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search engine optimization tips
Designing a website with light and efficient code takes time, but will return rewards. Search engines will identify your content easier and it will lead to better rankings.
BE SPIDER FRIENDLY!
First of all, design your website so a spider (a software program that "crawls" the web searching for pages to index) can read and index your pages. That means avoiding pages with all Flash or all graphics, because the spider is looking for meaningful text. If you do use graphics, make sure that ALT text tags are included.
Don't use frames. The search engine may orphan a page by indexing it outside of the frameset, or the search engines may not enter a site with frames at all.
Use headings. Some spiders may give more importance to larger text in H1 or H2 tags.
Use meta tags (description and keywords). Some search engines, like Google, are looking strictly at page content, but others still use these valuable tags, so be sure to include them. Make sure your description is unique for each and every page of your site. Use a keyword suggestion tool like this one at Wordtracker to help choose popular terms.
Put important keywords first in the page title. Include the company name last. The title is the spider's first indicator of the page's content. It should be approximately 12-20 words or 150 characters. Avoid any kind of log-in page as the first thing a viewer or the spider encounters.
Include a site map with your website, especially if your structure is a complicated branching design with pages linked from other pages, but not found on the homepage.
Use a search engine spider simulator and see your page the way a spider will see it. Try it now, courtesy of Webconfs.com:
CROSS LINKING
Links from other websites that point back to your site will definitely help your ranking and help you be found. Cross links from other sites and links through affiliates programs may be one of the best ways to enhance rankings. Search out directories on the web where your site can be listed.
SITE DESIGN AND STRUCTURE
Spiders read from top to bottom, so if the pages can be designed with the main content first in the source code, all the better. Very often a page with left-aligned navigation will have that code appearing first. With a few minor tweaks, the content code can appear first instead, increasing the probability that the spider will find it.
Get rid of clutter. Put your javascript in a separate external .js file and put your stylesheet information in an external .css file. Even though spiders ignore this code, they still must wade through it to get to the content. If there's too much clutter, the spider's visit could timeout and leave your site prematurely. Use CSS to style the text, thus eliminating lots of font tags.
Use real text instead of graphics whenever possible. The use of images in mouseover effects is quite popular, but a similar effect can be achieved using text and hover effect of CSS. This will give the search engine spiders something to read instead of graphics to ignore, especially important in navigation. Avoid nesting tables in a page design more than 3 tables deep. Spiders can run into problems with all the code and may also interpret the nested content as not being as important, giving it less value.
Use the strong tag for important words or phrases within your content.
Keep your URLs as short as possible. URLs with 11 to 30 characters rank higher than any others.
Avoid redirects since many spiders won't index pages with redirects embedded in them.
DIRECTORY AND PAGE NAMING
Use relevant keywords to name your directories as well as your pages - ones that relate to its contents. A page named web-design-tips.html is much more search engine friendly than page3.html and immediately clues you in to its content.
AVOID SPAMMING TECHNIQUES
The use of techniques such as "hidden" text on a page (text that is the same color as the background) or irrelevant keywords simply placed to lure visitors to the site is considered a type of spamming. This can only hurt your ranking and could even prevent a site from being indexed by a search engine.
Duplicate pages having identical content but with different URLs is also spamming. Choose your keywords carefully too because if you repeat a word too many times you can also be bounced for spamming.
If you use headings, use the H1 tag only once to avoid spamming. The other headings (H2, H3, etc) can be used as many times as you like.
There are many intricate pieces to the SEO puzzle these days and many companies specialize in this field. Knowing however that "content is king" and designing with a few tips in mind can help a great deal.