All sites that I produce are Search Engine Friendly; optimised for indexing by the various search engines.
It’s not hard to do.
Separation of content from presentation
This means keeping all the non HTML code out of the Body of the page. Minimum of embedded code in the Header of the page and the styling and javascript in seperate files that are accessed by all pages on the site.
This has the added advantage of faster page loads.
Hierarchical layout
Content laid out using the correct hierarchical HTML elements. Heading 1 for the site name, Heading 2 for the page name, Heading 3 and 4 used as appropriate in a strict hierarchy. Paragraphs for straight text. Unordered or ordered lists used for list items. Tables for tabular data.
Tables not used for layout
Tabular data is the only data that should be laid out in a table. The layout of the page is controlled through divs usually with the assistance of a grid. This makes life much easier for search bots and for screen readers.
Meaningful names
All page names and images have names that are relevant to their content. Most sites use meaningful names for their pages though most Content Management Systems generate default page names like:-
index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=61&Itemid=66;
Not very informative is it?
I make sure all CMS sites and blogs use permalinks that are relevant to content. Check the address bar for this page.
Image names is an area where many sites fail. How many times have you saved an image from a website to discover a file name like 03.jpg or aee45609W.jpg? Search engines index everything from your site including file names. I make sure that image names are relevant to their content. This has the added benefit of re-enforcing key words.
Alternate text descriptions of all images are not only beneficial to your search engine rankings but also very helpful for screen-reading software, making your pages accessible as well.
Relevant link text
View Round 1 of the Summer Competition rather than Click here.
A Little Bit Extra
Key Words and Phrases
A balanced use of appropriate key words and phrases will improve your rankings. Chances are your text already contains a suitable number of your key words or phrases but it may take a little judicious tweaking of your content to optimise them.
