when it comes to Search Engine Optimization organic traffic there are many unknowns, informed assumptions, and information obtained through personal and associative experience. When it comes to explaining how their ranking systems operate, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft hold their cards close to their chest. They provide the community with snippets of knowledge on what factors impact search engine results, how they may be improved, and what to do in certain scenarios, but most of the time, understanding what to do to attain excellent results is acquired via study and hard effort. Like other SEO experts, I gathered information from many sources and worked tirelessly to improve customer outcomes. I am constantly on the lookout for new and innovative techniques to boost search engine rankings. I believe in “White Hat” (or, more accurately, “Grey Hat”) concepts.
This article is for folks who want to build their own websites from the ground up. I discuss SEO design principles, which are the things you should think about before beginning any text and keyword research. I hope you find these suggestions and advice helpful.
What Owning A Website Actually Means.
As a Web Developer and SEO expert, I work with a lot of existing website owners that want to change or improve their website. I also work with a lot of clients that want to establish their web presence with a new website. There is frequently a common thread in each of these conversations; a misunderstanding or an attitude. This is referred to as a reality misperception since the truth of what the Internet can actually achieve for a person’s business and what they believe it can do frequently differ dramatically.
It is sometimes assumed that merely holding a domain and having a website constructed and published on the Internet would result in thousands of people finding the website, visiting it, and purchasing their items. If attitudes are to be adjusted to the underlying search technology, the phrase “if you build it, they will come” should be removed from the vernacular as soon as feasible. As a businessman in the real world, it is evident that this would not happen outside of the Internet ether, so what makes it so different online? Maybe it was the Technology boom tenor twenty years ago that caused a schism in understanding, or maybe it was the buzz that caused the meteoric rise in the stock prices of Tech Companies, but I can hear the small businessman thinking, “surely this can be replicated for my business,” to which I would respond, “well, it is unlikely, but you should be able to achieve some results over time.”
What To Expect From Search Engine Optimization Organic Traffic
When embarking on a project such as Search Engine Optimization Organic for a website, it is critical to understand that you must be dedicated for the long haul. It is not a minor work, and adequate cash must be provided to the project. To achieve customer expectations, delivery timeframes must be accurately scoped against needed adjustments. The essential areas of responsibility for the SEO project include understanding that there are significant changes near the beginning and during setup, but that the changes do not end there; there are continual adjustments to the design and system over time. In this regard, I believe it is critical to manage expectations and set realistic long-term goals for what a website may be anticipated to achieve and when those goals are expected to be fulfilled.
So, what should your aim be when it comes to SEO for your website? Everyone’s aim is the same: enhance page ranks, increase page views and hits, and ultimately increase revenue through the website.
When it comes to SEO and reaching these goals, principles are essential, and my major premise is, “Excellent websites receive good ratings, and poor websites get low ratings, or none at all.” With the advancement of search engine technology and the refining of search engine results, this assertion becomes more and more accurate. I believe in achieving achievements by employing “white hat” (read: “grey hat”) concepts and approaches.
White Hat SEO Concepts.
What do “white hat” ideals entail? I suppose I’d equate it to doing things the honest and correct way without danger. So create a nice site, encourage good linking, have useful material, and keep working on it, and you’ll be on your way to excellent ranks using “White Hat” techniques.
So, why should you go the “white hat” route? Search engines, on the other hand, have some form of comprehension, an artificial intelligence. They quickly detect websites that are spamming or connecting to irrelevant domains, as well as poor cross-linking. It’s about being wise, thinking long term, and wanting your business to expand organically and naturally.
What To Consider With SEO
So, how do I go about upgrading my site and naturally optimizing it for search engines? That’s why you’re here! So, let’s go through some of the core things you should be doing with your websites.
Choosing Your Domain names
When selecting a domain name, consider one that is as basic as possible and is related to the product or service you want to deliver. This decision should take into account branding and the product/service supplied. Involvement of marketing people and product expertise are necessary, but consulting with your SEO specialist is also beneficial. In this phase, I would advise you to take your time and make an informed decision. Keep it basic and easy to recall; frequently stating it out loud will reveal whether it is understandable to a layman.
