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Checklist For A Successful Web Site Design
Designing a Web site can be a time consuming and often complicated task. Even if you have a general idea or a vision for your site, there are many details that will need your attention before the project is completed. How in the world do you keep up...

Making Better Web Graphics that grab your attention and load FAST.
AG Graphics Making Better Web Graphics that grab your attention and load FAST. Volume 1, Issue 1 October 1, 2004 You are subscribed to - Making Better Web Graphics that grab your attention and load FAST. If you wish to be removed, you can find...

User Friendly Website Hints & Tips
A very wise person once said something along the lines of “the best thing about the web is that every one can become a publisher and the worst thing about the web is that everyone can become a publisher.” With the availability of so many web...

Web Source Web Design Tips - Decreasing A Website's Load Time
The main page of your web site should load in 8 seconds or less with a 56K modem. According to two recent surveys, conducted by Forrester Research and Gartner Group, ecommerce sites are losing $1.1 to $1.3 billion in revenue each year due to...

Website Design Info - Part 2
What kind of 'dot' do I need? by Richard F. Hill © 2005 Richard F. Hill - All Rights reserved This is the second of eight articles about website design. Our discussion will deal with some of the issues which need to be considered when developing a...

 
How Web Design Can Affect Search Engine Rankings


Uniquely built web sites can create unique issues when promoting your site on the search engines. From a basic 3 page brochure site, to a corporate site with hundreds of dynamically generated pages, every web site needs to have certain design aspects in order to achieve the full effects of an SEO campaign. Below are a few points to take into consideration when building or updating your web site.

1. Size Matters.

The size of a web site can have a huge impact on search engine rankings. Search engines love content, so if you have only a few pages to your site and your competitors have dozens, it's virtually impossible to see a top page ranking for your site. In some cases it may be difficult to present several pages of information about your business or products, so you may need to think about adding free resources for visitors. It will help in broadening the scope of your web site (which search engines like) as well as keep visitors on your site longer, thus possibly resulting in more sales.

2. Graphics-Based Web Sites.

While web sites that offer the visitor a more esthetically-pleasing experience may seem like the best choice for someone searching for your product, they are the most difficult to optimize. Since search engine robots cannot read text within graphics or animation, what they see may be just a small amount of text. And if we learned anything from point #1, that will not result in top rankings. If you really must offer the visitor a site jam-packed with graphics, or even a Flash experience, consider creating an html-based side of your site that is also available to visitors. This site will be much easier to promote on the search engines and your new found visitors will also have to option to jump over to the nicer looking part of your site.

3. Dynamic Web Pages.

If most of your web site is generated by a large database (such as a large book dealer with stock that is changing by the minute) you may find that some of your pages do not get indexed by major search engines. If you look at the URL of these pages you may find that they are extremely long and have characters such as ?, #, &, %, or = along with huge amounts of seemingly random numbers or letters. Since these pages are automatically generated by the database as needed, the search engines have a tough time keeping them up to date and relevant for search engine users.

One way to combat this problem is to offer a search engine friendly site map listing all your static pages just to let them know that yes, you do have permanent content on your site. A good internal linking system also helps in this case because if search engines see links going to and from these dynamic pages, they may index and assign them decent PageRank values. The link popularity of your site may carry more weight in this case as well, so if you can't offer as much static content as your competition, make sure you have an aggressive link campaign on the go.

4. Proper Use of HTML.

There is quite a bit of sub-par web design software out there. Word processors usually have a way to create HTML documents which can be easily uploaded to a site via ftp. However, in many cases the code that the search engine robots see is mostly lines and lines of font and size formatting, not actual relevant content. The more efficiently written web sites usually achieve higher rankings. Our choice for web design software is Macromedia Dreamweaver, as it is an industry standard. It also makes using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) a breeze,


which can drastically cut down on the amount of text formatting in HTML code.

And there are some no brainers too. Web sites with abnormal amounts of hyperlinks, bold or italicized text, improper use of heading, ALT, or comment tags can also expect to be thrown to the bottom of the rankings.

5. Choosing a Domain Name.

The golden rule to web development of any kind is to keep your visitors in mind above all else...even search engine optimization. When choosing a domain name, one should pick either your business name (if you are making yourself known by just your name, ie. Chapters or Kleenex brand tissues) or a brief description of your products. Domain names can always help with search engine optimization, as it is another area of your web site that important keywords can appear. Exclude long-winded domains such as www.number-one-best-books-on-earth.com as no one will ever remember it and it will be hard to print on business cards or in print ads.

If you need to change your domain name for any reason, you obviously don't want to lose your existing rankings. An easy way to do this, and one that is currently supported by most search engines, is the 301 redirect. It allows you to keep your existing rankings for your old domain name, while forwarding visitors of that site to your new one virtually seamlessly.

