Web Design affects search engine optimization and rankings

Web Design affects search engine optimization and rankings

• Directory editors, such as Yahoo! will review your site before accepting it.

• When search engine spiders become confused or slowed down because of design issues, your page becomes less relevant.

• Search engine spiders can't see what you and I see so they must rely on the specific algorithms set for them. Some of these algorithms are going to depend on design issues in your web site.

Analyze your competitor's web pages for search engine optimization

• Analyze HTML titles, Meta tags, ALT descriptions, headings, subheadings for keyword frequency and weight.

• Analyze link popularity.

HTML title tag

• HTML title should not be any longer than 70-100 characters, including spaces. Google – DMOZ

• Title should not begin with the domain name. It is often considered as spam.

• You should place the most prominent keyword first in the title tag.

• Each page title should describe the page content.

• Stop word such as “a”,“the”, “and”, “to” should be avoided.

Meta description tag

• Meta descriptions should not be any longer than 100 characters. Google

• Use a different Meta description tag for each page, as each page is different and stands a better chance of being found in the search results.

• Take your time to write a good description, consider adding your keyword phrase toward the middle of your description tag instead of the beginning. Yahoo!.

Meta keyword tag

• Meta keyword shouldn't be any longer than 268 characters (20 keywords). AltaVista

• It should not repeat the same keyword more than 3-7 times; you can get penalized for spam.

• Put important keywords first.

While Meta tags certainly are not the most important methods of search engine optimization, they do still provide useful information to the spiders.

Text keywords

• Do put keywords at the beginning and middle of your paragraph.

• You should write between 100-1000 words in page text. Same keywords should repeated 3-7 times.

Strategic keyword placements

Place keywords in the following areas will not cause for penalties.

• Domain name

• Custom 404 page

• Navigational scheme

• Anchor text

• Page name

• Text link

• ALT text

Link popularity

• Google, MSN, Hotbot, AltaVista Google and others use links to measure of a site.

• Google considers link farms and link exchange programs spam. These links are poor quality and temporary.

• Exchange links with a website that is relevant to your content. Don't exchange links with a website that has no PageRank.