It had been so long since the last time the Feature Article changed it took me almost two months to notice there was a new one

May I recommend adding a big flashing "NEW" sign next to it? And maybe removing the one next to the forums, considering they aren't so new anymore.

The Googleating article was deleted from Wikipedia.

I think frames should appear in the "pitfalls" section in addition to the design checklist (even though only Google mentions frames directly, while Yahoo mentions the impossibly vague "use good web design").

Overall is article is quite good and is a much more useful introduction than Search Engine Watch's (although SEW has better in-depth content, to which you might want to link in some places to give weight to your points)

Sorry, I had missed this post previously.

• I just made the suggested changes to the home page, and updated the Googleating link.
• I'm not quite sure what to recommend with regards to Frames. If you have a suggestion I'm all ears.
• I'll have to take a look later to see if additional links to SEW or any other resources might improve the comprehension or readability of the article.

Thanks for the feedback!

John

Rereading the article, I realize the "avoid pitfalls" section is mostly about things that have a direct negative impact on the ranking, rather than design decisions that work poorly with search engines, like frames. Avoiding frames is already in the design checklist, which is where it belongs.

I also had noticed a couple of specific SEW entries that would link well into the article, but since then I forgot what they were. I should have written them in the original post. I'm a fan of punctuating arguments with links - I think links often make a more effective type of <strong> <em>phasis and a good distribution of links make a text easier to read by breaking the monotony along with added functionality.

I completely agree.