SEO Website Design
SEO friendly web design is something that should play a key part during the design and development stage of any website. Here at The WebMarketing Group, we've come across so many different websites over the years and we've worked closely with a number of designers and developers to achieve the perfect balance between search engine optimisation and good design.
Working to balance the two elements can be challenging but if you have a well designed website which also ranks well, you can improve both traffic and conversions.
Here are some tips to help you or your designer create the best SEO design for websites:
1. Avoid splash pages - splash pages typically contain no text which means that they don't rank well for keywords. The chances of anyone linking back to a splash page are also minimal, so splash pages should be avoided if you want your website to be search engine friendly. Using base level URL redirection to another page to ensure that all visitors enter the site can also negatively affect your rankings.
2. Don't use image content - designers love to make text look pretty. It's what they do and we're not denying that it looks very smart, but search engines simply can't crawl imbedded content. While it can be a good idea to use some text as images, there needs to be a good mix so that Google can detect your keywords.
3. Avoid Flash menus - animated menus are extremely stylish but they are unreachable for search engine spiders. Not only does that mean that search engines can't see your menu but the links within the Flash menu will not be acknowledged either. Other than for the purposes of SEO website design, it could also be argued that flash animations should be used because they are detrimental to website usability.
4. Optimise ALT tags - Search engines can't see your chosen images. If you want Google to see what your image is, use the image name to describe it. Optimising ALT tags can work hand in hand with your on-site content to improve your rankings and this is a very important part of SEO website design.
5. Choose SEO friendly URLS - your URL is the ideal for placing your important keywords. Dynamic URLS do not contain the page title, which means that they are not as search engine friendly as they could be.
6. Clean up your code - poor coding can create barriers between search engines and your website. SEO friendly coding can make your website visible to Google and just a few coding changes can clean up your website, ready for SEO.
7. Optimise title tags - many designers / developers make the mistake of having generic title tags throughout the pages of a website. Great SEO design for websites also includes the title tags (although these can be easily changed later). Title tags, just like any other on-page content, are used by search engines to differentiate and identify each page. If you have the same title tags on each page, you're essentially telling Google that each page is the same.
The Importance of implementing SEO design for your website
SEO design is something that many people don't realise they need until it's too late. But it should be a skill that all designers apply to their work. Here at The WebMarketing Group, we've worked on a number of different websites over the years and we're happy to advise you in the best ways to prepare your coding, your design and your entire site for search engine optimisation.
SEO website design services are not always easy to find but with our expert knowledge and experience in mixing design with SEO, we'll be able to help you with advice and the best optimisation techniques.
Call us today on 0845 555 5040 to find out more or view our SEO packages.