1. Change default passwords. The first thing you should do when setting up a new site is to change all default passwords. Be vigilant and make sure no default passwords go unchanged. An amazing percentage of attacks are successful due to site administrators simply forgetting or failing to change default passwords. Often, if default passwords do not grant immediate access, attackers will simply move on to an easier target that does use default passwords.

2. Use passwords that are unique and complex and change them regularly. Not only should you use complex passwords, but you should also use unique passwords for all aspects of your site and change them on a regular basis. For example, you should never use the same password for both FTP access and administrative control panel access. If you use the same password for both methods of access, an attacker that knows the single password has the keys to the kingdom. Instead, use complex and different passwords for all access accounts. Create passwords that are not easy to guess and that use upper and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters. Do not use regular dictionary words in your passwords because those are easy to crack or guess.

3. Delete the built-in admin account. One of the simplest security steps to take is to delete default and built-in administrator accounts and create more obscure ones. You should create at least one administrator account that does not have a name that flags it obviously as an admin account. By making your admin powers harder to find, you make it more difficult for attackers to destroy or deface your site.

4. Keep software and all plug-ins updated. Unfortunately, there are many plug-ins and other web software out there that seem legit but actually contain malicious code or back doors. Carefully screen all plug-ins and software before you use them. Additionally, keep a close eye on your trusted software and plug-ins as well. If official updates are released, be vigilant about installing them. Updates are often released to patch holes and bugs that can allow attackers access to your site. By patching quickly, you can reduce your exposure to these risks.

5. Restrict access to your home folder from other IP addresses. Many hosting companies allow you to restrict administrative access to specific IP addresses. If you have this capability, you can prevent outsiders from doing damage to your site. Set access to only allow the IP addresses that you perform administrative duties from.

6. Audit permissions regularly. If an account does not administrate permissions, remove them. Check the permissions on your web folders and set folders that hold static content to read only. Assign only the minimum amount of permissions necessary to accounts and folders. By carefully monitoring access levels and permissions, you can prevent or limit the amount of damage that can be done when an attacker strikes.

7. Keep your PC clean and protected. While many focus on securing their website, often securing the PCs that are used to maintain the websites gets overlooked. The best passwords in the world cannot protect your site if your PC is automatically sending your secure passwords to an attacker. Malware installed on a computer can record keystrokes and send other sensitive data to attackers over the internet. As a result, it is vital to ensure that the PC you use for administrating your site is secure and clean. Use a trusted brand of antivirus software and always practice safe computing habits.

The best way to avoid having your website hacked is by being vigilant in your security practices and following these guidelines closely. However, with the speed that new exploits spread at, even the most vigilant administrators may discover that attackers have found a security loophole to crawl through. In this unfortunate, yet realistic, scenario these security guidelines can also help you minimize the damage that an attacker can do if they gain access to your site.

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Keyword Signals

Have a look at a page on your site. Are you completely and effectively communicating what the page is about and should rank for?

Knowing all the keywords you should be targeting involves keyword research using a variety of potential tools, so having a fully optimized site needs this step. As far as SEO health is concerned, though, it’s a matter of making sure your content reflects whatever you have determined as your targets for each page.

On Page Text

Of course, search engines look at the text on the page. Does your text contain all the terms for which you would hope and expect that page to rank? If you expect to rank for a term on a page, it had better appear on that page at least once.

Note, this does not mean that the more it appears, the better. Search engines want your text to read naturally, so stick to max once per paragraph, or really a few times per page.

Headings

It wouldn’t be a bad idea to have your top keyword appear in a heading on the page. The bigger font signals greater importance, and is something search engines are likely to take into account.

Title Tags

Title tags, for many years now, have been an extremely important indicator of what a page is about for search engines. Title tags are a “meta tag”, located in the head part of a web page’s code, appearing nowhere on the page itself but often readable in your browser’s tab or at the top of the browser window.

Title tags become the blue clickable portion in search engine results pages, too, so you can see how it would make sense for it to be a keyword-rich, yet readable, click-worthy summary of the content.

Google truncates title tags after 65 or so characters, and doesn’t value much of what comes after that anyway, so when you write them, try to stay within these limits.

It’s obvious but worth stating: not only should every page have its own unique title tags, but first you need to ensure that your website’s admin area actually let’s you customize them! Most modern content management systems (CMSs) do, but in my time I have seen many that don’t (and I got them replaced.

Duplication

Remember, the goal is effective, healthy, unobstructed communication with search engines. They are looking to know which pages to rank for which terms. You may have successfully communicated keyword content, but what happens when you have multiple URLs with the same content? How is Google supposed to know which to rank?

Search engines want one authoritative (or “canonical”) page for each piece of content, otherwise the confusion created by multiple URLs can result in none of them ranking.

SEO tools can often help you find duplicate content, by showing you duplicate title tags across the site. Alternatively, search in Google the following:

site:yoursite.com

This will list all the URLs Google has indexed for your site. Sometimes duplicates will be immediately apparent. Go to the last page of results. If you are told that many pages are in the “supplementary index”, this could be a sign of duplicate content, of Google doing its best to sort out the canonicals from the useless duplicates for you.

You need to identify what’s causing these extra pages. You may not be able to fix it yourself, and you might benefit from the help of a professional search engine optimizer, but being able to identify the problem is a good start.

Crawlability & Indexability

Duplicate content problems were when search engines found multiple versions of the same page. What about if Google has trouble navigating or reading your pages at all?

A few things can get in the way. If your site is built using iframes, there’s a good chance search engines aren’t indexing it properly. If navigating around your site does not create different URLs in you address bar for each page, your site may be using iframes. Check the page’s source code (right-click and select “view source”) and see if you can see the word “frame”. A website made in Flash is likely to have this kind of problem, too.

If in browsing around your site you see extremely long and complicated URLs, this can potentially get in the way of your site being crawled. You might need to get them rewritten, and potentially need a new CMS.

When you do a site:yoursite.com search, is approximately the right number of pages indexed? Too many can mean duplication issues, too few can mean crawlability issues.

Getting Help

Brand new sites will always have a tough time ranking, but if you seem to be getting nowhere despite being online for a while and with a reasonably well-known site or brand, you may want to enlist the help of a professional SEO to have a look at your site. They are trained precisely to deal with these kinds of site aspects, and can help promote your site online and boost your search engine traffic.

Get in touch if you are looking for recommendations of reputable SEO companies to work with.