Finding out ways and means to get visitors to come to your Web site can be a fairly challenging task. Here comes search engine optimization to bail you out. Search engine optimization means making it sure that your web pages are accessible to search engines and focused in such ways as will improve the chances they will be found.

When you focus on search engine optimization, you do not employ tricks or hacks, but instead write your pages so they provide exactly what your customers want whilst simultaneously showing it to the search engines effectively.

Here's how you go about it.

Choose your target phrase

If you wish search engine optimization to work for you, you have to determine one phrase that best describes what your page is all about. This is precisely what is called target phrase. In choosing target phrase, following points should be borne in mind:

• Your phrase should be an important part of the page information.
   
   
• It should be accurate. One of the commonly tried hacks with search engine optimization is to try to optimize on a phrase that isn't accurate for the content of the page. It is better to simply avoid it. It may backfire.
   
• It should be popular . Your target phrase should be one that people are likely to search you with.
   

You can resort to the following search engine optimization tools to better choose your target phrase.

• Overture is an effective tool for assessing popularity as well as brainstorming ideas for target phrases.
   
• Google is highly useful for brainstorming target phrases.
   
• Word Tracker will be of your help in assessing popularity and also comparing how the competitors use the target phrase you're after.

Evaluate your competition

One of the vital things to focus on while developing your web-site presence is to evaluate your competition and rival competitors. Attempt an analysis what's working for them; how they market their products and services, and even evaluate their target phrase and description tags.

One thing here may be taken note of that the more popular a target phrase is, the more competition there is likely to be. Sometimes, therefore, it makes sense to target a less popular phrase where you can corner the market rather than aiming for the highest popularity phrase.

The following do's on your part will help you in this backdrop.

• Check out Yahoo and Google to see what shows up when you search for your target phrase.
   
• Examine the pages on the first page; analyze where and how they use your target phrase. You can use the "Cached" page option in Google to get your targeted phrase highlighted.

Make your website content driven

Search engines, especially search giant, Google loves content, content, and content. The more rich content you provide using your keywords or target phrase the better you page rankings will be. The best method employed here is to update your pages 2 to 3 times a week, for an instance Monday, Wednesday and again Sunday. While updating the content regularly, you may work well on focusing on your keyword or target phrase.

Here are some significant points to be taken care of:

• Include your target phrase twice in the meta title tag <title> Ensure your title is "clickable". This is what most of the people see when they search, so keep your title logical and descriptive enough.
   
• Include your target phrase in the title or headline for your page. Put that headline using a header tag for your headlines, as search engines quite often weight words in these tags higher.
   
• Do not forget to include your target phrase in subheads, using header tags here too.
   
• Finally, make sure that you include your target phrase in the first paragraph of your page, and twice if you can. Also include it in other locations on the page, like external links, headlines, and sidebars.

Go for your site promotion

Make sure that when you announce your page, you use your target phrase in both the link text and any explanatory text. If you run a blog, you will want to blog your page with at least two references to your target phrase.

List your site in Link Directories that provide a specific category for your services, these are also effective ways to create inbound links as the more inbound links you have generated to your web-site the higher the page rank you are likely to get in Google.

The key consideration to getting your site noticed is to optimize the keywords and use them all over your site. Look for quality link partners that have the same services or products you offer. This is because if you link to a Tupper ware site and you offer fine wine, it isn't going to do you much good as there is no common denominator.

List your sites in Link Directories that provide a specific category that best suits your site content and services.

Check Your results in top of the rankings

If Google or Yahoo don't crawl your site on a periodic basis, then submit your page  to them. Wait for a week or so, and then go to those engines and test your search engine optimization target phrase. You should aim to get to the first or second page of search results for your target phrase. Remember that this can not be done in a single shot; it is long, continuous process putting your patience to the test.

Search engine optimization strategies at a glance

Here is a recapitulation of warranted strategies aimed at facilitating your website topping the search engine rankings. But, be sure you do not give up or falter midway as it is an arduous to achieve yet potentially profitable proposition.

• Ensure that your website is tested for good load time, dead links and cross-browser compatibility . Netmechanic.com is a good website to do this.
   
• Optimize you web site pages . Make sure your top keywords appear in your title, meta tags and content.
   
