Tips for SEO Friendly Website Design
The following is a list of the methods that can be used to ensure your website is as search engine friendly as possible. These follow directly on from the guidelines as set out by the popular search engines like Google and Yahoo
( http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769 ).
Many of these have to be implemented either at the time the website is constructed
or alternatively as part of a website overhaul. Unfortunately, you will
need the help of a web developer to implement these. If we can assist you
in this regard please contact us.
1) Use Text
Search engines index text, and the first portion of a web page is the most important as far as the search engines are concerned. Keep the web page tightly coded, don't spread it out with HTML Tidy or dilute it with extra spaces, line returns, etc. Keep all your links in text format instead of images. Because search engines can not read the text on the images.2) Use Minimal Java Script and Flash:
Use minimal or no Flash, because search engines don't index the text in the flash graphics. Use minimal JavaScript (none, if possible). Search engines don't crawl JavaScript links very well, especially in flyout or dropdown menus. You can do a lot with CSS to emulate a flyout menu or dropdown menu that the search engines can read and follow. Most of the search engines do not interpret Javascript and those that do interpret Javascript mainly want to find out if that website is using sneaky redirects to cheat the search engines. If you absolutely MUST use JavaScript menus, don't put the code for them into the head of the page. Instead, put the Javascript in an external file (such as "myscript.js") and call the JavaScript from the external file. Search engines tend to ignore JavaScript, so if you call the external files they can easily ignore it (the search engine robots don't call those external JavaScript files) . Don't use JavaScripted automatic popup windows on your home page or on any page that you want the search engines to index.3) Reciprocal Links:
Set up a links page to link to other sites so that you can reciprocate links with them. Link to your own links page from the site map in order to ensure you do not "leak" page rank.
4) Table-Less Design:
Don't use nested tables to lay out the site. Instead use CSS. This is one of the reasons that blogs are search engine friendly. They utilise table-less design or don't use nested table structures. Please note that using CSS does not necessarily result in table-less design. Rather table-less design should be used in conjunction with CSS. You can check whether your site utilises a table less design here: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/ If you MUST use tables, put a summary attribute in the main table tag - it will help the search engines figure out what the table is about. Remember don't use too many tables or a nested table structure.5) Charset Declaration:
Declare a character-set type in the "head" of every page. And then STICK WITH THAT CHARACTER SET--don't use characters that aren't in the character set you select. Search engine robots can be deterred by putting characters in your page that it is not expecting.6) Submit to Search Engines:
Submitting a website to search engines and directories is useful, especially in the case of a new website that hasn't already been picked up by Google and others. It won't hurt, but most likely Google will find you anyway. Two directories that may be worth submitting to are the Yahoo Directory and the Open Directory Project.| IT Solutions |
