Build first, optimise later
One of the biggest mistakes to make is to think search engine optimisation (SEO) is a secondary activity when it can be key to the success of your website. By performing keyword research and supplying you with targeted words and phrases that can be incorporated into the entire information architecture. Undertaking SEO as an afterthought can lead to the re-working of website and a nasty shock in unnecessary extra costs.
Splash Pages
Once an popular feature on many websites, the Splash page was a main landing page of a website containing a large graphic image or flash animation. These were often used to capture visitors attention as well as re-enforce a brand. If this page does not contain a text link through to the homepage, it can be hard for all search engines to find the homepage and index the website. This will affect your ranking within the search engines.
Along with the potential to make the homepage inaccessible to search engines, the consensus from visitors is that Splash Pages are an irritation as they wish to view the homepage straight away. After all, what can a Splash Page display that your homepage cannot?
It should be stressed that Spalsh Pages are different to Landing pages which are successfully used in conjunction with Pay Per Click and Organic SEO campaigns.
Flash, Flash and more Flash
Flash is great, it provides a medium to present aesthetically pleasing content to visitors and engage them with the website. However Flash does have it’s downsides: search engines find it hard to read the content of Flash and unless you have a development team who know their stuff, you will struggle to feature on search engine rankings.
The best use of Flash is within an HTML page framework and should be limited to header banners or applets where an alternative can be offered to search engines. Strike a balance between visual and content.
This is also important for accessibility as a visual medium to a blind or visually impaired visitor must be offered an alternative such as text or alt attribute description.
Ajax
Most of use will agree that Ajax is another way to make a website feel engaging, providing it is used correctly. Some websites can put the blinkers on and start to focus too much on Ajax and add it in all sorts of places. As Ajax content is loaded dynamically, most of it cannot be indexed by search engines. No index means no results so make sure that you are sure that Ajax is being used correctly – are you using it to display your core messages and menu or are you using it to display options on a contact form?
Graphics Vs Text
Your website images should be relevant to and support your text. Remember – content is king so make sure that you strike the right balance between images and graphics. Perhaps using smaller images which can the visitor can click on to enlarge and view a bigger version is a better approach than creating a page which the visitor has to scroll through to find the text.
Alt attribute (tags)
A search engine cannot identify what an image is unless you tell it. That’s where the Alt attribute comes in to describe your image and tell the search engine what it is. Leaving it blank is just as good as not displaying the image at all. The alt attribute can be used in optimisation by carefully using relevant keywords in the description. However keyword stuffing will do more harm than good.
This is also another essential element for accessibility standards as screen readers use the alt attribute to provide a description of the image to visitors with visual impairments.
URLs
The structure of the URLs is very easy to get wrong but with thought and planning this can be avoided. A “friendly” URL structured so a search engine and a visitor can understand where they are within the website – for example a product page URL could look like www.example.com/category/sub-category/product-group/product.html. By optimising the text used within the URL (NOT keyword stuffing) this will lead to greater visibility with search engines.
An example of a poor or unfriendly URL could be www.example.com/?catid=1&prodID=3
Repetition of title tags
If you saw 10 cars which were all the same make and model, how would you make a distinction between each one. Well, search engines have the same problem with title tags. These are one of the first things which a search engine “sees” and as such each page needs to have a unique title. Your pages are different so they need title tags to reflect that.
Make it meaningful and human – the title tag is displayed on search engines and will be read by a human. Potential visitors are more likely to click on “Quality cars and prices you can afford” rather than “cars, vans, automobiles, sports cars”.
Analysing the results
Some websites will undertake SEO, gain results by ranking well on their keyword phrases and stop at that. SEO is an ongoing work flow which requires regular attention with the size of your site and your marketing goals driving the level of attention needed.
With any campaign it is necessary to analyse your website traffic to ascertain the level of success. Sure people are picking up the phone and completing the contact forms, but do they fall within your target audience, are these the type of leads you want?
As search trends and keywords vary over the months, it is often necessary to refine the campaign to include specific keywords or phrases. Detailed analysis and measured changes can help put you ahead of your competitors for certain terms.
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