• Provide quality content that have something unique to offer and that have keywords or key phrases people might search to find your site. If you are into selling products, give something away free (The word "free" is one of the top most searched for words on the net).
   
• Continually build quality links to your site pages from other well ranked sites on your target search engine.
   
• Enlist your top keywords and key-phrases and track your listings/ranking in the top 10 search engines and analyze it in a periodic manner
   
• Focus on your web site attractiveness and easy-to-use feature with clear navigation and easy to read layout and fonts.
   
• tay focused to cater to your visitors needs - don't throw in a free-for-all links program to just attract traffic. In the long run your website will be recognized for what it is.

It's worth sparing the time to make your site more search engine friendly, because some simple changes may pay off with big results. Even if you don't figure in the top ten for your target keywords, you may find a beneficial clue for target keywords you aren't anticipating.

Deepak Sharma is a Web Designer at BlueApple, a http://www.blueappleonline.com" target="_blank">Web Design and Development Company with a well connected development infrastructure in India having a strong offering superior web services and solutions at competitive costs.

Article Source: www.SEOtoday.net

1. Domain Name

It is better to register a domain with a keyword in it, unless you are trying to brand yourself (think Coca Cola or Ebay). For instance, if your name is John Smith and you sell golf items you would be better off by registering a name like www.golfproducts.com instead of www.johnsmith.com.

Unfortunately with millions of website domain names being purchased all the time, finding a related domain name not already taken can be a daunting task. Still it is worth it in the end because it will carry more significance with the search engines.

2. Title Tag

This is an often overlooked place to input keywords. Have you ever been to a website and the bar at the top of the page just said 'untitled' or 'homepage'? That reflects how little the site designer knew about SEO. Always put a descriptive title on EVERY page of your website. Put something like 'Find golf clubs, golf clothes and the latest pro golf tips', instead of 'John's golf shop'.

Make sure not to go overboard and just list 10 or more keywords or long sentences in a row or the search engines will think you are trying to spam them. Think quality over quantity. The title tag should contain one keyword rich descriptive sentence.

3. Meta Tags

The importance of meta tags in today's SEO world is still being debated. It is still advisable to include a meta tag keywords and meta tag description in your code. A lot of times the search engines will pull your description tag to show in your websites search result. If nothing is there it may not show anything at all or it may pull the first sentence off of your page which might be completely irrelevent to your intended audience.

Do not, I repeat do not list 100 or more keywords in the keyword tag. This technique used to work years ago, but the search engines recognize this technique and will consider it spam. Place no more than 10 keywords in the meta keywords tag.

4. Link Strategies

Another important tip is to include keywords when linking to other websites or pages within your own site. For example it is better to have a sentence like this 'Find out the latest professional golf tips.' then to say 'click here for the latest professional golf tips.' This also applies to any outbound links to other related websites. Include keywords on the part you want the visitors to click on.

Same goes for incoming links to your site. If someone wants to link to your site give them the code to paste in their website instead of leaving them to do it on their own. Have something like 'Check out John's Golf shop for the best golf clubs, golf info and golf tips." This is much better than 'Click here for John's Golf Shop'. Search engines also like longer more descriptive links than just one or two words.

5. Relevant Content

Make sure that you provide only relevant information to what your actually offering or selling. If you have a bunch of unrelated info on a wide range of topics than the search engines will have a harder time pinpointing exactly what it is your site is about. So if your selling golf stuff stick to golf content, don't throw in articles or links about scuba diving.

6. PageRank

This is still a relatively new term and applies to an algorithm that google's search engine uses. Other search engines use similar strategies to google's PageRank also.

Basically PageRank is used to define how popular your website is. The more relevant inbound links you have coming into your website the higher your PageRank will be. Google also has a toolbar that you can download for free that will show you a site's PageRank. The best way to go about getting inbound links is to find related websites with a PageRank of 5 or higher. Then asking them to include a link to your site (giving them the proper code to paste in).

Another way you can receive a higher PageRank is to have a ton of content on many different pages and then linking all the pages together in a way that will raise your PageRank. With that said this type of strategy will not boost your PageRank tremendously, so if your site doesn't contain thousands of pages don't stress over it. It is important though to link strategically with keywords between the pages of your site.

