| Top Web Hosting Provider of The Month: |
 |
| Visit Bluehost.com | Read Bluehost Review |
|
|
| >> Web Hosting Geeks // Web Hosting Articles // SEO - Search Engine Optimization |
|
|
 |
SEOs Relationship With Website Architecture
SEO's Relationship With Website Architecture Search engine optimization for today's search engine robots requires that sites be well-designed and easy-to-navigate. To a great degree, organic search engine optimization is simply an extension of best practices in web page design. SEO's relationship with web design is a natural one. By making sites simple and easily accessible, you are providing the easiest path for the search engine robots to index your site, at the same time that you are creating the optimum experience for your human visitors. This approach ties well into the notion of long-term search engine marketing success. Rather than trying to "psych out" the ever-changing search engine algorithms, build pages that have good text and good links. No matter what the search engines are looking for this month or next, they will always reward good content and simple navigation. Search Engine Robots Search engine robots are automated programs that go out on the World Wide Web and visit web pages. They read the text on a page and click through links in order to travel from page to page. What this really means is that they "read" or collect information from the source code of each page. Depending on the search engine, the robots typically pick up the title and meta description. The robots then go on to the body text of the page in the source code. They also pay attention to certain tags such as headings and alt text. Search engine robots have capabilities like first-generation browsers at best: no scripting, no frames, no Flash. When designing, think simple. Search Engine Friendly Design Creating search engine friendly design is relatively easy. Cut out all the bells and whistles and stick to simple architecture. Search engine robots "understand" text on the page and hyperlinks, especially text links. The relationship of SEO and web design makes sense when you start with good design techniques for your visitor. The easier the navigation and the more text on the page, the better it is not only for the visitor but also for the search engine robots. Obstacles For Indexing Web Pages Search engine robots cannot "choose" from drop down lists, click a submit button, or follow JavaScript links like a human visitor. In addition, the extra code necessary to script your pages or create those lists can trip-up the search engine robots while they index your web page. The long JavaScript in your source code means the search engine robots must go through all this code to finally reach the text that will appear on your page. Offload your JavaScript and CSS code for quicker access to your source code by the search engine robots, and faster loading time for your online visitors. Some search engine robots have difficulty with dynamically-generated pages, especially those with URLs that contain long querystrings. Some search engines, such as Google, index a portion of dynamically generated pages, but not all search engines do. Frames cause problems with indexing and are generally best left out of design for optimum indexing. Web pages built entirely in Flash can present another set of problems for indexing. Depth Of Directories Search engine robots may have difficulty reaching deeper pages in a website. Aim to keep your most important pages no more than one or two "clicks" away from your home page. Keep your pages closer to the root instead of in deeply-nested subdirectories. In this way you will be assured the optimum indexing of your web pages. Just as your website visitor may become lost and frustrated in too many clicks away from your homepage, the robots may also give up after multiple clicks away from the root of your site. Solutions And Helpful Techniques If there are so many problems with indexing, how will you ever make it work? The use of static pages is the easiest way to ensure you will be indexed by the search engine robots. If you must use dynamically-generated pages, there are techniques you can use to improve the chances of their being indexed. Use your web server's rewrite capabilities to create simple URLs from complex ones. Use fixed landing pages including real content, which in turn will list the links to your dynamic pages. If you must use querystrings in your page addresses, make them as short as possible, and avoid the use of "session id" values. When using Flash to dress up your pages, use a portion of Flash for an important message, but avoid building entire pages using that technology. Make sure that the search engine robots can look at all of the important text content on your pages. You want your message to get across to your human visitor as well. Give them enough information about your product to interest them in going the next step and purchasing your