Many SEO specialists believe that purchasing an older domain that has been around for a while indicates that it will not be sandboxed by Google. What exactly is the sandbox effect? Well, it relates to what Google performs with a fresh or relatively unknown website or domain. In many cases, Google’s Sandbox effect relegates the new domain to a subpar position in search results. Regardless of how well the site is optimized, it reduces the site’s relevancy and rating for the phrase searched for. Consider this very significant whether you can utilize your existing business domain name.
If you are purchasing a new domain name, be sure it is related to the product or service being sold or supplied on the website. Cut it short, to the point, and straightforward. The key concern is relevance.
Is it better to have a country-specific domain or an international domain (.com or .au)? Personally, I believe that dot coms are superior, owing to their international appeal, but if you want to keep it local and particular to your region, consider acquiring all equivalent higher level domains, such as yourdomain.com and yourdomain.com.au, if possible.
Choosing Your Web Hosting
Preferably provides a unique IP address. Again, some SEO specialists feel that this can have a negative impact on Google ranks, but in my experience, it sometimes does and sometimes does not. I’ve seen some sites come in with high PR ranks on shared IPs and others where the PR of the site soared when I switched to a new IP, so Google rankings are still a bit of a mystery. I suppose it’s a consideration.
Considerations for traffic:
When selecting a host, be sure that the plan you’re on can be expanded to meet any additional increases in traffic. Read more about web hosting with this article.
Website Design Considerations
When upgrading your design or developing a new website, there are numerous important factors to consider.
Flash:
Flash has been popular for a years now, and I honestly feel it has a place. It is an excellent method of displaying a large number of items or services in a little space, has a high visual impact when done correctly, and may establish a welcoming tone with website visitors. Having said that, I despise flash; it can be a complete nightmare in terms of search engine optimization.
What you should know about flash is that it cannot be read by a search engine since the search engine cannot read the text or images included inside it, nor can it decipher what is in the images displayed.
When it comes to flash, I would advise against having your entire website flash. If you are developing a new website and want to use flash, use it selectively in high-impact locations to attract the attention of your desired audience. It is critical to guarantee that as much text material (about 300-500 characters) is available on the webpage and in plain HTML as possible.
Frames:
Frames were used in the design of many older websites. Frames are used when the primary home page is actually a frameset page that contains numerous additional pages. This makes it difficult for search engines to index the page and should be avoided. While Google now indexes framed sites, it is crucial to highlight that the majority of the other big search engines do not follow frame links. They simply view the frameset page and disregard the remaining inner frames. This creates an SEO issue for us because those inner pages are quite likely to include our content keywords.
Nowadays, this isn’t such a big deal because it’s rare for a designer to utilize frames, but the simplest solution to tackle the problem is to impose a no-frames policy.
Page Layout:
Googlebot, according to studies, trawls online pages from left to right and top to bottom. Given this snippet of knowledge, it is evident that you should place our most valuable keywords and content on the left and at the top of the page. Of fact, this is a broad statement that ignores design principles and aesthetics. Just keep that in mind when designing the page layout. Place your relevant keywords to the left and at the top of the page.
Good HTML Coding:
Many HTML generating applications inflate HTML to the point where it is 3-4 times larger than if you hand programmed it. Keep things simple, use a text editor, and edit your HTML the old-fashioned manner until an HTML generating tool worthy of use becomes available. If you don’t know how to code HTML, perform a search on the Internet for a good, free e-book and learn how.
Javascript:
This is widely used by web developers for menus, popups, scrollers, and so on. It is my recommendation that simple plain HTML menus or as little Javascript as possible be used in web pages. There are several little JavaScript menus available that are light on JavaScript code, reducing this issue to nearly nothing. Don’t overcrowd your site with JavaScript because it increases page size, page load times, and is incomprehensible to search engines.
Image sizes:
Keep them tiny and just use what you need. This is critical for reducing page load times and displaying information on the user’s screen as quickly as possible.
Overall page size and loading:
The overall page size is critical. It should load rapidly and be simple to navigate. You should be alright if you followed the HTML hand coding, utilized little javascript, basic table layouts, and proper picture sizes. There is a lot of evidence that Google, and possibly other search engines as well, do not like to scan large files, therefore I recommend keeping your entire HTML page size around 25k.