7. HTML Headers

Search engines place more importance on text that is placed within the H1 tag. It's like telling the search engines that 'hey this text is important to my site'. The problem is that it can look unsightly. There are ways around this if you know about CSS styles, but for this basic intro article just know that in the end most people won't be bothered by how the heading looks, and it will make the search engines like you more.

8. Creating Credibility

An often overlooked part of free publicity for your website is writing free articles like this one that relates to your intended audience. There are many websites on the internet where you can submit your articles for other people to place on their websites. I even employ this same strategy for my website. It's really a win win situation. They win because they get quality relevant content for their site and you win because your name and website info is included at the bottom of the article, driving traffic to your site.

You increase your inbound links (PageRank) and provide free publicity for your website. It gets your name out there branding you an expert in your field of expertise and provides free web traffic to your site.

About the Author:
Leah West is the owner of West Marketing and Design, providing complete search engine optimized website design and internet marketing services for your small business success.

Article Source: www.SEOtoday.net

• Highly targeted visitors?

• Very good visitor to sale ratios?

• Lots of profits?

If you answered yes to these questions, then forget about choosing the rights keywords, realize the benefit of keyphrases. This approach is likely to generate much higher click through of highly qualified visitors.

Let me explain this to you - How many people do you think search for the word music? ''A lot'' - How many results come up for music ''A lot''. What do you think your chances of appearing near the top are, well I'll answer that one for you. SLIM TO VERY SLIM. Not to worry though because visitors who click-through to a site after searching for music are not highly targeted, you don't know if they're searching for:

1. music tickets

2. music lessons

3. music CDs

4. music related equipment

5. music software

6. music news

7. etc., etc., etc.

It's so vague that your time and effort would be better spent on other methods.

However if a search engine visitor types in 'Special Offer Music CDs' and you have targeted that keyphrase in prominent places where search engines look on your website, you have a much better chance of appearing near the top of the pile. Also if in fact the visitor clicks through on your listing, you are much more likely to make a sale, because you have exactly what the searcher was looking to buy.

RECAP
The more complex your keywords are the more highly qualified visitors you are going to get from the search engines.

Qualified visitors = Sales! Sales! Sales

Try also to regionalize your keyphrases if possible. This will of course only apply to certain websites.

What I mean by this is that if you operate out of a specific location target that location and the surrounding areas in some of your keyphrases. This helps to improve the quality of your visitors.

Example: Imagine that the biggest & best car dealer in Detroit happens to have a website, but they're unwise and their title tag is as follows:

#1 Car Sales Dealer and Garage in America.

They think this will bring them lots of visitors because it has an alphabetically high start (#1) and has decent keywords, they're probably right. The visitors it does bring however will not exactly be targeted. A visitor from the other side of America could visit their website, are they going to travel across America to buy a car from someone just because they visited their website? No.

Now let's say a man from Detroit is looking to buy a new car. The dealer he bought his two previous cars from has closed down and he doesn't know of any other dealers around. He therefore decides to use the Internet to look for "Detroit car dealers" .

The likelihood is that the above car dealers competition will show up because he or she has used a title like this: #1 Detroit car dealer, garage and sales website.

Obviously the man looking to buy a car in Detroit is going to be interested in the site. It's for these reasons that if it's appropriate for your business I recommend that you always regionalize with your keyphrases.

Imagine you don't know what words to target in your keyphrases, well there's a simple solution. Visit http://www.wordtracker.com and do their free trial. Enter in a word that you think people searching for your site will enter on the search engines and wordtracker will give you a list of 15 related words and keyphrases. These are what you'll use to make your keyphrases.

Now you should know what keyphrases you want to rank well on in the search engines, but where do you put these on your website pages to improve you chances of appearing near the top of the results.


Title Tag

The title tag is probably the most important area of your page as far as the search engines are concerned. All search engines give relevancy to words found in the title tag.

Article Source: www.SEOtoday.net

Spamming

If you're like me, you're sick and tired of receiving hundreds of spam messages in your mailbox every morning, and you would not consider buying anything they had to offer, even if it's something you really wanted.

