Successful SEO website design sounds a thousand times easier than it looks, and for good reason. If it were simple, everyone would be doing it, and the Internet would be a much easier place to navigate. Alas, we can’t have our cake and eat it too. So, let’s try to figure out some tips to help turn your SEO ship around with, hopefully, much calmer waters ahead.
Index-able
If you’re looking for leverage in Google’s ranking system, the first step is making sure that your content is actually “index-able” through the search giant. Indexing is Google’s way of utilizing your content through online search/ranking systems. This generally features a narrow focus on written content, as opposed to pictures, flash videos, Java apps and more. Because of this, you need to be proactive when publishing your website’s content; you shouldn’t assume that Google can crawl every inch of the web and automatically incorporate your site into their results without any effort from your end.
You need to do some research into the information on your site that’s being indexed, and make sure your viewers are seeing the same content you want them to. It’ll be hard to promote your site if Google doesn’t recognize it, so it’s better to get it done right, than regret your misdoings later.
Hint: Using Google Cache is a great way to see how your pages stack up SEO-wise, as it shows the content that’s indexed by Google. It can also detail fatal flaws in your SEO, especially if the site was built in flash, parallax, or other media-heavy platforms.
Crawl-able
Generally, when testing your site’s crawling ability, Google is looking at the ability to explore the website, including internal/external links, and in order to have an effective SEO strategy for your website, you need to hone in on the kind of links you're including, and where they’re linking to.
There are tons of reasons your links aren’t being utilized enough:
- Too many links on the same page
- SE’s can only look at so many links, and spamming them across the page will only take your viewer’s focus away from what matters: the content.
- Poor infrastructure/design
- If the viewers can’t access the links, see them clearly, or are confused where they will take them: BOOOOOOO.
- Forms that require submissions
- Chances are if you’re hiding content behind required-forms, websites aren’t indexing the material that follows. Something to remember…
- Embedded links in Flash or Javascript
- Since the SE’s don’t crawl links embedded in flash or Java apps, any links you try to utilize through those platforms will be for naught.
Keyword-able
Keywords make the world go ‘round! Not really, but they’re vital to getting found once Google has your content indexed. Keywords are nothing new, and I’m sure most of you have dabbled with them before—in fact, if you’ve ever looked up anything via search engine, you’ve used keywords as your middleman, of sorts, to find you the correct content you were searching for.
But keywords are more complicated than just the top phrases or words that describe your organization, or its offerings. Search engines rank them based on volume, relevance, search amount, etc., and if you’re using them ineffectively, or spamming content with irrelevant keywords, your ranking will be punished, so it’s important to use them effectively, and efficiently in order to find increased success. So, no stuffing pages with thousands of keywords, or writing sentences like:
Are you looking for cheap Santa suits? If you’re looking for cheap Santa suits, look no further. Our cheap Santa suits website is the best place to order new cheap Santa suits. Feel free to check out our selection of cheap Santa suits from our cheap Santa suits selection.
$1000 to anyone who can guess what the name of their site would be…
