How Web Design Can Affect Search Engine Rankings

Uniquely built web sites can create unique issues whenbeing promoted on the search engines. From a basic 3 page brochure siteto a corporate site with hundreds of dynamically generated pages, everyweb site needs to have certain design aspects in order to achieve thefull effects of an SEO campaign. Below are a few points to take intoconsideration when building or updating your web site.

1. Size Matters.

The size of a web site can have a huge impact on search enginerankings. Search engines love content, so if you have only a few pagesto your site and your competitors have dozens, it's difficult to see atop page ranking for your site. In some cases it may be difficult topresent several pages of information about your business or products,so you may need to think about adding free resources for visitors. Itwill help in broadening the scope of your web site (which searchengines like) as well as keep visitors on your site longer, possiblyresulting in more sales.

2. Graphics-Based Web Sites.

While web sites that offer the visitor a moreesthetically-pleasing experience may seem like the best choice forsomeone searching for your product, they are the most difficult tooptimize. Since search engine robots cannot read text within graphicsor animation, what they see may be just a small amount of text. And ifwe learned anything from point #1, small amounts of content will notresult in top rankings. If you really must offer the visitor agraphics-heavy or Flash web site, consider creating an html-based sideof your site that is also available to visitors. This site will be mucheasier to promote on the search engines and your new found visitorswill also have the option to jump over to the nicer looking part ofyour site.

3. Dynamic Web Pages.

If most of your web site is generated by a large database (suchas a large book dealer with stock that is changing by the minute) youmay find that some of your pages do not get indexed by major searchengines. If you look at the URL of these pages they can be extremelylong and have characters such as ?, #, &, %, or = along with hugeamounts of seemingly random numbers or letters. Since these pages areautomatically generated by the database as needed, the search engineshave a tough time keeping them up to date and relevant for searchengine users.

One idea is to offer a search engine friendly site map listingall your static pages just to let them know that you do have permanentcontent on your site. Secondly, if search engines see links going toand from these dynamic pages within a good internal linking system,this may also lead to the pages getting indexed. The link popularity ofyour site may carry more weight in this case as well, so if you can'toffer as much static content as your competition, make sure you have anaggressive link campaign on the go.

4. 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 canbe easily uploaded to a site via ftp. However, in many cases the codethat the search engine robots see is mostly lines and lines of font andposition formatting, not relevant content. The more efficiently writtenweb sites usually achieve higher rankings. A good choice for web designsoftware is Macromedia Dreamweaver, as it is an industry standard. Italso makes using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) a breeze, which candrastically cut down on the amount of text formatting in HTML code.Hand-coding HTML to design sites is also a good method if you areproficient enough.

There are some no brainers too: Web sites with abnormalamounts of hyperlinks, bold or italicized text, improper use ofheading, alt, or comment tags can also expect to see low rankings.

5. Choosing a Domain Name.

The golden rule to web development of any kind is to keep yourvisitors in mind above all else - even search engine optimization. Whenchoosing a domain name, you should pick either your business name or abrief description of your products. Domain names can always help withsearch engine optimization, as it is another area of your web site thatsearch engines look for keywords. Forget about long-winded domains suchas www.number-one-best-rare-used-books-on-earth.com as no one will everremember 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 youobviously 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 301redirect. It allows you to keep your existing rankings for your olddomain name, while forwarding visitors to your new web site instantly.

6. Using Frames.

Don't use frames. Frames are a thing of the 90's (and in theInternet world that is eons ago) and are not even supported by somesearch engines. The search engines that are able to index your sitethrough frames still don't recommend them. Whatever you are trying toaccomplish by using frames can usually be done with the help of PHPincludes or CSS. Some browsers are not frames-compatible, so there isthe danger of some visitors not being able to see your site at all.Bookmarking of individual pages within a frame becomes difficultwithout lengthly scripts being written.

7. Update Your Information.

Not only does information printed two or three years ago lookbadly on your organization when it is read by a visitor, it is alsolooked down upon by search engines. Web sites that continuously updateand grow their web sites usually experience higher rankings thanstagnant sites. When the trick to SEO is offering visitors the mostrelevant information, you can bet that the age of web pages is takeninto consideration by search engines. Consider creating a section ofyour site devoted to news within your organization, or have aconstantly updated resources area.

Many shortfalls of web sites can easily be attributed todesigners who just don't keep the user or search engines in mind.Search engine algorithms are quickly improving to try and list the mostuser-friendly sites higher, given that the content and link popularityare there to back it up. So first and foremost, know your target marketand make your web site work for them before focusing on search engineoptimization. If you build it (properly), they will come.

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Redesigning a website can easily be done especially if you dont have anything to do at all. But come to think of it, the consequences of your action may affect your website in a drastic manner.
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