How to Design a Website for SEO

Here are a few tips that will help you design your website for SEO:

More Text: Search engine spiders catalog words – not flash videos, images or other media. Therefore, make sure you have enough text in your web pages for search engines to index. If you’re going to use above-mentioned materials in your web pages, be sure to give them ALT tags (i.e. alternative text).

Relevant Keywords: The quantity of words is not enough; quality also matters. Thus, be sure to include relevant keywords in your web pages’ text. This way, your web pages will be indexed and filed under relevant keywords and people who are doing a search using such relevant keywords have a greater chance of finding your website. Be sure to use these keywords in the ALT tags mentioned above.

Internal Links or Site Map: The way your web pages are connected is important. Make sure that your pages are logically (and semantically) connected through your internal links. This makes it easier for search engines to index all of your web pages and using the right keywords. Moreover, be sure there are no broken links in your site.

Back Links: The links that point toward your site is also important – especially if they come from websites which are indexed under keywords which are relevant to yours (i.e. semantically related to the keywords you’ve used in your site). The higher the rank (importance) of the web pages linking to your web pages, moreover, the bigger weight your pages gain for SEO.

Anchor Texts: In relation to the above, it would be better if links pointing towards your site are actually anchor texts. An anchor text like “tank tops” that points towards your online apparel store is more important than a link that says “http://www.nameofyourstore.com.”

Do we create sites for user or the engines?

What’s more important? Creating sites for users or the engines? The answer is both.

Primarily a site should be designed for the user, with search engines in mind. Google tends to talk out both sides of their mouth when they say, “Don’t do anything special for the engines”. Yet, they create a webmaster tool center where you can submit a sitemap, and get information about how the engines see your site, errors and what key phrases your site ranks for. That gives new site owners a little bit of confusion.

I like sites that are easy to navigate, pleasing to the eye and that help sell whatever it is you need to. Pages should be set up as landing pages. This way you can give the visitor everything they need to make a purchase or fill out a form. At the same time you can optimize these pages for the engines and use the pages for your PPC campaigns. I believe in doing sites this way. It brings the visitor a much better experience.

The perfect site is not only user friendly, but optimized for the engines. You need to target where people go to in order to provide them with the information or product they need. There is nothing worse than having people landing on a page that is optimized for a phrase but offers no information about it.. It brings the user a bad experience and you a missed sale or lead. Once you have a page optimized, you can streamline the transition from viewing what you have to offer to facilitating a purchase. You can also provide related content and links. This, in turn, will help with you PPC because Google is now checking to see how relevant your landing pages are to the keywords you buy.

In the grand scheme of things, you do need to optimize your site. However, if you do not have usability for the user, your traffic won’t convert. Non-converting traffic is worse than having no traffic at all. It’s a webmasters nightmare.

Content Optimization

This is probably the hardest selling point to get across to a client when seo speak begins. Sure people know they need to get ranked in Google, and they know you need to build an online presence, and of course, they all know that they need to get traffic to their site.

But site copy? Anytime that topic is brought up, most clients proudly boast that they have already posted their brochure's information on their site and that works just fine.

Well, it doesn't. Content optimization is a skill that few people possess. Words sell, images don't. You need to get the user to take action! So, in that spirit, here is a list of things to do and ones to avoid:

Things to do:

* Use the main keyphrase you are targeting on every page, except for the home page.

* Use keyphrases in your hyperlinks.

* Create a page title that is intriguing and eye catching. Remember words sell, graphics don't.

* Limit your keyword usage to 2 or 3 keywords per page. Otherwise, you may get tagged for keyword spamming.

* Create supplemental content like FAQ pages, how-to pages, industry glossary and related articles about the product.

* Use the description meta tag. Google refers to this when it can't find content or a listing in DMOZ.

* Always keep an eye on competitors and how they rank for the same keywords.

* Focus on the the pages that have your best conversion rates.

* Think like a reporter, asking the five W questions (who, what, when, where, why).

* Display your location. Studies indicate that people look for local vendors, even when online.

Things to avoid:

* Inserting keywords into copyrighted material.

* Forgetting what your audience is looking for.

* Leaving the title of your page as "Untitled".

* Using too many graphics.

* Waiting to implement copy changes for expected seasonal sales. You need 6-months when optimizing seasonal content to give the engines time to adjust to your alterations.

Content optimization is a continual process of monitoring and updating. By staying true to this course, you'll see the results in your sales.