Every web designer knows that there are two essential qualities in every good websiteappearance and how it performs in the search engines. There is no doubt it is critically important for pages to look good so they keep visitors on the page. But visitors will never arrive at the site to appreciate even the best design without search engine optimization (SEO). Integrating these fundamentals of effective website design can be complex, and compromises are almost always required.
Finding the balance between appearance and performance starts with SEO. If you don't generate traffic, it doesn't make any difference how beautifully you design your pages. The essential aspects of search engine optimization include linking between the pages of your site, backlinking to other sites, meta tagging, proper tagging of images, and keyword density. Each of these factors plays a role when you begin designing your site.
Every site has to have enough text to allow for appropriately low keyword density. Unlike the standards of the 1990s, modern search algorithms penalize sites, and sometimes penalize them severely, for cramming too many search terms, or even words that look like search terms, into too little text. Your content has to be long enough to dilute keyword density, but concise enough to captivate your visitors. This also means it is not possible to put every screen shot or image you might happen to have, no matter how attractive they are, on every page. The search engines have no way to index images. Words, not images, drive SEO. That is why every website designer has to give every site multiple pages with text that can be optimized.
The next step in integrating web design and SEO is to tag all each image on the site with the "alt" tag in HTML. Every image has to have this tag. The "alt" tag enables to instruct the web browser as to which text will pop up when visitors run their mouse over your image. Every image also requires an SEO-friendly title. For instance if your site is about sunning on the beach in Aruba, and you want to use a photo of a beach on your page, a name like aruba.beach.wow.jpg isfar more effective than an name like 477876arub9wow.jpg. Keywords in your tags become keywords for your pages. Just take care not make your pages too keyword-dense with image names, either.
Another vital step in search engine optimization is linking the various pages of your site. Visitors always appreciate internal navigation. The search engines also appreciate internal navigation, because internal links are places you can insert keywords that identify your pages. For instance, if you have a page called "White Sand Beaches" you can link to that page from every other page in your site with a link entitled "White Sand Beaches." This way you not only tell all search engines have created a page, but you tell the search engines what the page is about.
The ultimate rule for integrating page design and SEO is to keep design simple. Using flash sparingly, avoiding excessive images, and shunning complex design will boost your freedom to do SEO. You don't have to make your website unattractive, you simply need to do more with less.
Finding the balance between appearance and performance starts with SEO. If you don't generate traffic, it doesn't make any difference how beautifully you design your pages. The essential aspects of search engine optimization include linking between the pages of your site, backlinking to other sites, meta tagging, proper tagging of images, and keyword density. Each of these factors plays a role when you begin designing your site.
Every site has to have enough text to allow for appropriately low keyword density. Unlike the standards of the 1990s, modern search algorithms penalize sites, and sometimes penalize them severely, for cramming too many search terms, or even words that look like search terms, into too little text. Your content has to be long enough to dilute keyword density, but concise enough to captivate your visitors. This also means it is not possible to put every screen shot or image you might happen to have, no matter how attractive they are, on every page. The search engines have no way to index images. Words, not images, drive SEO. That is why every website designer has to give every site multiple pages with text that can be optimized.
The next step in integrating web design and SEO is to tag all each image on the site with the "alt" tag in HTML. Every image has to have this tag. The "alt" tag enables to instruct the web browser as to which text will pop up when visitors run their mouse over your image. Every image also requires an SEO-friendly title. For instance if your site is about sunning on the beach in Aruba, and you want to use a photo of a beach on your page, a name like aruba.beach.wow.jpg isfar more effective than an name like 477876arub9wow.jpg. Keywords in your tags become keywords for your pages. Just take care not make your pages too keyword-dense with image names, either.
Another vital step in search engine optimization is linking the various pages of your site. Visitors always appreciate internal navigation. The search engines also appreciate internal navigation, because internal links are places you can insert keywords that identify your pages. For instance, if you have a page called "White Sand Beaches" you can link to that page from every other page in your site with a link entitled "White Sand Beaches." This way you not only tell all search engines have created a page, but you tell the search engines what the page is about.
The ultimate rule for integrating page design and SEO is to keep design simple. Using flash sparingly, avoiding excessive images, and shunning complex design will boost your freedom to do SEO. You don't have to make your website unattractive, you simply need to do more with less.
About the Author:
Justin Harrison is a leading Internet Marketing consultant responsible for the Internet Marketing strategies behind some of the biggest online brands including Amazon, BBC, MasterCard and many others.
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