Seo Design Tips

Web site design tips:

The following web site design tips will help you to obtain a higher ranking on search engines.

1. Your web site must have content. Content is the most important thing for search engines. Much more important than META tags. Be sure that you have content on your web site that search engines can read. That means that you have to use more text and fewer images.

2. The content on your web site must be easy to read and error free. Internet directory editors don't like web sites with mistakes.

3. It should be easy to see what your web site is all about. Editors don't search for information.

4. If you use image links, you also provide text links so that search engine robots can crawl inside your web site and index every page of your site.

5. You don't use a redirection as the entry page to your web site. Most search engines fear to be spammed by redirections.

6. Your web site uses very little Flash effects, JavaScript and other scripting. Search engines have problems with that information.

7. Your web pages end with .html or .htm. When your web pages end with .asp, .cfm or contain special characters, many search engines will ignore them.

8. Every image on your web site has an alt attribute with a description that contains keywords.

9. Don't use more than two banners per web page. Banners are often placed at the top of a web page. Unfortunately, search engines consider the beginning of a web page as very important.

10. All important web pages of your web site should be just one click away.

11. You don't use unusual fonts. For example, is very likely to cause problems. Common fonts are Verdana, Arial and Helvetica.

12. Your web site does not use frames. Many search engines still have problems with frames.

13. Your are not using ALL CAPS or similar font design, like all boldface. This looks as if you were yelling at your users.

14. Your java applets work with every browser under Mac OS and Windows.

15. Your web site is NOT under construction.

16. You have your own domain. That indicates that your business is here to stay and that it is worth indexing it.

17. Other quality web sites link to your web site.

18. Your web site is easy to understand. It is designed with the user in mind.

Your web site is interesting, has something to offer for your target audience, everything is working without errors, it has no broken links and it loads fast.

Common mistakes in web page design

Some search engines see the web the same way someone using a very old browser might. They cannot read image maps. They cannot read frames. You need to anticipate these problems, or a search engine may not index any or all of your web pages.

1. Avoid using image maps

Designers often create image map links from the home page to inside pages. Most search engines do not understand image maps so they cannot follow the links of your home page. Unfortunately, the most descriptive, relevant pages are often inside branch pages rather than the home page.

You can easily solve this problem by adding some HTML links to the home page. This is a strategy that will benefit your human visitors as well. If you put the HTML links down at the bottom of the page, the search engine will find them and follow them.

Also consider making a site map page with text links to everything in your web site. You can submit this page, which will help the search engines locate additional pages within your web site.

2. Avoid Frames When Possible

Some of the major search engines cannot follow frame links. Make sure there is an alternative method for them to enter and index your site, either through Meta tags or smart design.

3. Avoid Dynamic Pages

Expect that some of the search engines won't be able to index web pages that are generated by CGI scripts or by a database. Consider creating static pages whenever possible, perhaps using the database to update the pages, not to generate them on the fly. Also, avoid symbols in your URLs, especially the "?" symbol. Search engines tend to ignore such pages.

4. Search engine spamming will affect your web site position

Spamming does not work with search engines. Most likely, it will backfire to you. More and more search engines are able to detect spam attempts and penalize or ban your page from their listings.

Also, search engine spamming attempts usually center on being top ranked for extremely popular keywords. You can try and fight that battle against other sites, but then be prepared to spend a lot of time each week, if not each day, defending your ranking. That effort usually would be better spent on networking and alternative forms of publicity.

Sites that spam search engines degrade the value of search engine listings. As the problem grows, these sites may face the same backlash that spam mail generates. The content of most web pages ought to be enough for search engines to determine relevancy without webmasters having to resort to repeating keywords for no reason other than to try and "beat" other web pages. The stakes will simply keep rising, and users will also begin to hate sites that undertake these measures.