Needless to say, spammers are not the most decent people in the world, and it comes as no surprise that many of them are also scam artists posing as eBay or PayPal to steal your credit card information. Everyday inexperienced and unsuspecting internet users continue to fall prey to unscrupulous characters from the dark corners of cyberspace.

While spamming is not a completely ineffective promotion tactic, I don't recommend it as a way to promote your site at all. Not only is spamming highly intrusive and unethical, but it could also get you into a lot of trouble. Just imagine how many people you'd have to anger to make a sale or to get a visitor to your site. The search engines will ban your site when they find out that you have been spamming. Various laws are now being made to prosecute spammers.

Pop-up/Pop-under Traffic Schemes

Have you seen ads offering "1,000 visitors for $9.95"?

Consider this:  Many companies are willing to pay up to $10 or more for every visitor they get through  the Google AdWords pay-per-click program. Why wouldn't these websites spend their $10 to get 1,000 visitors from pop-up ad brokers, instead?

Perhaps they're smart enough to realize that the 1,000 "visitors" they would get from having their sites displayed in pop-up and pop-under windows on other sites are worth less than the one legitimate visitor they get through Google.

While not necessarily unethical, pop-up advertising is no longer as effective as it used to be. Most web surfers find pop-ups annoying and intrusive, and many now use pop-up blockers to avoid them. Even those who don't have blockers installed on their browsers have grown accustomed to instinctively close pop-ups and pop-unders without taking a glance at them.

A pop-up exchange is a program that allows members to show pop-up windows linking to one another's site. As a member of the exchange, your site would display a pop-up linking to another member's site every time someone visits your site. There is usually an exchange ratio involved. A 2:1 exchange ratio means that for every two pop-ups you show on your site, your pop-up would be displayed once on someone else's site.

Pop-up exchanges aren't especially effective for the reasons mentioned above. Furthermore, they are vulnerable to cheaters who use automated means to fraudulently inflate their credits.

Surfing Exchanges

Surfing exchanges are programs where you surf other people's web sites to get others to surf yours.

In start-page exchanges you to set your home page to a special URL on which another member's site will be displayed every time you start your browser. Alternatively, you may simply bookmark the URL and receive credit every time you visit it.

Click exchanges allow you to earn credits by clicking on other people's links. There is usually a 20- or 30-second timer that counts down the required amount of time you must spend on the site. In return your link will be exposed to other members to click on.

Like pop-up exchanges, these schemes will get you traffic just for the sake of getting traffic-- little of it be of any use. Most people who join these programs are more interested in accumulating credits rather than looking through your site. Many run several traffic exchange programs simultaneously (in different windows) to gain credits on multiple programs rather than exploring a site that they're supposed to explore.

Link Farming

A link farm is a website that has little or no original content and is created for the sole purpose of exchanging links with other websites. Like free-for-all (FFA) pages, link farms have nothing but links to other websites. Link farming has flourished in response to the growing emphasis on link popularity for search placement by many search engines.

Never exchange links with a link farm. Many search engines will penalize or even ban your site for linking to link farms. Obviously, you have no control over who links to you, so you cannot be penalized when link farms link to you. But linking back to them is another story.

Free-for-all (FFA) sites allow anyone to post links on their pages. FFA's generally don't require you to link back to them, so listing your site on FFAs will not hurt your rankings. However, link popularity is not so much as about the sheer number of links to your site as it is about the number of quality links to your site. Search engines are smart enough to tell which links are relevant and which aren't. Securing a handful of inbound links from qualified sites will do you more good than having your site listed on a thousand FFAs.

Article by Oudam Em. Oudam is the publisher of ArticleWorld.net, www.articleworld.net, a free online article directory.  Oudam is also the webmaster of many other web sites, including WebLaunch, www.nexcomp.com/weblaunch, and SiteSeek.net, www.siteseek.net.

Article Source: www.SEOtoday.net

Sharing knowledge on the web can be a very powerful way to establish your online presence and credibility. First, you write a thoughtful and informative article on an topic in your area of expertise. Then you submit it to e-zines to be read by the general public and possibly re-published on other web sites.

Appended to the end of your article is a resource box containing a brief promotional message linking to your web site. Webmasters who wish to reprint your article on their sites are required to include your resource box along with any live links to your site.

