When first embarking on a new website design; an important part of the design process should consider exactly how the website is going to be promoted. This is particularly important if you want the website to be found by the major search engines.
Any designer you commission for your website design should at least be familiar with a process called SEO search engine optimization, know how to use meta tags, and understand the limitations any search site has when it comes to spidering your website.
SEO Search Engine Optimization
The first thing that needs to be understood is that when an inquiry is typed into a search site such as Google, the software will try and find websites that are the best match for that inquiry. The actual inquiry itself is called either a keyword or a keyword phrase.
Some keywords are used far more frequently than others so even at the stage when you are first creating the content for your website you should be targeting the keywords that are entered into the search sites more frequently. Ideally your content will exactly match the keywords and provide the best chance for your site being listed high up on the search engine results pages (SERP).
It is also important where you place the keywords; the first place the search site looks for the match is in the name or title of your site, after which comes the sub titles and headings followed by the description and then finally in the content text.
This is done on a page by page basis rather than a site basis. So each of your pages should have titles, headings and descriptions that accurately reflect the content in that page, and that match frequently entered keywords.
This is why finding and using the correct keywords is such an important part of SEO search engine optimization and why you need to be writing content for your website that will ultimately help the search sites match you to inquiries.
Search Engine Friendly Navigation
Many modern website designs have adopted the use of flash, java driven menu systems and graphics as navigation elements. The upside of this approach is that excellent graphical images can be created that are very aesthetically pleasing.
The downside is that search engines cannot find text that is buried in a graphical image or is delivered by an external java script file. For all intents and purposes, search engines look for text; including the text that provides the links to other parts of the website. So when spidering the site the primary method for finding all the pages included and establishing the contents of the pages is by reading the text on the site.
There are ways and means of overcoming this problem. For example a site map containing information that describes all of the pages of interest to the search engine can be submitted to the search site so that listed pages are included in their index; this is rather than relying on the search engines finding the pages for themselves. There is a protocol that has to be followed for a site map to be accepted; but this is not particularly difficult to achieve.
You can use what is called the ‘alt’ tag to provide descriptions of any images included in the content of your site. There are other reasons for doing this anyway to ensure design standards are met in general.
There are also techniques that can be used to create navigation systems that can look equally as impressive as some of the script driven methods but are text based and consequently search engine friendly.
Meta Tags
As a final word on this subject, make sure that your designer also understands the use and implementation of meta tags. This is information included in the header of the website page that for the most part is invisible to visitors but serve the purpose of providing instructions to search sites to help them understand how to deal and interact with your website.
Taking care of all of these factors will ensure your website is truly search engine friendly.
About the Author:
Brian Stephens. Visit Moulin Website Design for more information on whats involved when designing a website. SEO Search Engine Optimization provides an in depth look at SEO in general.