I've never been real concerned about SEO. But as a start up freelancer I think it would be a good idea to have a good understanding of what SEO entails and begin learning about it.

Can someone point me to some good reference material about SEO?

Thanks.

A lot of it is common sense...

1. Make sure your code is correct, no broken, incorrect tags etc
2. Use heading tags <h1>, <h2> etc
3. Make sure your text copy is well written and contains relevant key words, ie,

"Howdy, and welcome to my new web design site" is poor
"Welcome to Alikat web design and development services" is better

4. Always include Meta description, Meta keywords and <title> tags on every page

5. Spell check everything!!!

6. Optimise your images - no.1 spot on Google is wasted if your home page takes 5 minutes to load

in other words good design practice....

AliKat there's a ton of info here and at other forums. It can be confusing at first since there's quite a lot of misinformation. I think the most important thing is to realize there's no magic formula for getting your pages ranked. Understanding that can usually help you sort through a lot of the bad advice.

I've written an SEO Basics Tutorial which I hope does a good job of covering the basics that might help get you started.

Thanks. I will read it. First page is helpful hehe. Don't have time to finish right now, but I plan on it.

Glad you found the first page helpful. I know it's a long tutorial, but I was trying to cover as much as I could. I'll be happy to hear what you think of it if and when you make it all the way through.

Reference, SEO Terms Defined: http://www.webmaster-talk.com/seo-ta...s-defined.html

Here's great SEO advice I found titled "Do it yourself SEO" from John Scott. This is great advice!
His Blog: http://www.internet-marketing-blog.com/

Do It Yourself SEO

Many people contact me for search engine optimization services. I don't do SEO for new clients and I don't even like doing it for my old clients. Any idea a potential client can have is either a junk idea, in which case I don't want to be a part of it, or it's a brilliant money making idea, in which case I can do it myself and keep all the profits.

Step One

Build a site without session ID's. Build a site which either has static URLs are URLs that appear to be static. The fewer parameters in the URL, the better. After all, what's the use of optimizing a page if it's never going to make it into the search engine's index?


Step Two

On page SEO is the stuff, oddly enough, on your pages. Most importantly, put your keywords first in the title element:


Code:
<TITLE>Web Hosting - Rated #1 by Slanted Reviews.com</TITLE>

The factors to consider are:

Keywords in the heading tags:


Code:
<H1>Seattle Web Hosting</H1>

Meta Keywords:


Code:
<meta name="keywords" content="web hosting, cpanel hosting, seattle hosting, web host, quality hosting, webhost, webhosting, PHP host">

Meta Description:


Code:
<meta name="description" content="Web Hosting by V7. Rated #1 by Slanted Reviews.com. We support PHP, MySQL and a bunch of other stuff.">

Folder and File Names:

Bad:

/cpanel_xv2_POP.htm

This URL may include the word "cpanel" and "POP", but it is seperated by an underscore instead of a hyphen, Google cannot parse those keywords.

The search: site: cpanel pop

Doesn't return that page.

Instead, use the hyphen:

flash-tutorials.php

Anchor Text

Wrong:

Navigate to my Business Hosting Page by "Clicking Here"

Unless you are targeting the keywords "Clicking" and "Here", that isn't going to help you much.

Correct:
Navigate to my Business Hosting

Descriptive anchor text. It works wonders.

Body Copy Keyword Density and Prominence

Without Keyword Density:

Quote:
You'll love our services.

Include the keywords:

Quote:
You'll love our web hosting.

Low keyword Prominence:

Quote:
You'll love our web hosting.

High Keyword Prominence:

Quote:
Web Hosting is what you'll love.

Keyword first, you see.



Bold Text:

Quote:
You'll love our web hosting.

Italicized Text:

Quote:
You'll love our web hosting.

NOTE: The above mentioned items are "on page SEO". They tend to make your pages look uglier. You need not use all of those, or any of those. They are simply factors that the search engine may consider, and you may pick and choose which items you wish to use and which you'd rather not use.


Step Three

Now you need to build links.

First step, general web directories:

RubberStamped

SevenSeek

ThisIsOurYear

Wow Directory

GoGuides

Skaffe

JoeAnt

Zeal

Gimpsy

Yahoo!

Then move on to the topical web directories. You can find web directories to you're heart's content here:

http://www.isedb.com/

Second Step In Link Building

Now you want to get linked to from every related site there is. Many rigional library sites have mini-directories and resource pages. If applicable, email the webmaster and suggest thery link to your super duper site.

You may also write articles on a given topic and allow webmasters to use them in exchange for a link-back. Or, submit online press releases to related news sites.

After that, just use your imagination. Links can be generated in thousands of ways.

It should be noted that to fully benefit from the links, the achor text of the links should describe your product/services.

In Summary

There you have it. It's simpler than being potty trained. But this is just SEO. Effectively marketing a product or service entails a lot more than just search engine traffic. But we'll discuss that later.

i read a nice article about it here