For example, an article written by me might have the following resource box:

Article by Oudam Em. Oudam is the publisher of ArticleWorld.net, www.articleworld.net, a free online article directory.  Oudam is also the webmaster of many other web sites, including WebLaunch, www.nexcomp.com/weblaunch, and SiteSeek.net, www.siteseek.net.

The benefit that you get from your article is two-fold. First, your article will be read by visitors to the e-zine site. If they find it helpful and interesting, they will likely visit your web site to see what else you had to offer. Second, webmasters who find your article useful to their visitors may re-publish it on their sites, giving your article additional exposure.

Every time your article is re-published on a web site, you gain an additional one-way link to your site through the live link in your resource box. This adds to your link popularity and ultimately increases your search engine rankings.  As you can see, the true potential of your article lies in its ability to propagate virally in cyberspace.

For your article to propagate virally, it should appeal to both readers and webmasters alike. Keep in mind that your goal is hold your readers' attention long enough for them to get to the  resource box.  If your article is boring and uninformative, few people will read it beyond the first or second paragraph.

Below are some pointers to consider when writing an article:

1. Give your article a catchy title.

Your title is the first and often the only thing that visitors see when they skim through a list of articles on an e-zine page. Put some thought into coming up with a title that grabs the reader's attention right away. Words like "Secrets", "Free", and "Successful" tend to attract more attention than others.

2. Your article should not read like an ad.

Most people read articles to find information they can use, not to see a pitch about your products or services.  If they see your article as nothing more than a shameless act of self promotion, they'll get turned off and hit the "Back" button right away.  Put yourself in the reader's shoes. What benefits do you want to get out of reading an article?  Cater to your reader's  interests rather than your own.

3. Offer lots of free, useful information.

Following on the last tip, keep in mind that your readers are looking for specific "how-to" instructions to help them achieve a certain goal.  Offer lots of tangible information that is immediately useful to them. Do not lead them through hoops just to get to an order form for a $29.95 "Make $50,000 in 30 Days or Your Money Back!" e-book.

4) Avoid gimmicks.

While it may be true that a sucker is born every minute, most internet users are sophisticated enough to tell what's legitimate and what's not. Write with the intention of offering something substantial to the reader. Be honest and forthright. Your article should not cause the reader to think, "What is this guy trying to sell me?"

5) Be succinct.

Get to the point quickly, preferably in the first or second paragraph. Avoid lengthy paragraphs. Use lots of white space to separate your paragraphs to make them easier to read.

6) Your article should not be too short.

Certainly, it's possible to write a good article packed with useful information using just a couple hundred words. If your article is too short, however, some webmasters may feel hesitant to reprint it on their sites. They may, instead, borrow your ideas and write their own articles, gaining authorship without having to give you credit for your ideas.

How long should your article be?  I suggest at least 500 words, preferably longer.  Longer articles give webmasters the impression that you have put some time and effort into your work and, thus, are deserving of being reprinted on their sites.

7) Use live (clickable) links in your resource box.

Many e-zines permit clickable links in  resource boxes. Yet, many authors forgo this privilege by simply spelling out their URLs. Whenever permitted, you should spell out your URL as well as make it clickable (e.g. http://www.nexcomp.com/weblaunch). The advantages of a clickable URL are, (1) readers can go to your site simply by clicking on it,  and more importantly, (2) search engines will be able to record the ezine page containing your article as a link your web site, adding to your link popularity and search engine rankings.

8) Avoid hyping in your resource box.

Your resource box, while promotional in nature, should be brief and tasteful. The purpose of your resource box is not to sell your readers something, but to lead them to your website which does the actual selling. Your resource box should contain your name, your company name, a brief description of your products or services, your web site's URL, and a clickable link to your site.

9) Put some thought and effort into your writing.

E-zines have varying standards for accepting articles, and some accept and publish all submissions without any human review at all. However, this does not mean you should write an article just for sake of having it published somewhere. If your article comes off as half-baked, readers may make a similar assumption about you and your business practices.

10) Submit your article to as many e-zines as feasible.

There are dozens of e-zines on the web that welcome submissions from independent authors. Ideally, you'd want your article to be exposed on as many of them as you can. But it takes time to register and submit to each one of them. Therefore, I recommend that you submit to only a handful of the more popular ones.

