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WEB SITE DESIGN - WHAT YOU SHOULD CONSIDER:
Before you begin with the design of a new web site you should understand how web design can affect search engine rankings.
The idea of good website design is to offer your viewer a logical flow while making it interesting and easy to understand. Lead your viewers to the starting point and then direct them through your site without confusing them. Uniquely built web sites can create unique issues when being promoted on the search engines. From a basic one page brochure site to a corporate site with hundreds of dynamically generated pages, every web site needs to have certain design aspects in order to achieve the full effects of an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) campaign. Below are a few points to take into consideration when designing or updating your web site that can help you develop a user friendly website.
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Use Lots of White Space
Don't feel that because you have a whole screen that you need to fill it up. Your page should follow a clean outline. Include your site name at the very top. Below that list the subject of your page and below that expand on your topic. Leave adequate space between each section. Don't try to cram in a lot of pictures and ads. If you have an ad keep it off to the side or subtly intersperse it between your text. The idea is not to overwhelm your reader.
Size Does Matter
The size of a web site can have a huge impact on search engine rankings. Search engines love content, so if you have only a few pages to your site and your competitors have dozens, it's difficult to see a top page ranking for your site. In some cases it may be difficult to present several pages of information about your business or products, so you may need to think about adding free resources for visitors. It will help in broadening the scope of your web site (which search engines like) as well as keep visitors on your site longer, possibly resulting in more business.
Graphics-Based Web Sites
While web sites that offer the visitor a more esthetically-pleasing experience may seem like the best choice for someone searching for your product, they are the most difficult to optimize. Since search engine robots cannot read text within graphics or animation, what they see may be just a small amount of text. And if we learned anything from point #1, small amounts of content will not result in top rankings. As advertisers we feel the need to get our viewers attention.
This is important but we need to do it gracefully. Flashing objects and scrolling images distract your visitor and take away from the content. If your product is better demonstrated with animation or some other multi-media, allow your viewer to select the option. Don't force it on them. If you really must offer the visitor a graphics-heavy or Flash web site, consider creating an html-based side of your site that is also available to visitors. This site will be much easier to promote on the search engines and your new found visitors will also have the option to jump over to the nicer looking part of your site.
Dynamic Web Pages
If most of your web site is generated by a large database (such as a large book dealer with stock that is changing by the minute) you may find that some of your pages do not get indexed by major search engines. If you look at the URL of these pages they can be extremely long and have characters such as ?, #, &, %, or = along with huge amounts of seemingly random numbers or letters. Since these pages are automatically generated by the database as needed, the search engines have a tough time keeping them up to date and relevant for search engine users. |
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One way to combat this problem is to offer a search engine friendly site map listing all your static pages just to let them
know that you do have permanent content on your site. If search engines see links going to and from these dynamic pages within a good internal linking system, this may also lead to the pages getting indexed. The link popularity of your site may carry more weight in this case as well, so if you can't offer as much static content as your competition, make sure you have an aggressive link campaign on the go.
Keep Navigation Consistent
Keep your site's navigation consistent. What you do on your index page should be done the same way on the rest of your site's pages. Keep the colors consistent as well. Don't force your viewers to relearn each page of your site. Keep your navigation bars and links the same for each page.
Understandable Buttons and Links
Title your links appropriately. Don't use cute or misleading names. For example, if you have a link to sports equipment don't label the link 'Great Outdoors', call it 'sports equipment'. If you have a link to 'cameras' don't label the link 'hotshots', label it 'cameras'. Your viewers don't want to waste time figuring out what things are. Be clear with your labeling.
Focus on the 'YOU', not the 'ME'
Make it obviously clear to your readers that you are there for them. What can you do for your reader? What benefits are there for your viewer? How can you make their life or business better or more profitable? Request feedback on their success. Find out what they want to know or how you can offer them what they need.
Make sure your page loads fast
If viewers have to wait for a page to load they will click elsewhere. Here's a site that will help you determine how well your page loads. If a page doesn't load in 8 seconds you lose 1/3 of your visitors.
Proper Use of HTML
There is quite a bit of sub-par web design software out there. Word processors usually have a way to create HTML documents which can be easily uploaded to a site via ftp. However, in many cases the code that the search engine
robots see is mostly lines and lines of font and position formatting, not relevant content. The more efficiently written
web sites usually achieve higher rankings. JAMAR Design use industry standard HTML based software.
There are some no brainers too: Web sites with abnormal amounts of hyperlinks, bold or italicized text, improper use of heading, alt, or comment tags can also expect to see low rankings. |
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Choosing a Domain Name
The golden rule to web development of any kind is to keep your visitors in mind above all else - even search engine optimization. When choosing a domain name, one should pick either your business name (if you have a high-profile business name such as Sony or Coca-Cola) or a brief description of your products. Domain names can always help with search engine optimization, since it is another area of your web site in which important keywords can appear. Forget about long-winded domains such as www.the-best-hotel-near-the-beach.com. No one will ever remember it and it will be hard to print on business cards or in ads.
If you need to change your domain name for any reason you obviously don't want to lose existing rankings. An easy way
to do this, and one that is currently supported by most search engines, is the 301 redirect. It allows you to keep your
existing rankings for your old domain name, while forwarding visitors to your new web site instantly. Using Frames. Don't use frames!
Frames are a thing of the 90's (and in the Internet world that is eons ago) and are not even supported by some search engines. The search engines that are able to index your site through frames will most likely frown upon them. Some browsers are not frames-compatible, so there is the danger of some visitors not being able to see your site at all. Book-marking of individual pages within a frame becomes difficult without lengthy scripts being written.
Update Your Information
Not only does information printed two or three years ago reflect badly on your organization when it is read by a visitor, it is also looked down upon by search engines. Web sites that continuously update and grow their web sites usually experience higher rankings than stagnant sites. When the trick to SEO is offering visitors the most relevant information, you can bet that the age of web pages is taken into consideration by search engines. Consider creating a section of
your site devoted to news within your organization, or have a constantly updated resources area.
Many shortfalls of web sites can easily be attributed to designers who just don't keep the user or search engines in mind. Search engine algorithms are quickly improving to try and list the most user-friendly sites higher, given that the content and link popularity are there to back it up. So first and foremost, know your target market and make your web site work for them before focusing on search engine optimization. If your site is built properly, they will come.
Contact us today and discuss your web design requirements.
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