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Websites are the key to the success of your online enterprise.
While designing website you must aim to reach out to maximum number of people,
and you need Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for this. For SEO a website
should be crawled frequently by the search engine spider. And, spiders crawl
and index web pages, not websites. Therefore, first, you must consider your
website as a collection of web pages, respecting their individuality.
The factors that influence the success of a website for SEO are
Content
Design
Keywords
Domain Name
Navigation Menu
Linking Strategy
Content
The importance of good content cannot be ignored as web
browsers surf through sites only for obtaining useful information. The content
appearing on your site should be unique and interesting. If you use copied
content search engines will not index your pages, as this will also put a stake
on their reputation.
Web surfers are impatient. If you cannot hook them within 30
to 40 seconds, they will drift away to the next link. Use short and crisp
language, brief paragraphs, and bulleted points to organize your text. Make
your pages as interactive and responsive as possible. Each content page should
have valid HTML that can be easily read by the search engines as well as web
browsers.
Classification and arrangement of the information is also
important. For example, never present your products and services on the same
page. List them on two separate pages. Content is so important that the other
factors we are going to discuss now have their strategies depending on it.
Design
It is needless to say that the design should be appealing with
nice color scheme and layout, attractive logo, beautiful fonts, and MUST be
simple. Complex designs tire human eyes. There are some techniques like
presenting the motive of the site in a bold and eye catching manner, keeping
the text section segregated from the top section, minimizing the use of
Macromedia Flash/Java, etc., that help the site greatly to earn page rank.
Avoid use of frames as search engines often fail to index them. Using LONGDESC
attribute for providing the URI of the full HTML description is also equally
important.
Keywords
The content should be supplemented with highly targeted
keywords. You should focus on 1 to 3 main keyword/key phrases and say up to 6
to 7 secondary keywords. What you should do is to
Prepare a list of
keywords and key phrases. Scan through your competitors’ site and take help of
web analytic tools to find out which keywords are drawing maximum traffic.
Add unique
modifiers like geographical keywords, adjectives describing your services,
industry-specific words, etc. You will earn higher page rank with specific
keywords than with highly competitive generalized keywords.
Analyze your
keywords using free tools provided by search engines like google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal style=color:blue;>Google or Overture.
Decide on the
number of main and secondary keywords to be used in each page.
Use SEO keywords
variations as it adds flavors to the content.
Domain Name
The name of the domain has powerful impact on both your
customers and the search engine crawlers. Use analytics tools to decide on the
name and use the main keyword as the domain name. It improves the perceived
relevance of the site for the users as well as for search engines and
directories. Your domain name should be indicative (www.gardeningequipment.com).
Use dash/s to separate keywords.
You can also think of buying other versions of your domain
names. You can use it and it also ensure that your competitors cannot use it.
Include the name of the company if it says about your products or services. Use
of subdomains also helps in SEO.
Navigation Menus
Navigation should always be customer centric. It should be
located easily on the page. Use either a simple menu bar across the top and a
detailed list at the bottom or at either sides. Keep them simple and
straightforward.
The link text inside the button should be easy to read. Choice
of colors and fonts plays an important role here. Use terms that your client
may have used in the search engines to locate the information. Do not dilute
the impact with too many navigation links.
Linking Strategy
Inconsistent linking to the index page can be blamed greatly
for the poor performance of a website. It can dilute the impact of your most
important pages to the search engines. If the index page is linked in different
ways, the search engine treats each linking as a separate page and not as two
links to the same page.
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