Friday, July 1, 2011

Top Tips for SEO-Friendly Web Design

There is a common misconception that SEO techniques fall neatly under the domain of the online marketer, but this is not true at all. There is much that can be done in the web design stage to make a website more searchable. Implementing SEO principles from the very start of a web design project will ultimately give the website much more successful search engine rankings.

Good web design and interesting content improve link-ability

Web design that challenges, excites or is just simply aesthetically pleasing is a big step forward for the site's SEO. Web users love good-looking websites, particularly good-looking websites that feature interesting content, and are more likely to share your website with others through posting links. For web designers this means that they simply need to do their job well to reach some SEO success.

Don't use splash pages

A splash page, a homepage with only a banner image and a 'click here to enter,' message, may seem like an attractive option, but is a completely useless web design choice for SEO considerations. The homepage is the first page that search engines 'crawl' through to find relevant information, and if your homepage contains no keywords or links to further pages, then your website will become practically invisible.

Use descriptive link anchor text

Simply substituting generic link anchor text such as 'click here' or 'learn more' for more descriptive and specific text is an effective way to make your web design more SEO friendly. Search engines pay particular attention to the text in links, so the web designer should too! It is also important to vary the link anchor text used throughout your web design to increase your website's credibility.

Implementing these SEO techniques, and more, in the original web design will make a web design more searchable from the start.

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