10 Excellent Web Design Tips to Maximize your SEO
There are numerous ways that a Web developer can make the page a little more SEO friendly. If you are the Webmaster and Web developer, you will be able to add the SEO elements to your page and fill them out at the same time. This will make optimizing your pages a little easier and quicker.
Here are the 10 Web design tips that will improve your SEO.
1. Add the Meta tags
These are what the Webmaster is supposed to fill in whenever the page is finalized with content. The Web developer should add the Meta tags so that the Webmaster can fill the content, and if you are the developer and Webmaster, then you may as well add the keywords for the page as you are developing it.
2. Block any page that you do not want Search Engines to read
These may be pages that have duplicate content. For example, a lot of your checkout pages may be very similar and they may not be optimized for search engines. You can block the search engines from reading them so that they do not drag down your SEO. You will also stop them from being indexed and appearing on the SERPs. No one is going to click to view a checkout page. Use robots.txt file to block pages from Search Engines.
3. A Clean HTML is all you need on your page
Search engines are built to read HTML, so you need to make sure that the bulk of every page is made up of HTML. You also need to make the script clean and easy for the search engines to read and index.
4. Design the pages so that they can be updated
You may add certain elements to a page so that updates may be added. You may also install a widget that tells the readers and the search engines when a page has been updated. It may simply be a case of leaving room at the bottom so that a page may be continually added to (a bit like a blog).
5. Add sections with Header tags
The Header tags are used to show the search engines what parts of the text are important for the overall page. Use heading tags to emphasize important text. If you are just the developer then lay out the page so that the Webmaster may add text between header tags.
6. Make your URLs search engine friendly
You do this by adding keywords and keeping your URLs simple. Keywords can be added from your page titles. If you add keywords, then the search engines will have a better idea of what your Web page is about. It is better than simply numbering your web pages or fusing symbols. It also makes it easier for people to read too. Also in a URL, use only lower cas and add dashes between words as opposed to spaces and underscore.
7. Put your non-HTML scripts outside of your HTML page
If you are using JavaScript, then externalize the script. Make the page call the scripts from an external source instead of putting the JavaScript code within the HTML page itself. This is all part of making your HTML cleaner so that search engines can index it better.
8. Use a search engine friendly navigation
Having a search bar is okay, but you have to remember that the search engines cannot do much with it. So have a system of links that point to your most important pages. For example, at the top of each page you could have links to your product categories and links to your home page. You can even install drop down lists that make navigating through each category easier.
9. Use W3C standards to design your Web pages
If you stick to the W3C standards then your code will come out clean and well formed. This is good for your SEO, because it makes the job of the web crawlers a little bit easier. Also conforming to standards ensures that your Web pages display properly on many browsers and on different versions. It is important to validate your Web pages.
10. When you add images, make sure you add the ALT attribute too
If you add images to your Web pages, then use the alt attribute to describe them. The alt attribute specify alternative text that appears if the image does cannot be displayed. Search engines will judge what your image is about by the ALT text that you enter. A good description in your ALT text will be good for your SEO. Also the alt attribute is used by screen reader software so that a person who is listening to the content of a Webpage (example, a blind person) can interact with this element.