Webmasters typically do search engine optimization with Google in mind because Google brings most visitors through search. And Google has given excellent advice to webmasters on this topic at its Webmaster Central page at http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769. The advice on the page includes website design and content guidelines such as:

Create an information-rich site that provides useful information to readers with pages that provide accurate and clearly written descriptions.
Have a clear hierarchy for your site and make every page of the site reachable through a static text link.
Use text rather than images to convey the important information on each page. Search engines recognize only text characters and not characters rendered as images. Images should be supplemented with the alt attribute that describes the image using text characters.
Think about the words searchers will use to find what you offer through your pages and include these words on the page as well as the title tag of the page. Make sure that the words do correctly describe the content you are providing and are not used in an irrelevant manner.
Write the page using correct HTML and check for any broken links. Bad HTML and broken links lower the value of the page in the eyes of search engines.

In practical terms, the above suggestions mean:

Decide on a theme for your website and write on this theme, i.e. topic, throughout your site. For example, you can write pages that describe your product or service, articles on how best to use the product or service, history of its development and so on.

Take pains to make sure that you provide authentic and correct information using words that are actually typed in by Web surfers while searching for the type of information you provide.
Use text characters rather than fancy images to convey the important information on your pages.
Attend to technical issues such as writing correct HTML, making all pages reachable through a static text link and avoiding broken links.

We will look at other guidelines provided by Google in separate articles.

For more information, visit the authors website at SEO Nottingham or SEO Mansfield