Seven Tips for Better Search Engine Optimized Websites

You’ve designed a great website and your client loves it, but why isn’t it showing up in the search engines?

Building a websites your client will love is one thing, but putting together a website that search engines will also love is a completely different ballgame.

The overall theme of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is to help the search engine understand what the web page is about so it can better place the page in its results. Simply put, search engines like pages that make life easier on the engine.

Search engines are powerful tools, but oftentimes web designers build websites in ways that hinders the search engine’s ability to locate the site. In-short, some web design techniques are the cause of many search engine failures. By simply avoiding these common pitfalls, much of the SEO work is done for you!

1. Strategically place important keywords throughout the website

Placing keywords within the text of the site is incredibly important. If a client’s goal is to show up on search engines for specific terms, do some research for them on what terms are most often searched for by real users. Google’s Keyword Tool is great for this, showing how often a term is searched and how competitive the term is. It also creates a list of commonly related terms you may not have considered. Once you’ve found some terms that people search often, find ways to incorporate those terms into the important parts of your website (Body text and Title/Description/Keyword meta tags).

2. Make sure your navigation is readable by search engines

Like a user, search engines find content by following links from page to page. The easiest links to read are made of simple HTML code. By using HTML links whenever possible, you are given another opportunity to place important keywords on your page (assuming you avoid non-descriptive “Click Here” type links).

If you can’t create the look-and-feel your client wants with pure HTML, you can always make the link an image, but remember that search engines don’t read text in images. Doing this is sacrificing ‘search engine-ability’ for looks (which may or may not be an acceptable tradeoff for your client).

Two techniques to simply avoid are dynamically generated links and navigation placed in Flash movies. Search engines don’t read JavaScript or Flash, so the navigation path from page to page will not only be lost, but so will any keywords in the links.

3. Do not embed important body text into images

This is incredibly common with new website designers who focus on looks rather than utility. By placing text in an image instead of creating the image with code, not only is the website going to load slower, but that text will have been completely wasted when it comes to the search engines.

4. Avoid splash pages

The homepage of a website is the most important page for search engines. Search engines expect the homepage to be the defining page that tells the user and the search engine what the entire website is about (which it should be). Having a splash page that says nothing but “Enter Here” doesn’t define or describe the website, and won’t help the search engines.

5. Write code that’s lean & mean

If you were reading a book that was full of unnecessary words and symbols it would certainly take you longer to finish the book than if the page was clean and simple. This effect is also true with search engines when reading a web page. If you place important text at the bottom of extensively long bits of code, the search engine may simply never read that text (it kind of assumes the important stuff that defines the page will be at the top). Make sure to condense your code whenever possible. I recommend avoiding table-based layouts in favor of DIV tags and external Cascading Style Sheets to cut the code length down.

6. Add ALT tags to all images

To be compliant with XHTML standards, an ALT tag should be added to every image. It may seem tedious, but the ALT tag is another location to add those ever-important keywords the search engines are looking for. Make sure to be descriptive about the image while still using important keywords.

7. Don’t try to trick the search engine

There are several techniques webmasters use to try and trick search engines into ranking their website higher in the results. Examples of such tricks are placing hidden keywords in the web page code, repeating keywords many times (known as keyword spamming), or creating keyword-laden home pages that appear on search engines but immediately redirect the user to a different less-optimized page when clicked. Unfortunately for those designers, the cat is out of the bag and they’re not tricking anything. The staff at search engines know about these tricks, and have either massively downplayed their effects in search engine results, or will actually penalize websites using them. If you’re tempted to use these tricks, remember that the search engine staff is always at least 10 steps ahead of you.

Choosing a Designer? What questions you should ask to narrow down the list

As someone who needs a graphic or web design service, you are truly blessed if you have multiple designers trying to win your attention and your project. There are definite benefits to having lots of people vying to help get you something you need.

But now that you’ve found yourself with at least several designers to choose from, what makes one designer better than another for your project?

Design Style

This aspect is critical… Well, it’s not as critical to some, but if you’re reading this blog I’m assuming you care at least a little bit about design. Each designer has their own style, so it’s important to look at your candidate’s portfolio to get a feel for the kinds of work they typically do. Is their common style artsy, classy, edgy, grungy, professional? Are they versatile enough to design in more than one style depending on what kind of project they’re working on? Make sure the designer is capable of producing the look-and-feel that you want.

Experience

This is one of the easiest ways to cut down the list. If you have a simple project, this factor may not be as important in helping you decide, but if you need something more skill-specific, make sure that your candidates all have what it takes. Have faith in your designer’s abilities, but the more experience the have on multiple related projects, the more likely they are to understand what you need and how to get it to you quickly.

Availability

The designer can complete the job, and the final product will look great, but can they complete the project in the time frame you’d like? Make sure to clearly explain the project and express your desired deadline so the designer can estimate whether they can meet it. If you don’t explain the project with at least some degree of detail, you may get a time frame estimate that will end up being incorrect as the complexity of the project reveals itself.

Skills

Obviously, if the designer doesn't have the technical skills to complete the job, you wouldn't hire them. But when choosing a designer it's important to look towards the future. You should ask them about the skills they have that you currently don't need. You may be just looking for a business card right now, but one day you may need a website. If you develop a good working relationship on the first project, it's easier to keep the same designer for multiple projects than try to find another.

Rates

If I’ve learned anything, it is this: there are people in every profession who do their job poorly, but still manage to get paid for it. Designers are no different. Some designers make a living off low quality work. Others don’t charge much, but haven’t got much experience either. If you’re looking for your first website, or a simple graphic piece, you should look for a designer who has a diverse portfolio of designs you like, some related experience, and middle-of-the-road rates. You should be prepared to pay decent rates for good design, but don’t pay for something that is poorly done.