How You Can Integrate Web Design and SEO
April 10th, 2010
Search engine optimization, also known as SEO, is one of the your most important tools for generating traffic to promote your website. SEO enables you to create organic avenues of traffic to your website, reduce your advertising costs, and increasing your conversions. One of the key aspects of search engine optimization is keyword density, a quantitative measurement that every major search engine takes into account when assigning page rank.
The place web designers start to find the balance between appearance and performance is SEO. If SEO never generates traffic, your beautiful page design can never be appreciated. The basics of SEO include linking between pages, keyword density, meta tags, and proper tagging of images. Each of these factors is something to consider as you begin designing your site.
How do you operationalize your keyword density rule Start by injecting keywords into your content as organically as possible. Google, in particular, and other search engines have developed complex algorithms that penalize your pages when keywords are “stuffed” into the text. The keywords you choose must flow with the text, making good grammar and adding meaning to the page.
The next step is to tag all the images you use on your website with the “alt” in HTML. Each and every image without exception must have this tag. The “alt” tag permits you to tell the web browser which text will pop up when visitors run their mouse over the image. It’s also essential to labe every image with an SEO-friendly title. For instance if your site is about swimming with dolphins and you use a picture of dolphins on a page, a name like dolphins.swimming.jpg is far more effective than 477876ACDAW.jpg. Keywords in the tags become keywords for your pages. Just be sure you do not make your pages too keyword-dense with image names, either.
Another vital step in search engine optimization is linking the various pages of your site. Visitors always appreciate internal navigation. The search engines also appreciate internal navigation, because internal links are places you can insert keywords that identify your pages. For instance, if you have a page called “White Sand Beaches” you can link to that page from every other page in your site with a link entitled “White Sand Beaches.” This way you not only tell all search engines have created a page, but you tell the search engines what the page is about.
How many keywords can you include your homepage Your list range anywhere from 3 to 10 or even 20, as long as you have enough content to keep the percentage keywords acceptably low. The most competitive niches almost always require a narrow focus to ensure that your content is what your visitors are searching for. On the other hand, an excessively narrow focus can eliminate certain visitors before they have a chance to search for your site, so be on the lookout for ways to place additional keywords on your page without triggering spam filters.
Always take care that the search engines do not mistake your content for spam. Beyond keeping within the 7% limit, your respect for your readers and your providing genuinely content will make all the difference in how well your site will perform.
Justin Harrison is a leading Internet Marketing consultant responsible for the Internet Marketing strategies behind some of the biggest online brands including Amazon, BBC, MasterCard and many others.
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