SEO Checklist for Web Designing by Komail A. Noori
SEO Checklist for Web Designing
Domain Name - Your domain name should be brandable (example: Google,
Amazon, Yahoo!, etc.), easy to say, and even easier to remember. Don't worry
too much about stuffing keywords into your domain name. Keywords in domain
names no longer have the punch they used to.
www or not www - The choice is yours, http://www.mysite.com/
or http://mysite.com/, pick one and stick with
it. I recommend using the www because the basic Joe Schmoe Web server tends to
type in www, anyway.
Simple Design - Don't reinvent the wheel. If your design is complex,
chances are it will hinder your visitors' ability to navigate and view the site
plus it will slow down development. The simpler the better.
Don't create directories further than three levels down from the root directory
- The closer pages are to the home page in the directory structure the better.
Keep things organized but don't overorganize. If you have one file or
sub-directory in a directory there should be a VERY valid reason.
File/Directory Names Using Keywords - Your filenames and directory names
should contain keywords. If your page is about Idaho potatoes then the filename
should be idaho-potatoes.
Static URLs - Static URLs are URLs that are not dynamically generated. A
static URL looks like http://www.mysite.com/directory/file-name.html
and dynamic URLs look like http://www.mysite.com/index.html?page-name=.
You can make dynamic URLs spiderable by search engines but it's a lot easier to
get things indexed with static URLs.
Think Small - The smaller your Web pages are, the faster they load. A
single page should be less than 15K (unless absolutely necessary) and the
entire page including graphics should be less than 50K (unless absolutely
necessary). Remember, not everyone is on a high-speed Internet connection;
there are still people without a 56K modem.
Hyphens - Use hyphens ( - ) and not underscores ( _ ) to separate words
in directory and file names. Most search engines parse a hyphen like a reader
would parse a space. Using underscores makes what_would_you_do look like
whatwouldyoudo to most search engines. You should definitely separate words in
your URLs.
Navigation on Every Page - You should place consistent navigation on
every page of your Web site. Your navigation should link to the major sections
of your Web site. It would also make sense for every page on your Web site to
link back to the home page.
Site Map - You should create a site map that links to the major sections
and sub-sections of your Web site. The site map should be linked to from your
Web site's home page at the very least. Preferably the site map should be
linked to from every page. Recommend file names for your site map are
"sitemap.html" or "site-map.html."
Title - The title of the page should be used in the TITLE tag and at the
top of every page. The title should be keyword rich (containing a max of 7 to
10 words) and descriptive.
Description META Tag - Some people say META tags are dead but some search
engines will actually use them underneath a pages title on search engine result
pages (SERPs). Use no more than 150 characters including spaces and
punctuation. Your description should be a keyword rich, complete sentence.
Keyword META Tag - A listing of keywords that appear in the page. Use a
space to separate keywords (not a comma). Arrange keywords how they would be
searched for or as close to a complete sentence as possible. This tag is
basically dead but by creating it when you create the page it allows you to
come back eons later and realize what keywords you were specifically
targetting. If the keyword doesn't appear at least twice in the page then it
shouldn't go in the Keyword META Tag. Also, try to limit the number of total
keywords to under twenty.
Robots META Tag - Some search engine crawlers abide by the Robots META
Tag. This gives you some control over what appears in a search engine and what
doesn't. This isn't an essential aspect of search engine optimization but it
doesn't hurt to add it in.
Heading Tags - Heading tags should be used wherever possible and should
be structured appropriately (H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6). You shouldn't start a
page with an H2 tag. If H1 by default is too big then use CSS to style it
effectively. Remember that most search engines like to see a heading tag then
text or graphics; not H1 followed immediately by H2.
TITLE Attribute - Use the A HREF TITLE attribute (example:
). The TITLE attribute improves usability/accessibility. Be sure to include
keywords as you see fit but remember it should tell your visitors where they
will go when they click the link.
ALT Tags - Every image should have an ALT tag. Use a keyword rich
description of what the image is. If the image contains text use the text in
the image. This is also a usability/accessibility tool.
More text than HTML - A page should have more text content than markup
language.
Anchor Text - Anchor text is the text used to link to a page. Using
keywords in anchor text is a very good idea and will improve a page's
performance in SERPs.
Use Text Links, Not Images - If you're going to link to something use
text. Text in images can't be read by
search engines. The only time this rule doesn't apply is when you're
linking to something with a well known logo. Even then it's still better to use
a text link. If you must use an image as a link then make sure you give it a
good ALT tag.
Gobs of Content - The more content, the better. Having pages upon pages
of original, relevant content is the best form of search engine optimization.
Add New Content Often - If you can add a new page of content every day
then your site will stay fresh and give search engine crawlers a reason to keep
coming back day in and day out.
Keyword Density - This is a touchy topic among Web developers and search
engine optimizers. Some say 5% is more than enough. Chris Short says your main
keywords shouldn't have a density of more than 30% and should be higher than
the densities of other phrases and words.
Build It, Put It Online - Your site should be built and in "update mode"
once it's uploaded to your Web server. Don't add a page at a time to your Web
server when you're first building your Web site. Build your Web site first then
upload it. Add new content as needed.
Use a robots.txt File - Every good crawler looks for a robots.txt file in
your root directory. I would highly recommend creating a valid robots.txt just
to appease these search engines and at the very least eliminate 404 errors from
building up in your log files.
Validation - Every page on your Web site should adhere to W3C standards
as closely as possible. Some say page validation can help your ranking in SERPs
(the jury is still out on that one). But, standards compliant Web pages do help
with cross browser compatibility.
Link Popularity - Once your Web site has been well established, it's time
to build up your link popularity. The more relevant inbound links a Web site
has, the better its rankings will be.
Analyze Traffic - Read your log files often. Make sure you're not getting
traffic you don't want and getting traffic you do want. Keeping a pulse on your
traffic allows you to better optimize your pages.
NO TRICKS - If it doesn't seem ethical, then it isn't a good idea. If it
doesn't help your visitors, then don't do it.
NO FRAMES - Don't use frames, ever.
NO BROKEN LINKS - Linking to pages that don't exist is a very bad thing.
Search engines and people alike hate that.
About the Author
SEO Pakistan
- Search Engine Optimization Services and SEM Solution in Pakistan at
Boundless Services.
|