Article by Oudam Em. Oudam is the publisher of ArticleWorld.net, www.articleworld.net, a free online article directory.  Oudam is also the webmaster of many other web sites, including WebLaunch, www.nexcomp.com/weblaunch, and SiteSeek.net, www.siteseek.net.

Article Source: www.SEOtoday.net
 

Where to Start

Before jumping headfirst into site promotion (and, perhaps, even before building your site), you’ll want to think carefully about your target market and your site’s purpose. Who do you want to visit your site? What do you want those visitors to do when they get there? With so much information out there, and so many means available for website promotion, it’s tempting to dive in without testing the waters. Just as with more traditional forms of spreading the word, though, you want to figure out what you have to offer, and who will be most interested. Promotion should focus on bringing those visitors to your site who want or need whatever it is you have to offer.

The Tried and True

Once you have determined your target market and the how your site will serve that market, you’ll want to start looking into various methods of website promotion. Given that you’re working with an internet-based medium, you’ll likely think first of internet-based forms of promotion. Don’t overlook more traditional methods of announcing your site, though. Do you have a business card? Have your site’s URL printed on it. Do the same with other paper promotional items you produce routinely. Do you send press releases to the media with news about your business? Certainly include the URL in these. Do you advertise in the newspaper, or on the radio or TV? Your URL should now be a part of the contact information included in those ads.

The "New Media"

Of course, the Web opens up new possibilities for promoting your site, and you certainly want to take advantage of them. Here are seven possible ways to promote your site through the Internet:

1. Get listed

Where do you go on the Net when you want to find information? Probably Yahoo!, Google, AltaVista, or one of the many other search engines, directories or portals available on the Web. So it’s likely that your target market does the same. Check into the processes for submitting your site’s URL to search engines and directories – many of these services will list your site for free. The grand-daddy of directories, Yahoo!, does charge just to look at a business site (currently for $299, with no guarantee of a listing), but keep in mind that about half of all web traffic comes from Yahoo! -- you may decide that it’s a smart investment in your website promotion efforts. Also keep in mind that there are smaller engines and directories tailored to specific topics and interests, and you may find that getting listed with one of these will give you a more prominent position in the engine/directory, and provide you with more targeted traffic. Also, don’t overlook local and regional engines/directories. For more information, see my article on Search Engine Optimization (S.E.O.).

2. Get Linked

While most webmasters will first think of search engines and directories for their website promotion, more traffic (six to seven times as much) comes from links on other pages than from search engines. How do you get these links? Generally, you need to propose a link swap with another site. That is, you contact the webmaster of another site to which you’d like to be linked, and offer to link to his/her site if s/he will do the same. Short-cuts, such as FFA pages, are generally not the most effective kinds of links – because so many people submit to these sites, individual links may appear for only minutes or even seconds. Also keep in mind that people visit these sites to submit their own links, not to find information.

3. Create an email signature file

Most email programs allow you to create a “signature file,” or text that is automatically attached to each email you send. Including a signature file with your site’s URL makes each email you send a promotional tool.

4. Participate in forums and listservs

There are literally thousands of web-based forums and email listservs out there that allow people with similar interests to communicate. Think of these as electronic mixers where you can network with others in your line of business or your target market. Keep in mind, though, that participants are expected to keep their discussion to the topic of the forum/listserv, and that naked promotion and advertising may be grounds for your expulsion from the group. Most, however, do allow signature files, so use these to promote while you enjoy the conversation and debate with others.

5. Start an ezine

An ezine is simply a web or email-based magazine or newsletter. Ezines can help you stay in touch with existing customers and attract new ones. Many ezines are nothing more than promotional tools, though, so make sure yours actually provides information that your customers want and need. If you don’t have the time or skills to create and manage your own ezine, hire someone to do it for you.

6. Write for other ezines

Even if you don’t want to tackle the challenge of producing your own ezine, many other web and email-based publications accept article submissions. An article in a well-regarded ezine can quickly position you as a name in your field or business. Keep in mind that most ezines don’t pay – rather, they publish a signature file with your article. Of course, your signature file in a widely-circulated ‘zine can do wonders for your website promotion. If you don’t think you have the necessary writing skills, hire a writer who will ghostwrite an article for you.

