For the last three months I have been hard at work learning SEO by optimizing a local small business website. The business is called Giggly Wiggly Preschool and is located in the Seattle suburb Issaquah, Washington. This Issaquah Preschool was the preschool I attended many years ago, so I am happy I was given the chance to give back to it. Optimizing for local search is a great way to learn SEO because there is less competition and it is easier to maintain a small and focused scope. It has been a slow process but has taught me a lot. The following is a checklist of all the tasks that have been necessary for me to generate great results. My hope is that this list can be used by inexperienced SEOs who are looking to learn the trade. (As a bonus, I have included checkboxes so you can print this and complete it in your spare time.)

Link: The Beginner’s Checklist for Small Business SEO

If you want your site to show up prominently in search engines like Google, your website content management system can help - but not all CMSs are created equal. We suggest the features to look for to help with search engine optimization.

Link: Eight Ways a CMS Can Help with Search Engine Optimization

Does your organization show up on the first page of results in search engines like Google or Yahoo? The content and structure of your website can have a dramatic effect on how easily potential constituents can find you via search engines. This article explains how.

Link: 10 Steps to Being Found on Search Engines

Check out Idealware’s great “Consumer-Reports-style” articles on databases, websites, email and advocacy, and office productivity. They also offer for a very reasonable price online seminars on how to select software for your organization.

Try to use Flash only where it is needed. Many rich media sites such as Google’s YouTube use Flash for rich media but rely on HTML for content and navigation. You can too, by limiting Flash to on-page accents and rich media, not content and navigation. In addition to making your site Googlebot-friendly, this makes you site accessible to a larger audience, including, for example, blind people using screen readers, users of old or non-standard browsers, and those on limited low-bandwidth connections such as on a cell phone or PDA. As a bonus, your visitors can use bookmarks effectively, and can email links to your pages to their friends.

Link: Best uses of Flash

Words matter. They always have. They always will. On the Web, words matter even more. The right words.

…If you want to design a new website, the first thing you should decide on is the words. Not the graphical design, not the software. No. The words must come first. Once you get the words right, you are half-way there.

Link: Your website: Just words?

1. Keyword research
2. Get some (trustworthy) advice
3. Look after your code
4. Make navigation easy
5. Get links
6. Build a sitemap
7. Don’t forget the technical stuff
8. Track your progress
9. Tell the search engines where you are
10. Content is king

More at this link: 10 Top Tips to Make your Website Search Engine Friendly