SEO Best Practices

I wouldn't trust much of what Matt Cutts says anymore. Just like the US military, disinformation is a primary strategy. Some of his recent discussions are shaky at best.

Certainly good architecture plays a ranking factor and can't understand why this is still being disputed?

I would agree that its not a ranking factor, however...

W3C standards are honored by browsers, and spiders alike. I am no expert, but if you have two documents, one has proper structure, while another doesn't, I would rather parse the document with proper structure.

Its like a compiler for HTML. Many users are often unaware of their HTML flaws. W3C helps eliminate potential problems like invalid characters, closing/opening tags, attributes, and much more.

SEO can best be done by knowing the fundamentals of HTML. Make sure you understand the value of w3c validation. TheMusicAge attempts this and is fairly successful. Google "SEO TheMusicAge" or "TheMusicAge Marketing" for more information.

Take a look at Mat Cutts video on why W3C is not a ranking factor, he just recentlt discussed this.

Thanks!

Good point here Joel, definitely NOT going to hurt you, so if you have time go for it.  I think the big thing is not thinking that these tactics will skyrocket you to the top.

Consideration three: know your competition. How well you do in the search engine results is a function how much hard work you have put in relation to that of your competition. You want to make sure you work harder and more diligently than those against whom you are competing so keep this in mind when writing your website and article content.

great point, I'm digging the tools over at SEOmoz lately when doing competitive analysis to know what we're going up against.