7. Send press releases to news sites

Just as with more traditional forms of media, web-based news sites rely on press releases for much of their content. A well-written press release can bring you tons of free promotion. If you chose this tactic, make sure that you create a newsworthy release, as thinly-disguised advertising is likely to end up in the recipient’s recycle bin. Also make sure you use standard format and writing style, and send your release only to sites that would be interested in the kind of news you’re submitting.

These tactics are only the tip of the iceberg, of course. With a little creativity, and a knowledge of web etiquette, website promotion can become a challenge rather than a chore.

About the Author:
Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, Ph.D., is an English professor and freelance business writer. You may contact Jeff at mcintirj[@]lincolnu.edu

Article Source: www.SEOtoday.net

This article reveals several important web design elements you must consider during website optimization process.

1. CSS Stylesheet

It is good to use CSS stylesheet to format your web design because it can standardize the appearance of your website.  For the sake of convenience, some web designers use internal CSS.  It is no good!  You should use external CSS stylesheet so that your HTML coding becomes consise, and mainly compose of your website content.  It is an essential SEO practice.

2. Content Management Software (CMS)

If you use CMS to manage your website, make sure your CMS provides these features:

a. Allows you to define different templates for different sections/pages.  It gives you flexibility in optimizing website content.

b. Allows you to define Title and Meta tags for different web pages. Again, it gives you flexibility in optimizing every web page.

c. Allows you to generate static HTML pages instead of dynamic pages.  Search engines are not good at reading dynamic web page.  Accoding to Google webmaster guideline, Google may not index dynamic URL with more than 2 parameters within the URL. 

If your web pages cannot get indexed, you definitely get no rankings no matter how many SEO effort you make.

3. HTML Code Compliance

As a good web design practice, make sure your HTML coding is compliant to some well recognized HTML standards such as W3C standard.  Some search engine optimizers reported that non-compliant web design could cause difficulties for search engines to index and analyze your website.  It hinders your website to get top search engine ranking.

4. Use of Graphics

You must optimize the file size of your images.  As search engines like to read text, you should consider avoiding the use of graphics near top of your website, whenever it is possible.

5. Multiple-level Navigation Menu

Many websites use multiple-level navigation menu in Javascript.  However, the coding usually leaves in the HTML body. This is no good in terms of SEO.  I recommend seperate Javascrpt from HTML coding by using external Javascript file.  For example, Marketshare - an Asia consumer market research firm, found that their website cannot get indexed properly by several search engines.  This situation has been changed only after adopting external Javascript.

6. Bad Web Design

To make your web design search engine friendly, you must consider avoiding:

a. Use of frame.  Search engines have difficulties to index all your frameset.  Even though they can index some frame pages, users would only access to part of your webpages only in case they can find your website from search engines, e.g., only see a left-hand side navigation menu with a blank page on the right-hand side.

b. Re-direct techniques.  For some reasons, web designers may make some re-direct pages or adopt Javascript re-direct techniques and re-direct visitors from one page to another content pages.  Since search engine spammers usually use this technique, search engines could penalize your website.

7. Flash

Web designers may sell you to build a flash website or make a flash intro page as your home page.  Their point is that flash makes your website more appealing and it would improve effectiveness of your website.  However, it is not always the case.

Visitors want to find information fast.  Flash sometimes could make your website slow and require visitors to install plugins before they can see your website.  In terms of SEO, simply speaking, search engines treat flash as a graphic and cannot analyze content inside a flash file.  The implication means a flash website is hard to get top search engine ranking.

Conclusion:

For small business to succeed online, you must strike a balance between SEO and fancy web design.  A too fancy web design, in many cases, cannot give you any business as no one can find your website from search engines and if it annoys your visitors.

Author Profile:
Jimsun Lui, is working in Agog Digital Marketing Strategy Limited, a SEO company offers comprehensive SEO service for English and Chinese search engines.  He also manage his own SEO portal for Chinese.

Article Source: www.SEOtoday.net

Have you ever wondered over the striking commonalities among some of the tremendously
functional sites of our time? Just spare some thoughts on the features of sites
like Cisco, Marshall , Dell, Amazon, etc., and the answer would not elude you.

