Web Design with SEO in Mind
This is a phrase I use often whenever a client is interested in web site design with Big Shark Marketing or if they have come to me to improve their current site rankings.
As part of any site design, the search engines should be included within your plan. Simply designing a site to make it look flashy or exciting will not necessarily help it rank well in the search engines. The functionality of the site when it comes to search engines should include:
- Individual Web Pages that focus on particular services or products you want to promote
- Individual Web Pages should have well-written text on each of them that talks about the product or service as well as sell it.
- Pages should be programmed in HTML/HTM if possible. If a database is necessary, consider PHP.
- Use static URLs
- Consider each page name to include a keyword within it. For example: http://www.bigsharkmarketing.com/search-engine-optimization.html
- Include a nice introduction on your home page. Have at least 2-3 paragraphs of text on the home page that talk about the business, services, or products you want to focus on the most. Make sure keywords people may type in are considered when writing the text.
- Avoid too much flash. Flash programming has come a long way and in recent months search engines like Google have begun reading and even including sites with heavy flash in their indexes. It certainly isn’t a good idea though to design all in flash. Avoid flash navigation (or at least have a text based version on the footer perhaps), and especially avoid flash intro pages.
- NO Flash intro pages! As I just mentioned, when someone comes to your first page, they are not going to dazzled by a flashy intro. It will not only annoy a visitor, but it may prevent a search engine from reading your page properly, continuing onto other pages of your site and thus no or poor rankings.
