Tuesday, June 16, 2009
SEO Top Tips for new website design
SEO Top Tips for a new designed website by Dr Search
Although the Search Clinic optimises many websites which have already been constructed, we often get asked for top tips on what a business owner should be briefing their web designer, if they are redesigning their website.
Below are the top 7 features to ask for which will help your website become SEO friendly from day 1.
1) Ensure your URL’s are keyword rich and avoid dynamic URL’s which normally contain characters such as “?, % or =”. The URL of a Nike shoe model for example should include your desired keywords and look something like http://www.wisemoney.com/bad-credit-home-loans.htm
2) Ensure your copy and navigation is text based and not an image. An easy way to check this is by trying to highlight the text on your web page and copy/paste it into an editor such as word. If you can edit the word that you have pasted in your editor, it means the search engine can also read it and index that content accordingly.
If you can't see the text then neither can the search engines.
3) Ensure your images have ALT Tags. This is basically an explanation of what the image is as Search Engine crawlers can not easily recognize images.
In the UK this is also a legal requirement and is high on Google UK's key ranking criteria.
4) Ensure a sitemap is included in your web design and linked from your homepage. This enables search engines to navigate your whole site. XML sitemaps are also a great way to inform search engines of all of your web pages.
Dr Search posted about sitemaps recently.
5) Avoid websites with frames. Search engine crawlers have trouble navigating these and hence don’t give you the SEO power from your content.
6) Avoid an over reliance on flash in websites. Search engines cannot adequately categorize the flash content. If you really can’t do without flash, ensure you create a html version of your website also.
7) If buying a website with a CMS, make sure you have access to altering the Title and Meta Tags, as well as adding text on the web page itself. You would be surprised how many CMS systems don’t even allow these features which can help with the ranking of your website.
By having as many of the above features readily available, it will ensure that you have built a solid foundation which can allow an SEO company to optimize your website for much better results. For top 20 guaranteed results Dr Search suggests that you have a look at the Search Clinic Gold SEO service.
Although the Search Clinic optimises many websites which have already been constructed, we often get asked for top tips on what a business owner should be briefing their web designer, if they are redesigning their website.
Below are the top 7 features to ask for which will help your website become SEO friendly from day 1.
1) Ensure your URL’s are keyword rich and avoid dynamic URL’s which normally contain characters such as “?, % or =”. The URL of a Nike shoe model for example should include your desired keywords and look something like http://www.wisemoney.com/bad-credit-home-loans.htm
2) Ensure your copy and navigation is text based and not an image. An easy way to check this is by trying to highlight the text on your web page and copy/paste it into an editor such as word. If you can edit the word that you have pasted in your editor, it means the search engine can also read it and index that content accordingly.
If you can't see the text then neither can the search engines.
3) Ensure your images have ALT Tags. This is basically an explanation of what the image is as Search Engine crawlers can not easily recognize images.
In the UK this is also a legal requirement and is high on Google UK's key ranking criteria.
4) Ensure a sitemap is included in your web design and linked from your homepage. This enables search engines to navigate your whole site. XML sitemaps are also a great way to inform search engines of all of your web pages.
Dr Search posted about sitemaps recently.
5) Avoid websites with frames. Search engine crawlers have trouble navigating these and hence don’t give you the SEO power from your content.
6) Avoid an over reliance on flash in websites. Search engines cannot adequately categorize the flash content. If you really can’t do without flash, ensure you create a html version of your website also.
7) If buying a website with a CMS, make sure you have access to altering the Title and Meta Tags, as well as adding text on the web page itself. You would be surprised how many CMS systems don’t even allow these features which can help with the ranking of your website.
By having as many of the above features readily available, it will ensure that you have built a solid foundation which can allow an SEO company to optimize your website for much better results. For top 20 guaranteed results Dr Search suggests that you have a look at the Search Clinic Gold SEO service.
Labels: Dr Search, Search Clinic, search engine marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, Search Marketing, SEO Services
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
Post a Comment