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One of the trickiest yet most important aspects of
web design is search engine optimization, or SEO for short. Regardless
of how much time and effort you put into perfecting your website
if you rank poorly in search engines it will likely fail. Although
the finer points of SEO should be left to a professional there are
many things the average web developer can do to boost their position
in sites like Google or Yahoo. Here’s what we recommend…
Domain Name Selection:
Choosing the proper domain name is one of the easiest yet most overlooked
ways to get listed quickly in search engines. It’s more effective
to pick a domain that not only includes your company name but also
the product or service you provide. For example a book store named
Benjamins will get better results using www.benjaminsbookstore.com
rather than simply www.benjamins.com. Make sure you domain name
clearly illustrates who you are and what you do for better results.
Proper Keyword Selection: It is important
to research in advance what keywords or phrases people are most
likely to use when searching for you on the web. Online resources
such as Google AdWords will help you determine which keywords are
most popular and sought after as it relates to your business. Also
pay attention to your competitor’s websites (those who rank
highly in search engines) and try to incorporate the keywords they
consider most valuable.
Acquire Quality Backlinks: Many experts
will tell you that backlinking is one of the most crucial elements
of SEO when maintaining a strong long term ranking. Search engines
interpret any website linking to yours as a “vote” for
your web page when evaluating its importance. When approaching other
companies for link exchanges try to target sites with similar or
complimentary content to yours. Attaining links with similar subject
matter will carry more weight than simply random links.
Write Quality Content: One of the first rules of
SEO is “content is king” meaning the written portion
of your website plays a critical role in your search engine success.
Make sure all your copy is written professionally and error free
while also including your most important keywords and phrases. Don’t
overuse keywords however, keep it to a reasonable amount (about
5-15% is recommended) or risk penalties for “spamming”
or unethical SEO practices.
Use ALT Tags for All Your Images: Alt tags are
descriptive tags used to name any graphics or images found on your
website. Search engines can’t read images therefore they rely
on ALT tags to decipher their meaning. Be sure to use ALT tags for
all of your webpage graphics and include your major keywords wherever
appropriate. Remember that ALT tags are sometimes visible in your
browser so make sure you use names that accurately reflects the
image at hand.
Frequently Update Your Website: It may sound simple
but making a conscious effort to update your website regularly will
keep you active in search engines so you don’t drop due to
inactivity. Search engines are always looking for fresh content
and frequently monitor how often any changes or updates have been
made on your site. It Try to update your website at least once a
week and even more than that if your schedule permits.
Include Keywords In Title Tags: Your title tags
are the first place search engines look when going through each
page of your website. Make sure all titles contain your most important
keywords or phrases as you believe users will look for them in a
web search. Also don’t give every page of your website the
same name. Each should have their own unique description based on
the most important content of that particlar page.
Give Each Page of Your Website an SEO Friendly Name:
The file name you choose to give each page of your website is just
as important as the title itself. For instance if your house cleaning
website has a category called “services” you are better
naming the page home-cleaning-services.html rather than simply services.html.
Give each page a file name that tries to include your most important
keywords as it relates to that particular page.
Header Tags: Search engines look specifically for
header tags when scrolling through your website believing that headers
contain more important information than simply regular text. Don’t
just bold your headers, make the effort to take the next step and
use proper header tags in your HTML code. As is the rule make your
top keywords and phrases are written into your headers wherever
possible.
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