[SEOmoz] Cyrus Shepard created an amazing infographic that is worth sharing about the key elements to creating and designing a blog or website that will keep visitors on the page longer, encourage them to share, and rank well with search engines. (see also this article on tweeting and Google+ effects on SERP‘s)
(Click the image for a larger version)
1 – Beauty Counts – Professional design can reduce bounce rate, increase page views, and earn more links
2 – Search box – make it easy for visitors to search your site
3 – Use Breadcrumbs – Used by visitors for navigation and by search engines to help categorize your content
5 – Navigation – use HTML and CSS to create sensible navigation. Avoid links that rely on javascript for Flash
6 – Images – Keep file sizes optimized to reduce page load times. use alt text attributes and define width and height
7 – Keep it above the fold – Place important content where visitors can see it without scrolling
8 – Link to your best content – Create unique category or hub pages to feature your best posts
9 – Don’t overdo links – Too many dilute your link juice and may cause crawling issues. A limit of 100 per page is a good rule of thumb
10 – Watch your ad space – Don’t let ads outweigh your unique content. Too many ads may hurt your rankings
11 – encourage comments – Comments build a sense of community, attract links, and provide free longtail content
12 – Sharing for everyone – Make your content easy to share via social sites and email.
13 – Test for speed – Reduce page bloat by optimizing images, combining CSS into external files, and enabling caching.
14 – Crawl and Validate – Test your blog using online SEO tools to crawl and validate your site.
(For a good read, read on SEOmoz how the responsibilities of SEO have changed from 1999-2011)