Keyword Density – Keyword density is the percentage of times a keyword or phrase appears on a Web page in comparison to the total number of words on the page. For example, 10 percent keyword density is achieved when 10 keywords appear in a body of text totaling 100 words. In the SEO world, keyword density plays a role in determining whether a Web page is relevant to a user’s search for a specified keyword or keyword phrase. To improve search engine rankings, a site’s keyword density must not be too high or too low. But identifying ideal keyword density is not a simple process. Experts suggest that the optimum density is more of a range than a specific figure, and most agree that a keyword density of one to seven percent is preferred. It’s important to avoid “keyword stuffing” wherever possible. This refers to the use of more than 10 percent keyword density. There are a number of easy-to-use tools available that simplify the process of determining keyword density.

Adding meta keywords and meta descriptions to SharePoint pages can also enhance SEO, offering a method for improving a search engine’s likelihood to identify your content as relevant to a particular search. A post on the Mtelligent Solutions blog provides a streamlined and timesaving alternative for incorporating meta tags into SharePoint pages. Meta tags can be used to detail the page description, keywords and other data not contained in the head elements of the page.

Create Meaningful Titles – Meaningful titles tell both the search engine and the site visitor what a page is about. Experts say that every page on a site should contain accurate and unique titles, which can be easily done through use of the TITLE and Tooltip attributes in SharePoint. SharePoint provides a very useful Web Part to accomplish this.

Search Engine-Friendly URLs – A simple piece of SEO advice is to make sure your site’s URLs are descriptive: avoid code or meaningless identifiers. Why? Because having descriptive URLs makes it easier for search engines to identify and categorize your site, and drive relevant traffic to it. It has been documented that search engines prefer pages that appear to be hand coded, existing on a non-dynamic URL. Such pages are less likely to be computer generated and more likely to serve a real purpose.

Ensuring that your site URLs are handled by SharePoint navigation control is one way to improve search engine friendliness, as well as search engine visibility. It also ensures that site visitors can find all the pages on your Web site in the manner in which they expect. The good news is that SharePoint 2007 can automatically keep your navigation current, based on your site’s “Navigation” settings.

There is a great downloadable solution on CodePlex, which you can install on your public-facing SharePoint site to allow for easy changes to blog post URLs to make them more descriptive.

Use of Robots file to Control Search Engine Spiders - A robots.txt file is a simple file that establishes what is known as the “Standard for Robot Exclusion.” When placed in the main directory of a Web site, it advises spiders and other robots which directories or files they should not access. Even though the file is merely advisory, most major search engine spiders will read it and follow the rules contained within the file. The robots file should be placed at the root of the Web server (http://www.domain.com/robots.txt).

This is important because SharePoint generates many sub-folders, and some should be excluded from robot access, otherwise they impact keyword density.

Workflow to Update Your Sitemap – The use of this file is very common: it lets search engines know when your pages have been added, removed or modified. You can build your sitemap using xml to add nodes for each page on the site, incorporating information such as last modification date, title of your page, etc. Right now, the exact formatting of the XML file can vary depending on which search engine it is tailored for (Google, Yahoo, Bing), so read about each engine and choose the one that best suits your site, or try to use properties that all of them can handle. SharePoint can help, with tools for building controls that automatically update your sitemap file when a public facing page is published to a major version, or by using workflows for the pages library, so that when you update, delete or create a new page, the sitemap file will be automatically updated with the new information.

Site Building Practices to Avoid When Using SharePoint
When planning and building your Web site in SharePoint, there are some practices you should AVOID because they detract from SEO:

Page Titles - Never name the page titles with the core functionality (for example, don’t name your home page title just that -- Home). Because search engines examine the “title” property of a page, it’s best to name your page titles using important keywords. This will deliver far better SEO results.

Overuse of Keywords - Never overuse a keyword throughout your site. It may cause search engines to identify your page as “suspicious,” which could detract from SEO.

Hidden Fields - Do not use hidden fields with keywords visible to the search engine, but not to the user. This is like trying to fool the search engine, and can backfire, thereby negatively impacting SEO.

Inline JavaScript - Do not use styles, or “inline” JavaScript. Inline styles typically cannot be indexed or ranked by search engines with regard to content or unified keyword relevance. A Web site using an external style sheet has less code for the search engine spider to go through, so it is more likely to index your content faster.

Want to Get the Most Out of SharePoint?
Clearly, utilizing SharePoint can deliver significant value to your business by empowering your employees with an efficient way to collaborate and share knowledge, manage content across the enterprise, and create customizable Web services. By taking advantage of existing tools within the suite, you can now optimize your search engine rankings and bring more traffic to your site.