TOP Search Engine Optimization Tips for Web Designers

SEO – Search Engine Optimization (Is basically, tweaking your website to be crawled by search engine spiders) Sounds gruesome doesn’t it? Download PDF - SEO ChecklistLet me start by stating that I AM NOT an SEO guru. I don’t claim to be the mastermind of SEO. However, I have been developing websites for over 13 years, and have used these tips below…and THEY WORK! So why not try them yourself? Many of the suggestions below are just basic common sense web standards that we have always done in traditional web design. And there are some new ideas to think about as you build a site from scratch.

None of these ideas will hurt your site. In fact, even if you did not gain higher rankings, you would gain in other areas like; retention, download time, better user experience, accessibility and much more. Here is my list of suggestions for improving your search engine rankings.

TOP Tips for SEO – Search Engine Optimization Domain name – Although it’s not as important as it use to be, try to register a domain name that has at least one of your keywords in it. This will also draw attention to your listing in the rankings as each keyword will appear in bold. Also purchase the domain for more than 1 year. Search engines put relevance on this.

Site architecture – try to keep the depth of your site to 3 levels. I’ve read that some search engines stop indexing after the first 3 levels.

Files names – Yes, even down to the files names can make a difference. Everything counts. Again, try to use your keywords as much as possible in your files. Whether it be for your page names or your image names.

Clean code – Keep as much keyword rich relevant text near the top of the page as possible. This is where the spiders start to make a first impression about your site. Make it a good one. Try not to clog up your pages with JavaScript or countless font tags. Use client side files for your JavaScript and CSS. This will clear the way for spiders to find the good stuff on your site.

Titles – Search engines still rely on the title of your web page as a critical factor in listing your site. So be smart and make your title descriptive and keyword friendly. Not too much. And don’t make it “salesy”. These spiders are smatter than you think. There is much controversy over how many characters to use for your title. My research has seen numbers from 50 to 200. I stick with no more than 125. Create specific titles for each page.

Meta Description – If you do not submit a description or include one in your code some search engines will use the first 100 some odd characters for your websites description. In most cases this is not the text you want to be your sales pitch. This is your FREE ad, take advantage of it. Try to make each page have specific meta tags.

Keywords/Tags – from keywords to “tags”. Everything is now “tagged”. You’ll still want a great list of META keywords/phrases to target, but you’ll use them as tags through out your social networking as well. You will also want to go into any PDF’s you’re linking to on your site and add tags for the spiders. Search engines are really starting to index these pdfs. Rich, relevant and keyword heavy text – Integrate your top searched keywords and phrases into the content of your site. It must be relevant. Don’t get to overzealous…the crawlers are smart. If you think it doesn’t still make sense when you read it…well it probably is more like Spam and you should revise it. If you’re new to search and you’re not sure what keywords to target there are many good tools to use. First try reviewing your web trends to web stats. Most of these web analytics will give you some indication of how your users are coming to you from search. Or visit our resources page which is full of great links for keyword generators.

Content Headlines – Make your content headlines keyword rich when applicable and right above the content with a link to the entire article. In the code for these headers use the H1, H2, H3 tags. Crawlers look for these and consider these headline titles as important content. Try to have some of these at the top of your code. This gives the spiders something to taste right away.

Alt tags – They may or may not be useful for some of the search engines, however it will not hurt to use them. In fact, it will only help you with “Accessibility” to your site and help those of which have dialup. Again try to use the keywords your targeting but in a relevant way. As for length of characters…wish I knew. Everyone says something different. I try to stay no more than 50 characters.

Anchor text/links – The anchor text (also referred to as 'link text') is an important element for higher rankings for a specific keyword or keyword phrase. Internal links are important for crawlers looking for relevant copy and links. Make your labels of your navigation in text, NOT images. And make them descriptive with your keywords. Oh, and it doesn’t hurt to have these text links duplicated in the footer text as well. For now this seems to be a web standard and not looked at as Spam. Add title text to get keywords in your links.

Like Link popularity and backlinks – By increasing your backlinks (link popularity) with relevant directory links, contextual article links, and social network links. STAY AWAY from LINK FARMS (a company which relies on reciprocal links via link exchange networks. The last thing you want is to get black listed from any search engine. And by participating in a link farm you just may end up there. Do it the right way.

Blogs – Blogs are a great way to get content out to the masses quickly. And search engines seem to love the content on these blogs. With the emergence of RSS readers, everyone is piped in using RSS. If you have a blog you can have it syndicated across many other sites. Driving traffic and search rankings.

Social networking – Social networking is a phenomena defined by linking people to each other in some way. There are many, many social networks to join. Find the right networks that align with your website then join some groups, create your own groups and start adding content and networking. Search engines love these networks and spider them regular based on there relevant content. Some samples of social networks are the obvious like; Facebook and Myspace. But there are many more out there popping up every day. Like digg, twitter, faves, flickr, tumblr, ziki, reddit and many, many more.

Directories - Many of directories are spidered by the main search engines frequently. Do a search for directories in your websites genre. Submit your site to FREE directories that are relevant to your site. A few to check out are: www.dmoz.org (which Google now uses) http://www.yahoo.com/

Re-directs – If you have re-directs to any of the pages on your site use a “301” re-direct instead of “401”. 301 redirect is the most efficient and Search Engine Friendly method for webpage redirection. It should preserve your search engine rankings for that particular page. The code "301" is interpreted as "moved permanently". Here is a great site for re-direct code.

Consistency – Try to keep the basic structure of your site to a consistent design and structure. Of course keeping integrating new content, but keep the foundation the same. As Google spiders your site, the more times you re-arrange your site the more your site will be in page rank flux.

Bad or broken links – One site had mentioned that if a spider catches a bad link it will stop indexing and move along. Even if it’s not true, this is a good practice to keep anyhow. NO user wants to click on a link, only to find out the page doesn’t exist. DAMN, I hate when that happens. Don’t you? Try using the FREE XENU software. (PC’s only) Great little tool!

Search engine submission – Submit your website manually. Do NOT use one of those automated “FREE submission to 2000 websites offer”. Many search engines do not like these automated systems. Regardless of what these companies promise. Google & Yahoo! Have webmaster tools that allow you to create accounts and upload sitemap.xml files directly to them. These are a MUST. Easy and simple to do. This gives the a direct feed and tells them what to do with different tags. You can use this site to generate a sitemap.xml file.

Google page rank – Download the FREE Google tool bar. Turn on the option for “Page rank”. Take a look at your website pages and your competitors. Google’s organic listings weigh heavily on this page rank system. BE PATIENT! Getting a HIGH Google page rank and listing is a difficult task to achieve. Especially for keywords with high market saturation and Big companies with long histories of internet linked partners. By following these tips you should be on your way to climbing up the search rankings. At the very least your customers will benefit from a more content relevant site, with less clutter and easy navigation. Oh, I forgot LUCK. It doesn’t hurt in this ever changing, highly competitive game of SEO. tb.

Article Source: http://www.webdesignarticles.net.

About the Author:
Todd Bertsch is the Creator & Publisher of Design Dump. Todd received a Bachelors degree in Fine and Applied Arts, with a concentration in Graphic Design, from the University of Akron. He is currently the Interactive Media Director at TRIAD Communications, an advertising agency located in Cuyahoga Falls, OH. Todd has over 13 years experience in web and user-centered design. Todd is a published author and teacher of graphic design. He is a member of Northeast Ohio Usability Professionals’ Association. Todd is also creator and coordinator of Design for 24, a 24 hour design-a-thon in collaboration with other graphic designers focused on helping not-for-profits achieve their goals of promoting their services.