6. Using Frames.

Just don't, it's that simple. Frames are a thing of the 90's (and in the Internet world that is eons ago) and are not even supported by some search engines. The ones that are able to index your site through frames will most likely frown upon them. Whatever you are trying to accomplish by using frames can usually be done with the help of PHP includes or CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Some browsers are not frames-compatible, so there's the danger of some visitors not being able to see your site at all. Bookmarking of individual pages within a frame becomes difficult without lengthly scripts being written.

7. Update Your Information.

Not only does information printed two or three years ago look badly on your organization when it is read by a visitor, it is also looked down upon by search engines. Web sites that continuously update and grow their web sites usually experience higher rankings than stagnant sites. When the trick to SEO is offering visitors the most relevant information, you can bet that the age of web pages is taken into consideration by search engines. Consider creating a section of your site devoted to news within your organization, or have a constantly updated resources area.

Many shortfalls of web sites can easily be attributed to designers who just don't keep the user or search engines in mind. Search engine algorithms are quickly improving to try and list the most user-friendly sites higher, given that the content and link popularity are there to back it up. So first and foremost, know your target market and make your web site work for them before focusing on search engine optimization. If you build it (properly), they will come.

Copyright John Metzler of Abalone Designs, November 2004. This article may be freely distributed if credit is given to the author.

Abalone Designs is a family-run Search Engine Optimization firm in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Visit www.abalone.ca for a free personalized analysis of your web site.

john@abalone.ca


 

Web Development
This web summarizes the complete life cycle methodology for web development: planning, analysis, design, implementation, promotion, and innovation.
www.december.com
 
Web Development
Professional Web site design, graphic design, and Internet development services.
webdevelopment.com
 
Web Developer's Virtual Library: Web Development Tutorials and ...
News, tutorials, and reference material focusing on technical web development topics.
www.wdvl.com
 
Open Source Web Development Tutorials - Dev Shed
Open Source web development tutorials, forums, and tools. Topics covered include PHP, Apache, mySQL, Zope, Roxen, Jserv, Zend, XML, DHTML, and Javascript.
www.devshed.com
 
WebDeveloper.com
Hello all, I am new to web development. I have an understanding of website development, but no scripting experience. I have heard of JavaScript, PHP, ...
www.webdeveloper.com
 
LevelTen Web Design | Professional Website, Flash & Graphic ...
Offers logos, web sites, multimedia presentations, and custom media. Quote form. Based in Dallas, Texas. [Requires Flash]
www.leveltendesign.com
 
Web development - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For larger businesses and organizations, Web development teams can consist of ... Since the mid-1990's, Web development has been one of the fastest growing ...
en.wikipedia.org
 
Web Design - HTML XML - Web Development - Web Site Design
Web Design and HTML are all about creating a great Web site. Use Web development and Web site design to build Web sites that customers return to over and ...
webdesign.about.com
 
Agile Web Development with Rails—Second Edition
Dave Thomas, Mike Clark, David Heinemeier Hansson, Leon Breedt, Thomas Fuchs, Andrea Schwarz; Pragmatic Bookshelf, 2006, ISBN 0977616630.
www.pragmaticprogrammer.com
 
CYGAD's WebDevelopment - Welcome to CYGAD’s WebDevelopment! - The ...
CYGAD's WebDevelopment - The finest Resources for WEB-Design, WEB-Master and WEB-Developer!
www.webdev.cygad.net
 
Web Development Bookmarklets
Includes tools for viewing and testing CSS styles, viewing scripts and variables, and showing the structure of a document.
www.squarefree.com
 
SGI - Freeware - Web Development
Links to freeware web development tools, browsers, software, etc.
www.sgi.com
 
Webmonkey: The Web Developer's Resource
Resources for web site developers including how-to guides, code libararies, server technologies and authoring resources.
www.webmonkey.com
 
Web Development Tools - Web Developer's Journal
Tips on Web page design and development, HTML, graphics, scripting, favicon, development tools, Java, sql basics, building web sites, and much more for ...
www.webdevelopersjournal.com
 
Web Developer's Handbook | CSS, Web Development, Color Tools, SEO ...
Web Developer's Handbook is a list of essential web-sites, which make the life of web developers easier. Compiled and updated by Vitaly Friedman.
www.alvit.de
 
Ceonex Web Development & Web Design - Full Service Digital ...
Web design, web development, online branding, application development and other full service business solutions focused on prospect conversion and customer ...
www.ceonex.com
 
Cayenne Web Development - web design agency, Oxfordshire, UK
Specialist web design agency based nr Banbury, Oxfordshire, offering a complete website design and development service.
www.cayenne.co.uk
 
Web development mistakes | 456 Berea Street
When I visit a website, especially if it’s the site of a competitor or a prospective client, I like viewing…
www.456bereastreet.com
 
Web development mistakes | 456 Berea Street
Articles and news on web standards, accessibility, usability, and other things related to web development and web design.
www.456bereastreet.com
 
Anil Dash: Web Development Trends for 2006
Here, then, is a random assortment of new web development trends to be ready ... Web Development trends 2006: Überblogger Anil Dash maakte (een paar weken ...
www.dashes.com
 
 

 

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  • web standards part 1 what are web standards

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