This is an article I wrote in November of 2002, but I feel that much of the information below is still relevant today. - Pam

1. Many search engines are not frames friendly. Avoid using them if at all possible.
2. Optimize your page title. It should be no longer than 100 characters and should include several primary keywords relative to your site and optionally your website name.
3. Include a brief “description meta tag” that includes several of your keywords, while at the same time entices people to want to visit your site, as this tag is sometimes used as the site description beneath your link in search results.
4. While some search engines no longer pay attention to the “keyword” metatag due to spamming and other abuse, I still feel it is an important metatag to include.  It should contain applicable keywords and keyword phrases that searchers might use when searching for a site such as yours, which words are also included in the text on your page. Limit it to 500 characters.
5. Include several primary keywords in the first few lines of text that appear on your page if possible. (Check the HTML view of your page to see the text that appears first.)
6. Avoid flash intro pages if possible. While many of the major search engines are able to read flash pages, text on flash intro pages is not able to be crawled by all or crawled adequately. If you must use a flash intro page, at least add text below the flash file relevant to your site containing several of your top keywords or consider using a flash header instead.
7. Don’t submit your site to the same search engine more often than once per month. Some search engines may consider more frequent submission to be spamming, and you could possibly end up being banned. Use the “REVISIT-AFTER” metatag to instruct the SE spiders to return to your page and reindex on a regular basis, although many will do so anyway.
8. MY NUMBER ONE RANKING TIP: Exchange links with high-ranking sites (at least a 5 Google PageRank) containing quality content similar or compatible to that of your site.