The Do’s and Don’ts of Making Your Website Search Engine Friendly

Written by admin on May 23, 2010 - 0 Comments
Categories: SEO

Creating a site that the search engines will love is the goal of almost every website owner. Some try to trick the search engines and cheat their way to the top of the results. But developing a search engine friendly site doesn’t take any trickery at all. It just requires an understanding of what the search engines are looking for.

Here are some do’s and don’ts of making your website search engine friendly.

* Do create a navigation bar. A navigation bar lists the main pages of your website and links to them. The search engines will follow these links to visit other pages of your website. Be sure your navigation bar is on every page.

* Don’t use JavaScript as the only means of navigation. This is commonly seen when a site uses dynamic menus. JavaScript is difficult, and often impossible, for search engines to crawl. Instead of completely getting rid of your JavaScript, though, you can offer an alternative means of navigation. One way would be to place text links to your other pages in the footer of your site.

* Do avoid using Flash on your pages. This is a popular way to add animation and interactivity to your webpages. A Flash site can be very appealing visually, but it doesn’t give anything for the search engines to chew on.

* Don’t use a splash page. You’ve seen websites where the first page is a pretty picture but gives no real information. It might have a button that says, “Click here to enter.” When the search engines find this page, they’ll find no content to crawl, and so they’ll leave.

* Do produce a site map. A site map is a page that lists all the pages of your site and links to them. Search engines like them because there is lots for them to do, and it helps them find their way around your site. Be sure to link to your site map from every page so it’s easily found.

* Don’t keyword stuff your content. You have heard of the importance of using good keywords and keyword phrases in your website content. That’s true, but you want to avoid using them too often. Your content should sound natural. No one word or phrase should stand out because of overuse. If it doesn’t sound natural, some search engines will give your website less credibility.

* Do use unique title tags for each page. When you look at your website in a browser, you can read the title tag on the top left hand side of the screen. Very often, sites will only have the business name or the website name in the title. Each page should have a unique title tag that tells the search engines what that page is about.

* Do write unique meta description tags for each page. Each page should also have its own unique description tag. The search engines index these to learn what your page is about. As well, some search engines will display your description in the search engine results.

Creating a search engine friendly website isn’t difficult at all. When you follow the above do’s and don’ts for your website, it will become more than search engine friendly. It will be friendlier for your human visitors as well. That’s a good thing, because as important as the search engines are, your visitors are the ones with the wallets.