fearntechWebsite Design Principles - Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
How to get listed
The main priorities are to submit a request for a listing in the Open Directory, and to submit your website to Google, although as long as you have links in to your website from websites that are already indexed by Google then the Google robots will find you without the need to manually submit. A listing in the Yahoo Directory is beneficial and non-commercial websites can submit for free.
Optimising your site
Google is currently the most used search engine, so it is important to optimise with this in mind. Google rates a website for inclusion in search results based on it's importance (measured by Google "Pagerank") and it's relevance.
Importance
Pagerank is a system of determining the importance of a website page by examining the number of links in and links out of the page. To increase the pagerank of a website page you need to increase the links in to the page. The pagerank of the page linking to your page is also important, the higher their pagerank, the higher your pagerank.
Relevance
If a search engine user searches for "website design", then the more occurences of the phrase "website design" found on a page, the more relevant that page is to the search. Note however that to prevent website owners creating meaningless pages with keywords repeated over and over again, the search engines look for over-optimisation and can penalise a website page and even the whole website if the phrase is repeated too often or without any context. It is therefore sensible to include your key phrases wherever possible on your website page, but don't overdo it.
Other tips
Make proper use of HTML tags, headings should use <h1> (or <h2>, <h3> etc) and paragraphs should use <p> tags. Search engines give more importance to headings, and there is an added accessibility benefit for your website users using text readers as it makes it easier for them to understand the page structure.
Make sure a page title is specified (using <title> tags), text within the title is given high importance, use your keywords but make it readable so that website visitors can bookmark the page with a relevant and readable title.
Get linked up. Look for websites that feature highly in search results for your keywords, contact them and ask if they will display a link to your website. Be prepared to place a link to their website on your own links page.
Don't use frames. Search engines can be confused by your site structure if frames are used, this may mean that some of your pages are not indexed at all, and the titles may not be what you intended. Additionally, frames have accessibility issues for text readers and mobile internet users. Don't use!
Flash issues. Using Flash animations looks nice, but any text displayed within a flash animation will not be indexed. Websites built entirely using Flash will index especially poorly unless there are subsidary text links, and summary title and headings are in the HTML framework. There are techniques to minimise these problems (including having a separate text-only site) but if search engine ratings are important then it may be best to consult a professional Flash designer.
Don't get carried away. In the long term a well designed website that caters for it's users rather than repeating keywords over and over again will pay dividends in repeat visits. And don't forget to market your website in other ways, put the URL on your traditional marketing materials, add the URL to the bottom of your emails, mention your URL in forums, don't just rely on the search engines.
Further information
There are a huge number of issues affecting website optimisation for search engines. If you would like a quotation to assess and update your current website, or to design a new optimised website then please contact us.
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