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WEB DESIGN ARTICLES |
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| Designing
websites for better Search Engine Ranking |
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Summery
- We all design websites for internet users,
the challenge now is to design them for search
engine spiders as well. This article will
make things easier for you if you are wondering
what is being talked about.
Why
Optimize
Let's start this topic with the very obvious
question. I have designed a very good website
and have appropriate content showcased in
it, why should I put extra efforts to optimize
the website for search engines?
Here's why -
Visibility Matters MORE Than the Packaging
Most people will arrive at your website in
one of two ways:
From own promotions
From search engines
A number of research show that all web users
depend on search for guidance on the net.
So, one of the most probable route user will
take for your website is through search engines.
Also, Visibility
= Sales
Especially, Ecommerce sites often get a sale
from users browsing through their catalog.
Ecommerce differs from other websites in having
confirmation and fulfillment stages that follow
up on users' initial visit. Closing the first
sale is one of the most important drivers
of subsequent ecommerce sales. So in this
case optimizing for search engine will lead
to increase in sales.
Search
Engine Optimization - the role of a web designer
Placement of content and its usability
While usability features are primarily intended
for the end users, a designer should also
think of the search engine robots (spiders)
that will regularly come to visit the site,
to index and refresh its pages.
In order of priority, the five most important
usability features a designer should always
implement in a website are: |
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- Ease of navigation
- Simplicity and intuitiveness
- Clearly indicated menus and links
- A well-designed site map
- Clean, uncluttered design
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Good
search engine results can be ensured by following:
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Strategic placement of
keyword rich paragraphs (some websites
put the main paragraph above navigation) |
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Spider can't read an image: use text
not images as links for product pages |
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Spiders can't read flash: at least
not completely, so use flash wisely
and when required. |
Information Architecture
A well designed navigation had two benefits:
it helps the users find what they are looking
for and it also helps the search engines better
index the entire site.
Web designer has to take the time to design
a good site map:
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Make sure the site map
is directly linked to the homepage. |
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Make sure that the site map link is
a text link. |
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Make sure the site map page does not
exceed indexation limit. (101K) |
HTML Optimization: The Title Tag
Title tags play two very important roles on
the Internet:
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The title is displayed
in search results as the most prominent
piece of information available to searchers. |
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The title is used by the major search
engines as the most important piece
of information available in order to
help them determine the topic of the
page, and thus to determine the ranking
of the page in their search results. |
Things to be kept in mind while writing the
"Title Tag":
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All titles should be typed
in Title Case/Proper Case. |
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Designers have resorted to all sorts
of things in order to make their title
stand out. Here are just a few examples:
1. ((( Mosaic Services )))
2. : : : Mosaic Services : : :
3. | Mosaic Services |
4. " Mosaic Services " |
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Some of the acceptable Tags are:
1. Copyright Symbol(©) - ™
2. Trademark Symbol (T) - ™
3. Registered Trademark Symbol (®)
- ® |
HTML Optimization: The Meta Tags
KeyWord and Description meta tags: We would
leave this to the SEO experts, but some pointers
just in case you want to try your hand on
this
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Use keyword phrases instead
of single keywords. |
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Use commas between keyword phrases
with NO spaces. |
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Do not waste space by using words
such as if or at. |
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Give each page its own keywords and
description. |
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The description should make sense. |
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Write description in running text
format. |
HTML Optimisation: The Headers
Headings from <h1> right on down to
<h6> are often entirely missing from
websites.
Text within such headings is given very high
treatment in the search engine algorithms
in a search for keywords.
Some
pointers:
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Do not replace headers
with graphics to make the page look
cooler. Look from the spider's eye -
big paragraphs with no heading? |
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If at all required - use alt tag. |
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Try to make balance between the amount
of graphics and sub headers to make
the page look visually appealing. Having
no heading at all is a big mistake.
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CSS addresses cross browser <h>
tag issues. |
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The Main-header<h1> Tag - Placement
of multiple H1 tags is unnatural and
looks like spam to the search engines. |
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The Sub-header <h1-6> Tags -
Use as many as required. |
HTML Optimisation: The Alt Tags
Here's the thumb rule:
Spiders can't read the images, they won't
index any text a web site presents in image
format.
Does this site make any sense to you, it doesn't
make sense to SE spiders as well. To fix this
problem, there are ALT tags, which are basically
image description tags.
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Use keyword phrases instead
of single keywords. |
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ALT tags describe images. |
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Add keywords to site text. |
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Should be used for each image. |
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Make sites accessible to the visually
impaired. |
Flash Optimisation
Search spiders are incapable of reading the
content within a Flash file and thus a site
designed entirely in Flash will likely not
rank well within the results of a search.
Google can follow a link inside a Flash page,
but if that link just leads to another Flash
page, the spider won't have much content to
index.
Macromedia
Flash Search Engine SDK-
The Macromedia Flash Search Engine SDK provides
search engines with the means to search and
index Macromedia Flash (SWF) movies. But it
is not yet used by popular search engines.
So what's the
solution?
Here are some suggestions:
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Consider using Flash to
enhance your Web pages instead of creating
Flash-only pages. |
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For an HTML site with Flash intro
page, use "skip intro button" that will
enable the spiders to follow HTML content.
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Publish HTML templates from Flash,
don't create them. |
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Manually add Meta information. |
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Use invisible <div> to place
content ? |
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If budget allows - Build both Flash
and HTML versions. |
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Auto-redirecting - If it's a spider
visiting - let it do its thing, If it's
not a spider - redirect to the Flash
page. |
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| Get
your website
analyzed for FREE to know what additional
functionalities can be added to it. If you
already know what functionality the web site
requires, request
a FREE quote now to get a detailed proposal. |
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