your TITLE tags and ALT attributes are descriptive and accurate. When you add a picture to your site make sure the name describes the picture and doesn't say something like "img234.jpg". 
• Weekly check for broken links and correct information. Have someone else check your site too.
• Links are good but too many links are bad, like vitamins. At least twenty-five links spread throughout your site is good. Over 100 links on one page is bad.

Basic Quality guidelines:

The basic guidelines from Google state that it is better to focus on providing a quality Web site for your users following the suggestions above than it is to try to find loop holes and trick the search engines. You won't succeed and the result will be disastrous in the long run. The algorithm used to determine search ranking changes so frequently it wouldn't be worth your time and effort to keep up. Spend the time providing a quality product or service to your customers.