The fact that in order to maintain relevance with the search engines, particularly Google, every business needs SEO strategies. Google being the most important, because it controls over 90% of search engine traffic in the United States.
As a web designer it makes sense to incorporate simple SEO strategies, in every website.
Give Each Page its own Uniqueness
With duplicated content being one of the worst sins in the eyes of Google, each page must contain unique content. This does not only include content from other similar websites, but each individual page on the same website, as well. Any duplication means that there is a chance Google’s search engines will ignore the website because the algorithm’s are designed to look for new content.
This even includes snippets of content contained within the same site.
Delete any Repetitive Words within the Layout of the Website
This includes contact details, motto and copyright text. Unless there is ample unique content that the duplication goes unnoticed.
Have a Blog
A blog is the perfect way to add unique content regularly, and it is easy to maintain. There can also be a section allowing visitors to leave comments or ask a question. The search engines love this. It is also a way of providing natural traffic.
In addition, a blog will increase the websites size while also increasing the number of internal links.
Meta Tag Descriptions
The use of meta tag descriptions works in two ways. First it gives web surfers a description of what information the site contains. Secondly, Google uses these descriptions to tell differences between pages.
For this to be effective, be sure that the description will convince visitors to click on the website. However, be careful again with duplicate content for Google’s purposes. Do not have the description length more than 160 characters total and use keyword rich title tags on each page.
Title Tags
Rather than putting the company name in the title bar, use keywords instead. Limit the title tags to 60 characters in total. This ensures that the full title tag will appear in search engine rankings and will not get cut off.
Footer Links
Implement links between the pages of the website using SEO keywords that are targeted into the anchor text.
If your design uses Flash or JavaScript that doesn’t use anchor text use links in the footer between the pages.
Google Analytics
Use Google Analytics and add it to every page. This way you or your client can monitor how the website is performing to see if any changes need to be made. Signing up with Google Webmaster tools is also a great way to get tonnes of information about web pages and keywords.
Individual Pages for Every Keyword Phrase or Keyword
Dedicate a page to each service or product and target keyword phrases or keywords. Place the keyword rich text in each of the tags. The title, description and body. Not only does this help with the search engines it makes for a better user experience.
Limit Code Use
An overabundance of code can make it difficult for search engines to find a website. As well,it slows down loading time for the user.
2 Responses
We belong to your website and use many of your templates. I just saw this article on SEO. We use these same techniques when working on our clients website. I agree that these easy steps will greatly improve any website visibility on Google. You will notice a huge jump on Bing and Yahoo first.
Great tips, interesting points to note! Keep it up.