OntoSearch

Why would you create a web site that can’t be seen by the search engines? Why would you pay for a site that can’t be found in the search engines?

The web designer’s answer would go something like this “I’m here to design, you want optimization you goto an SEO Company”. The client will only trigger when the promised leads or sales from the new web site never come-to-pass. Things are changing however, a lot more and more designers are switching on to offering their paying clients search engine friendly sites. So, we’re making a little headway. We now have designers that actually want to give their sites a helping hand when they release them into the World Wide Web.

But here’s the rub. Most designers have read a couple of pages from a few websites and suddenly they know every thing about Search Engine Optimization. In reality they know so much that they’ll even promote the service on their internet sites and suddenly we’re back to the bad old days again. So tell me, I hear you ask, what can I expect from a “Search Engine Friendly Website”? Read on and I’ll tell you what you should – at the quite least – expect and look for when purchasing this service from a web design organization.

Validation: The initial check is to make sure the internet site validates under any of the W3C Validation certificates. This check makes sure that the HTML written to design your website is valid and any visiting search engine bot or spider can cleanly access all the content and links contained within.

Title Tags: Your designer need to make positive that all title tags are themselves unique. Whether or not your internet site is static or dynamic, it is of the utmost significance to have unique title tags for every page. Websites that have comparable title tags will discover search engines like Google placing their pages in their Supplemental Index (not a great location to be). Another hint with title tags is do not location your firm name at the beginning. Importance of this position belongs to the most prominent keyword phrase of your page not your company’s brand name.

Semantic Markup: All major headings must use the Heading1 tag and sub-headings the Heading2. These can be styled using CSS .

Images, Flash, Frames, Counters and Animated Gifs: A brief description on the alt tag to describe an image is very best for those that use screen-readers. Never design 100% Flash based internet sites – your textual content won’t be found and neither will you. If your a paying client and your designer is utilizing frames, counters and animated gifs on your web site then stop the payment now and get a new designer. If your a designer making use of frames, counters and animated gifs on a web site – ahem, where you been buddy?

Javascript: Make positive all Javascript is called from its own file – if it is on-page or in-line Javascript make sure the page validates. Spiders have a tendency to get caught in Javascript and will eventually give up attempting to crawl your internet site.

Web site Maps: Website maps are a wonderful way to get all your pages indexed with the search engines. A web site map can be designed in various forms: it can be HTML based and a page in your web site; can be developed in Notepad by placing each URL of your site into a new line and submitted to the search engines; can be rapidly developed in XML from numerous websites on the web and for totally free – just type “XML Site Map” into Google.

Content: Content is still King. Nonetheless, make sure all spelling is correct and grammar as well. Never trust a firm that wants to use your keyword any much more than is naturally regular on a web site – this is known as Spamming and will do you a lot more harm than good. If your web organization tries to use hidden content in your website by whatever indicates: text colour the same as the background; making use of CSS to not render text to the screen; stuffing keywords into the noscript tags then ask for your cash back – this is illegal and will get you blacklisted from the search engines.

So my guidance is research those web design businesses that provide “SEO Services”. Ask them questions relating to the guidance above – if they falter on any then move on as they spell professional with two f’s.