Design factors that affect your search engine ranking19 April 2005
Many basic "search engine optimisation" techniques, which are ways to improve your web site's ranking in the search engines, are simple to learn and cost-free to implement.
- Search engines consider text important. Using well-chosen keywords and plenty of interesting content on your site makes it easier for the search engines to find you. To see this in action, try going to Google and typing in the keywords that are most relevant to your business. A list of businesses will appear, and each one will use these relevant keywords repeatedly towards the top of its homepage.
- Use full phrases, rather than abbreviations, in your content. If your business sells stained glass windows, for example, you should use the full phrase as much as possible rather than shortening it to "stained glass" or just "windows". But don't go overboard - search engines will penalise the repetition of keywords if they occur too often on your page.
- You should also avoid using complex bits of HTML that can confuse the search engines, such as over-elaborate tables, long passages of JavaScript, and putting important text in graphical format.
- As well as the basic page text that describes your business, the search engines will consider three other design aspects of your site important.
- The first is the page titles you use. These appear in the bar at the top of users' web browsers, and can be programmed by including the code
Your page title at the top of your HTML. Use keywords to make them relevant and don't forget to include them on every page of your site. - The second is meta tags. These can be found at the tope of your HTML, and should be used to describe your web site and add keywords. It's true that Google tends to ignore meta tags, but many of the other search engines include them when indexing, and they shouldn't be ignored. There's a useful guide to using meta tags at Search Engine Watch
- The last is 'alt' image tags and hyperlink tags. If your site includes graphics, you should tag them by adding a description relevant to your business. Although alt image tags are primarily used so that people can understand what's there if the images are turned off on their browsers, keywording your alt image tags can be another way to boost your site's appeal for the search engines.
Hints and tips
- Don't just optimise your web site for Google. Look at this chart to see how other search engines use information, and appreciate why it's important to be indexed by them all.
- Every page should be optimised for search engines, including its title, keywords and links to other pages on your site.
