Jill Whalen is someone I pay a lot of attention to when it comes to search engine optimization. I think she’s one of the ones that really has her head screwed onto her shoulders quite well.

This week she released her New and Improved 10 Tips to the Top. I don’t take issue with any of them…though I don’t feel that some of the tips are all that important (such as using image alt tags). I also hope these aren’t in order of importance for the first tip she gives I don’t think is the most important.

Her top 3 of 10:

1. Do not purchase a new domain unless you have to
2. Optimize your site for your target audience, not for the search engines
3. Research your keyword phrases extensively

I completely agree with #2. I’ve always said that the #1 SEO tip is to design for your target audience and the search engines will follow. If you’ve been a reader of this blog for a while you know that’s been my best advice to having an effective web ministry.

The one thing I don’t do a lot of talking about is good keyword research…and I should. Keyword matching is one of the big two factors Google looks at in determining what it serves up in it’s listings.

So to help with finding good keywords, Jill included a guest article entitled Discovering Keyword Discovery.