More Search Engine Optimisation
Following on from my previous article about tags here are a number of other things to take into consideration when coding your web pages.
1. Link with text
Search Engines aren’t big fans of image links. The spiders don’t follow them, so you need to make sure that you have regular text links on your pages if you want those links followed by the spiders. If you don’t want the text links to be visible by your everyday user then consider one of the many Image Replacement techniques available.
2. Get some relevant inbound links
Being linked to by other websites that deal with your subject matter is a massive boost. Google’s Page Rank system is all about getting good quality incoming links. In the past it was quantity that mattered, leading to link farms and link swapping sites, but nowadays it’s the relevancy of your links that count. Try getting in contact with some other businesses in your industry and seeing if you can trade liks with one another.
3. Make a site map
A good site map serves a couple of purposes. First of all it enables your users to see the whole structure and layout of your site in full, quickly and easily. Secondly, it makes life a whole lot easier for the search engine spiders. When a spider visits your page it follows the links on your homepage. If one of them leads to your site map then the spider has instant access to every link on your site right there.
4. Follow the rules
In my previous article about tags I spoke about relevant keywords. Above I’ve spoken about relevant links. That relevant is important. You might be tempted to stick every keyword you can think off in your keyword meta tag. You might decide to design a page full of hidden keywords in an attempt to trick the search engines into listing you higher. My advice is don’t! Search Engines are smart. If they find out that you’re trying to cheat them, and they will, you could end up having your site banned from the search engine altogether!
Make sure that your code and content is what it should be. Which leads me onto my final point.
5. The content
This is what your web page is all about, so you can’t go cutting any corners here. Your content needs to be of interest to both your users and the spiders. Use your keywords when possible, but don’t go crazy with them. You don’t want your page being an obvious sea of keywords. But at the same time you want your subject to be mentioned often. Find the balance! Give your keywords pride of place at the beginning of sections and paragraphs if possible.
John Robinson - designer, developer, coder... John’s not quite sure exactly how he should be labelled. Why not check out his blog and make a decision for yourself. He mostly talks about CSS, jQuery and the crazy world of the Interwebs, with a little bit of personal life thrown in for good measure.
