Search Engine Optimization and Web Design
Introduction: A good web design without considering SEO is a recipe for disaster. Lee Miller of Colchester Web Design a respected Web Developer with a keen eye for Search Engine Optimization. issues has offered his opinion of what to consider when developing your Web Site to be Search Engine Optimization friendly
There are many key ingredients required when designing a web site but making your pages search engine friendly are the most important! Having designed well over a thousand sites myself and managed numerous seo projects for failing sites, I have developed a keen eye for spotting these design flaws which for the most part are incorporated by those will little or no knowledge of how critical certain aspects and features are to a web sites success.
All that Glistens is not Gold!
The old age adage is as true today as it was in years gone by, and can be equally applied to web site design or right from the moment you decide that you or your business wants an on-line presence! When deciding on a web designer its key for your future success that you don't allow yourself to be drawn into the whole Wow that design looks great scenario because you're just looking at the tip of a very large iceberg!
In this blog post I'm not going to describe the essentials, this brief article is merely a list of key factors which you must ALWAYS insist on by your chosen designer.
Top 10 Web Design Essentials for SEO:
1. Include no javascript
At least in a raw form, its ok to use java so long as its linked to an external file. What we're aiming for is an html rich page of content that is easily read by a search engine.
The same applies to CSS which again should be used by linking to external files such as shown below.
<script language=javascript src=''file.js''></script>
<link rel=''stylesheet'' href=file.css'' type=''text/css''/>
The direct result is a smaller page size with more of the good stuff.......Pure html!!
2. Good Site Navigation
Again allow no Javascript menu's, keep the general structure simple so that even your dumbest visitor can move around your site with ease, your goal here is to make your navigation structure informative, clear and more importantly remember the bots!!
Remember each menu item is also an anchor so again the topic or content you are linking to should follow your general site phases.
Most notable and a point rarely considered is the text that surrounds an anchor, whilst this is much simpler to configure within the pages body text, undoubtedly a little extra thought as to a menu items neighbor will introduce another seo element and offer a more optimized navigation structure.
3. Limit the use of png images
Always insist on jpegs or gifs! Png images will inhibit page load times, although this is just a small ranking factor a page that takes an age to load will both detract visitors and reflect on your sites efficiency. During my research into this factor, in which I have deliberately loaded a set of pages with a high quality of Png's the bounce rate was increased considerably, which is displayed by a visitors loss of patience when waiting for a page to load! Even when you choose a jpeg make sure that the image in no larger than 10-12 Kb, where possible.
4. Html and CSS validation
A really important feature that is often ignored by almost every developer or webmaster is the validation of the sites pages which is again critical and will under certain stop a bot crawling a website [see here].
5. Bandwidth Usage
These days many people prefer a gimmicky look insisting upon flash or perhaps ColdFusion which will definitely inhibit bots and drain the all essential bandwidth!
My advice is stick to what a search engine wants, which is content only htlm although there are methods on configuring flash sites so that they are readable although generally this means writing an html version of your pages.
6.Choose a Name Before a Designer!
Whilst this isn't key it will make a difference especially for a new website. I've lost count of the number of times I've spoke with clients that have names that are not optimized to their particular niche, its just another small thing but remember they all add up!
7. Page Layout - SEM!
Whilst not strictly speaking seo essential your layout will have an effect on the way your content is read by any visitors. Aiming for a sparse layout that is full of rich high quality content relevant to your target phrases is key.
8. Content Links
Use anchors effectively throughout your content and remember that the text surrounding this is equally important, so as a tip always reserve links within your articles to for the benefit of your campaign, whilst any other links (partners etc) place those to go at the bottom of the page.
9. Use every aspect of the design to your benefit!
Remember that there are other design features which you may take advantage of, although I suspect this is rather basic for this blog readership making use of the pages'''alt'' attributes so long as you use them all it won't hurt to sneak your keywords in there using your primary one once and synonyms throughout!
10. Use Firefox!!!
Whether your the designer or employing someone for this task ALWAYS use the Firefox browser, why? Purely because it has the utterly brilliant Firebug addon. Firebug comes with a host of features that ultimately allows you to view the source code of your web pages .Thereby allowing the visualization of those elements I have listed above, ignore this advice at your PERIL!!
Summary:
To summarize, your main objective is to follow standards and trends associated with website design search engine optimization. Top of the list and including all of the above listed items is that any design is clean and functional paying particular attention to the content rather that the graphic design!
You are again reminded to focus on the purpose and content of your site rather than on just the graphic presentation which all things considered isn't going to convince a client of Jack!!
