I am curious how others are approaching this issue and opinions. I have been putting Google Analytics, Nodewords, XML sitemap on all my sites. Recently I have started building my themes with Fusion which suggests these modules as well Page Title, Pathauto, and Global Redirect. I have SEO checklist on my dev site to see what it suggests. There are a number of other modules it suggests as well as the ones listed above. There are also a number of other Drupal SEO modules. Are there any those that are favorites of the group? What are some tactics, modules, or other insights?
P. S. Most of my sites do well, if searching specifically i.e. Cedar Creek Gallery, Pottery Creedmoore, Nell Chandler, Nell Jewelry. Of course I get numerous emails from SEO people and companies promising great results.
Comments
Don't forget the basics
While having the right modules is important, don't forget to focus on keyword research, and writing good content with SEO in mind.
I agree that the ability to write unique Title tags is important. Most search engines will include your title tag, and you generally would write a different title for someone you are attempting to attract from a search engine, than you would for a user already on your website.
David Minton, Managing Partner, DesignHammer | Durham, NC, USA
ESS EEE OHH
David is exactly right. If you read Google's recommendations on effective SEO, their advice is startingly simple: write for your customers, (not us). Market differentiation, "value" words for your niche, well-written content; all boring and all great for SEO.
Another reference I use frequently is "seomoz.org" Heck, if they weren't so expensive, I'd subscribe, but they have an free, exhaustive and authoritative reference here: http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo that I send to my customers when doing basic SEO research.
Sadly, SEO bots pop up the minute they find "SEO" in any stream; so, yea, as you've found, beware.
seo modules
So are the SEO modules useful? SEO checklist had some good suggestions, but I would not install it on every site. Some of the suggestions may not be relevant for all sites i.e. most of the sites I have built are not "community" sites with users logging in and posting data. Or are they just adding module bloat? Other than the modules listed, does anyone use any of the other SEO modules http://drupal.org/search/apachesolr_multisitesearch/SEO?filters=bs_project_sandbox%3A0%20%20ss_meta_type%3Amodule&text=SEO