Website Search Engine Optimisation: Improve the Rankings and Traffic.

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Website SEO Tips

Website Design Guidelines

Website Search Engine Optimisation: Website Design GuidelinesThe Website designer needs to work closely with the Copywriter and the Graphic artist to ensure that the Website is attractive and has a good Ranking.

Here are some design guidelines for a Website:

Website Search Engine Optimisation - Tips
  • Set the width of the Web Page so that visitors never have to scroll sideways.
  • The size of the Web Page, including Images, should be less than 40 KB. The ideal size is less than 20k.
  • Each Web page should have a descriptive name containing relevant Keywords. Each word contained in the name should be separated by a hyphen (-). If the URL is in a hyperlink, the anchor text should inform the visitor of the link contents. The URL also appears in the Search Results and will be in bold if a Keyword is found.
  • Despite the advances in CSS, Tables are still the easiest way to align columns. However, don't use Tables within Tables within Tables. Search Engines have difficulties with complex structures.
  • Use CSS to ensure that all links are consistently styled and stand out from the regular text.
  • The CSS Stylesheet file size should be minimised to reduce initial load times.
  • Using the bold <b> tag around some of the keywords on each page may help. Two or three times per page is quite sufficient.
  • Put relevant descriptions in all anchor hyperlinks
  • Some technology can confuse the Search Engine spiders. Frames, CGI scripts, image maps, etc may be ignored by the spiders.
  • All Websites should have an up-to-date Sitemap. The Sitemap must reside in the root folder.
  • For ASP.Net, it is essential to set strict="true" and explicit="true" in the web.config file. This will minimise problems with Visual Basic code.
  • Statistical Analyses of visitor activity is essential. See Website Activity Tracking, Visitor Statistics and Website Statistics.
  • Google advises that there should be a different Meta Description for each Web page. Using ASP.Net and Master pages, only a common Meta Description tag will be created. It is possible to have a different Meta Description for each page – see Specifying the Title, Meta Tags, and Other HTML Headers in the Master Page.
  • Search Engines may ignore links in JavaScript code. If the JavaScript code in the page is too large, the spider may skip the Website entirely.
  • Store Images in their own folder.
  • Avoid using Flash. Search Engines have problems reading it.
Email:   Nev@NevsSEO.com Phone: Sydney, Australia (612) 9453-0456 Build 26/02/2010