SEO should be considered when designing a website. The following investigates how to design a site with SEO in mind.
SEO is important for the success of a website. Good SEO increases both search engine rankings and visitor traffic. Although existing websites can be adapted for SEO, it is best to design the site with SEO in mind.
Understanding SEO
Before you begin designing your site with SEO in mind, it is important to understand what SEO is. You will then know the benefits and importance of SEO.
Why Design a SEO Website?
If your site is SEO friendly it will optimise its search engine ranking and increase user traffic. If the site is not SEO friendly then the “spider bots” and “crawlers” will not be able to index and rank your site. On the other hand, if your site is SEO friendly, but, unappealing users will not stay on the site for long or they will not return. Thus, a website needs:
- To be designed for SEO
- To be visually appealing
- To be user friendly
SEO Design Do’s
- Design the website in html, or similar formats
- Include keywords in the URL’s
- Use descriptive meta-tags
- Use alt tags for your images
- Use H1 tags (title page)
- Include a H1 tag on each page
- Use H2 tags
- Use H3 tags
- Write good SEO content
- Include a xml site map
- Include a html site map
- Create backlinks to your site
- Include outbound links to credible and relevant sites
- Add relevant keywords
- Add relevant keyword phrases
- Add relevant keywords to website content
- Add text to each page that has relevant keywords
- Use unique phrases that are not too popular
- Use unique content
- Turn PDF’s into actual copy
- Consider website design principles, such as consistency, theme, colour and navigation
- Add clear descriptions of images and links
- Optimise each webpage
- Update your website
- Focus and organise content
- Write content for website visitors
- Frequently refresh content
- Design the site for the user
SEO Design Don’ts
When designing a SEO site do not:
- Use too much Flash or Java script.
- Use complex coding
- Have too many outbound link
- Duplicate content
- Design a site and then think about SEO
- Use unethical SEO techniques
- Dismiss the importance of good website design
- Make use of splash pages (entry pages with graphics)
- Create blogs, only if you can update them regularly
- Create forums, only if you can tend to them regularly
SEO Design Tips
SEO design tips include:
- Submit your site to search engines.
- Submit your site to online directories.
- Avoid submitting your site to too many search engines.
- Avoid submitting your site to search engines too often.
- Remember that “spider bots” and “crawlers” can only read text.
- Remember that SEO takes time.
Conclusion
It is best to think about SEO when designing your website. Otherwise there is no point of having a website. If a site is not SEO friendly search engine “spiders” will “crawl” past your site. Therefore, user traffic will be low. A site designed with SEO in mind will be indexed and ranked by search engines. This will increase visitor traffic and online revenue.