product. If you must use frames, be sure to optimize the "no frames" section of your pages. Robots can't index framed pages, so they rely on the no frames text to understand what your site is about. Include JavaScript code to reload the pages as needed in the search engine results page. Got imagemaps and mouseover links? Make sure your pages include text links that duplicate those images, and always include a link back to your homepage. Use a sitemap to present all your web pages to the search engine robots, especially your deeper pages. Make sure you have hyperlink text links on your page, and a sentence or two describing each page listed, using a few of your keyword phrases in the text. Remember that the search engine robots "read" the text on your web page. The more that your content is on-topic and includes a reasonable amount of keyword-rich text, the more the search engine robot will "understand" what the page is about. This information is then taken back to the search engine database to eventually become part of the data you see in the search engine results. Last of all, it is very important to test your pages for validation. Errors from programming code and malformed html can keep the search engine robots from indexing your web pages. Keep your coding clean. Check List For Success * Include plenty of good content in text on your web pages * Incorporate easy to follow text navigation * Serve up dynamically generated pages as simply as possible * Offload JavaScript and other non-text code (style sheets, etc.) to external files * Add a sitemap for optimum indexing of pages * Validate your pages using the World Wide Web Consortium's validation tool, or other html validator On Your Way To Indexed Pages The best way to assure that your pages will be indexed is to keep them simple. This type of architecture not only helps the search engine robots, but makes it easier for your website visitors to move throughout your site. Don't forget to provide plenty of good content on your pages. The search engine robots and your visitors will reward you with return visits. Resources To learn more about how to work around optimization problems with JavaScript, dynamically-generated pages, Frames and Flash, read the following articles: Optimizing Pages with JavaScript and Style Sheets for Search Engines Optimizing Dynamic Pages (Part I) http://www.searchinnovation.com/optimize-dynamic-pages-1.asp Optimizing Dynamic Pages (Part II) http://www.searchinnovation.com/optimize-dynamic-pages-2.asp Optimizing Frames for Search Engines http://www.searchinnovation.com/optimizing-frames-for-search-engines.asp Html validation tool Stylesheet validation tool Daria Goetsch is the founder and Search Engine Marketing Consultant for Search Innovation Marketing, a Search Engine Marketing company serving small businesses. She has specialized in Search Engine Optimization since 1998, including three years as the Search Engine Specialist for O'Reilly Media, Inc., a technical book publishing company. Copyright © 2002-2005 Search Innovation Marketing. http://www.searchinnovation.com All Rights Reserved. Permission to reprint this article is granted if the article is reproduced in its entirety, without editing, including the bio information. Please include a hyperlink to http://www.searchinnovation.com when using this article in newsletters or online.
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Link Popularity Pitfalls As we all know Google uses their PageRank technology to measure link popularity by counting the number of inbound links to your web pages, and it is one of the many factors influencing your ranking. Most website owners do not utilize properly what PageRank they already have. What Did We Learn from the Great Search Engine Experiment! Last Week I did a Search engine Experiment. I wanted to see if I could brand myself as the coolest guy in the universe. Increase Web Site Sales with a SEO Proposal - Part 1 You can easily get confused by all the search engine optimization companies and SEO experts that offer SEO services. It's hard to know who to trust or what should be included in a SEO proposal. The Budget Webmaster's 6 Step Guide to Improving Existing Rankings in Google The Budget Webmaster's 6 Step Guide to Improving Existing Rankings in GoogleYou know the scenario. You get an occasional click from Google for a certain keyword. Its Not Just All About Google Anymore Those webmasters that stick to the old ways and focus entirely on Google are missing out on a lot of search traffic these days if they are not also well ranked by Yahoo and MSN.For the first few months after Yahoo decided to go their own way with natural search (and MSN decided to get serious about the search business), the search results provided by those two could only be described as bizarre. 3 Principles Of Google When online "Use it. Use it. Get Traffic You Need - Make Your Links Work So you have built a nice web site with good solid content and now want to start selling your products or services.Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is rapidly becoming a dying art. What You Did Wrong With Your Domain Names! Trying to improve search engine rankings is just like a rubics cube. A puzzle that can keep you occupied for hours. Building Link Popularity As Easy As 123 The most difficult area of SEO is building link popularity. You may be thinking why? Because there are no easy ways to build link popularity. Search Engine Success & The Google-Vision Secret Want to know the secret to great search engine listings? Ignore Google.No, I'm not crazy. Creating a Google SiteMap For Your Work At Home Business Web Page Search engine traffic is the best traffic You can get for your online Business. So if you are running a Home Based Business with an Online Presence why wouldn't you do everything possible to gain a Top Search Engine Ranking. DIY SEO - Part 2 Tags n Things Part 2 Tips 4 tagsMeta tags are the descriptive tags used by website designers to explain to the search engines exactly what your website is all about. They look like this,title Put title of your page here, include important keywords /titlemeta name="Description" content="Put a short keyword rich description of your site here" /meta name="Keywords" content="Put your keywords in here" /meta name="AUTHOR" content="Your name or company name here" /meta name="COPYRIGHT" content=" Your name or company name here " /meta name="DISTRIBUTION" content="Global" /meta name="RATING" content="General" /meta name="robots" content="index, follow" /meta name="revisit-after" content="1 Week" /meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /Note: the opening and closing brackets have been missed off to make this article compatable for publication. Google Page Rank Is Dead - Part II In part I - Google Page Rank Is Dead - Or Ist It? http://web-marketing.smartads. Search Engine Spam Running an online business relies to a greater or lesser extent on search engine traffic. Be this free search engine traffic or pay per click traffic your business still relies on the search engines to profit and survive. What To Look For When Shopping For A SEO Specialist When, shopping for a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) company/specialist you need to be aware of a few things.If someone offers you fast results they may be pulling your leg. When to NOT Hire a SEO and Why When you get an e-mail from SEO Company with content similar to this:"We submit your site on X00.000 search engines and directories?"Stay far away from companies which offer you to submit your site on thousands of directories and search engines. All About Links -- Interview With Link Building Expert , Bob Gladstein Julia: Welcome Bob. Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions about link building. Affordable Small Business SEO: 5 Common SEO Errors and How to Fix Them Don't put the cart before the horse.You can't do SEO (optimize your web site for search engines) until you've researched keywords. Local Customers Know Where to Find Local Businesses... the Internet Through search engines and directories, the Internet provides a quick and easy place to choose a local merchant or business.Just because the Internet is worldwide doesn't mean local businesses can't benefit from having a website and a presence in the search engines. 7 Search Engine Resources You Should Be Using Now Ask any business person who's website is at the top of the search engines if his/her site is making money, and the answer is almost always "yes".An example is Glenn Canady, the author of "Gorilla Marketing" who employed only one of these strategies, and it made him over $1 million dollars.
|
|
|
|
|
| © 2004 - 2008 "Web Hosting Geeks" | Web Hosting Reviews | Customer Reviews | RealMetrics Reviews | Hosting Articles | Directory | Partners | Contacts Over 7000 articles: web hosting, web development, domain names, ecommerce, web design, site promotion, ppc advertising, seo, site promotion and many others. Web hosting reviews, ratings and awards are not based on any incentives or commissions. Names and trademarks are the properties of their respective owners. A direct link to Web Hosting Geeks (http://webhostinggeeks.com) must be provided in order to use any of the above information. Contact us for more info. Partners: Hosts by speed, Cheap Website Hosting, Free Website Hosting, Cheap Web Hosting, Top 10 Web Hosts, Top 10 Web Hosting Deals, Best Website Hosting, Free Web Hosting, Free Web Hosting, Dedicated Server Hosting, Adult Web Hosting, Web Hosting Discussions, Dedicated Server Reviews, Best Web Hosting, Web Hosting Discounts, HostProfessor.com, rsuog, halyava, PHP Website Hosting Services, Web Hosting Reviews, Hosting Uptime, Best Web Hosting Reviews, Cheap Webhosting, Web Hosting, Flash Templates, CMS Templates, Web Hosting Reviews, Website Hosting Reviews, Web Hosting Providers, Best Web Hosting, Top Web Hosting, RSUOG Web Hosting |