Dynamic URLs & page/file names:
Dynamic pages are a hindrance to achieving high search engine rankings. Especially those that end in “?” or “&.” In a dynamic site, variables are provided to the URL, and the page is constructed dynamically, typically from information recorded in a database, as seems to be the case with too many e-commerce sites. Normal.html pages are static – they are hard-coded, their content does not change, and the URL contains no “?” or “&” characters.
Pages with dynamic URLs can be found in a variety of search engines, including Google and AltaVista, unlike AltaVista’s public statement that its spider does not crawl dynamic URLs. A “?” suggests to a spider a sea of almost limitless possibilities – some pages may generate a potentially enormous number of URLs automatically, trapping the spider in a seemingly never-ending cycle.
Search engines will not adequately index documents that include a “?” or “&” as a general rule. Also any of the following document types: .cfm, .asp, .shtml, .php, .stm, .jsp, .cgi, and .pl are all extensions. Which has the capacity to produce a big number of URLs.
To prevent problems, try utilizing static pages whenever feasible, possibly updating them from the database rather than generating them on the fly.
Slightly Off Topic Thoughts:
The things presented here are not entirely SEO-related, but in terms of the broader goal of increasing sales, this part is critical. Take these suggestions into consideration and talk with your designer and marketing team. When examining your audience and the goals of your website, make smart and informed decisions on these areas.
Screen Resolution:
Over 65 percent of all displays in the world are set at 1024×768 resolution. 13 percent are running at 800600, 20 percent are running at bigger sizes, and the remaining 2 percent are unknown. As a result, this influences how you design your website.
It is my recommendation that you always design for the smallest user that will visit your site, but I often find 800×600 to be too small, so I create for somewhat bigger. Not huge enough to annoy an 800×600 user, but large enough to look excellent on larger screens as well.
I consider my target audience and the quantity of content I plan to provide, and then strike a good medium. I usually design for 1000×620 since it is the ideal amount of real estate for a 1024×768 user with the browser top bar, status bar, and Windows taskbar.
Colors and themes:
The use of color is a key part of marketing And selling. Colors have meanings linked to them in the same way that words have meanings associated to them.
- Gold is the hue associated with riches and prosperity.
- White is the color of purity and innocence.
- Pink symbolizes tenderness and gentleness.
- Green is the color of nature and newness.
- The color red represents danger and worry.
- Blue is the color of intelligence and tranquillity. The majority of the world’s population like the color blue. It frequently denotes “trust.”
The use of color to develop an image or a brand is ubiquitous in the marketing industry, but when you visit the websites of many search engine optimization pros, it’s clear that color significance plays no role in their own web optimization. Some of the colors I discovered on SEO websites:
- Baby blue is a color associated with frailty.
- Red is a risky or dangerous color.
- Orange is a cheery “levity” hue. Orange is one of the least popular colors in the United States.
Although color selection is unrelated to SEO, I believe it is a vital aspect in what SEO is aiming to do for your website in terms of selling more goods, establishing brand loyalty, and consumer impact. Color research is something you should think about carefully.
I would highly recommend studying and learning more about your clients, investigating color options and their connection to your underlying items, and making educated decisions in cooperation on these. If in doubt, I recommend sticking to tried-and-true hues inside tried-and-true eye-pleasing patterns.
Gifs for logos and jpgs for pictures:
Make sure your website uses gifs for logos and backdrop placements and jpgs for images. This reduces the overall size and clarity of the website.
Browser:
It is critical that your website operates with Google Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera. Testing other browsers is also beneficial, but these are the most used nowadays. I believe that citing statistics on the browser breakdown is pointless because you need it to work in all browsers. W3C cross-browser compatibility is ideal for this.
All of the tactics listed above may be quite beneficial when attempting to expand your online visibility and the profitability of your web business. With all of the technical aspects of Search Engine Optimization, it can be difficult to catch up to the rest of the pack when first starting out. As a result, outsourcing your internet marketing may be a terrific strategy to increase revenue from your website without having to put in the time to grasp the technical aspects of all the approaches involved. Good luck with your online marketing effort. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions about SEO or need help optimizing you web business.