Yeah. You have got it. Plain and simple. Friendly and functional. No cosmetics. No facelifts. No fuss.

Simplicity matters in web design as it does in other spheres of life.

Web design is not a medium to show off your technical prowess. Nor, you are supposed to demonstrate your superb graphic acumen. These are necessary but only in moderation; let them not dominate over your site friendliness and usability.

Here are some useful and rather important tips that will help you-- turn on the right track--to establishing a site professional in appearance, and high in quality and usability.

Formulate your mission statement and understand your target audience

A m ission statement or statement of direction on where the company intends to go in the foreseeable future is critical. It will definitely provide some stability from which the website can springboard forward. You must pursue some explicit goals to excel on the web. You must be pretty clear on the counts like :

• What's the purpose of the site?
• Who is the site's audience?
• How will success be measured?
• How to gather feedback and involve your audience in your design?

Mere high intentions and a cool design aren't going to sustain your development and production processes if you are missing out a concrete statement of your goals and how to achieve them. In its sheer absence, a website cannot deliver a consistent, steady message to customers, can hardly be a platform for quality.

Ponder well on your layout and navigation

A clean layout and neat navigation that employs a lot of white space enhances
your site's look and appeal. Be focused focus on your content. You can better
use dreamweaver templates for your site - all pages or a group of pages have
one basic design and only the content varies. And this will be taken note ofhopefully
with an appreciative eye.

• Make it sure load time on the site is optimal
• For making load time low on your site, you can choose from the following
  options.
• Minimize graphics, flash and scripts: They occupy huge space, and thus need
  to be minimized.
• Optimize your HTML & script code: See to it that your site doesn't have
  any unwanted tags or unused scripts.
• Use server side include (SSI) files: SSI files once called from the web
  server remain in its cache, and on subsequent requests they load faster.
• While designing take into consideration all screen resolutions

A site that is easy-to-use always encourages visitors to stay on and read your
content. If your site doesn't seem to look good for a particular resolution
it is likely that the visitor will close the browser window feeling that the
web page is not for their viewing. Therefore, designing stretch layouts that
fit any screen resolution will ensure a visually appealing and professional
site.

Make your site interactive and rich in content

To make your website stickier you can add a few simple interactive applications like site polls, surveys, a guest book, an event calendar, newsletter sign-up, etc. There are many applications on the net but you need to choose them wisely.

Macromedia Flash is another way to add interactivity to your site. 95% of the world's browsers have the Flash Player plug-in, so you need to think about compatibility as long as your movie can be played by lower versions of the Flash Player. You may well try having a HTML and Flash Sections "Entry (Splash) Page" if you have a heavy movie to accommodate users on slow connections.

Make your site scalable and cross browser compatible

Making your code and design scalable pays you off well. This is crucial simply because as technology advances and configuration of computers and their monitors keep increasing and varying it becomes impossible to test your site in all screen sizes and platforms.

Also, check your site for Internet Explorer 5, Mozilla Firefox 1.0, Opera 7.0 and Netscape Navigator 6 as they constitute 95% of the world's browsers.

Incorporate consistency all over your website

Consistency is crucial as it could give your site a more professional look and feel, and also makes way for easy navigation. For consistency to pervade throughout your website, try using database templates to create a common look and feel for your site.

Although database template is not commonly the answer for all web sites, and may not be practical for smaller sites, it is a big help for all pages in your site to share common elements, and reflects a high degree of page-to-page consistency. The advantage arising from it is that it is all the more easier to create, and make your site consistent regardless of changes in personnel. Database templates also facilitates you to make changes to your site much more easily, and help you change certain elements without recreating the entire page from scratch

The dividends of simplicity can not be ignored and put at stake

While designing a website it is important that the site is attractive, fast-loading, user friendly, focuses on your content and has a high stickiness factor to it. This is probably what it takes to be professional in appearance, high in quality, and value added in functionality. Any deviation from the cardinal principles of simplicity may well backfire, and energies so spent can go down the drain. So, miss out on the finer points of simplicity, and stay tuned to face the music.

Deepak Sharma is a Web Designer at BlueApple, a Web Design and Development Company with a well connected development infrastructure in India having a strong offering superior web services and solutions at competitive costs.

Article Source: www.SEOtoday.net