Search
Engine Optimization
If you are relying
on the search engines to deliver traffic to your website, you should
consider search engine optimization before
you design, develop or launch your website.
You will first need
to have done your basic marketing research, and generated a list of
target search terms, as explained in our section: Search
Engine Ranking. Once you have gathered the target search terms that
you hope to attract the right visitors, you must weave these in to your
website design.
In particular the
following will prevent search engines identifying your site (called
spidering):
1) if your content
is behind a password, or other access control, this content will be
invisible to the search engines
2) if the content
is generated dynamically onto pages uniquely created (as is common in
some online shops or news sites) for each visitor, the search engines
will not effectively index this content
3) the structure
and layout of the site must be such that pages that can be found by
the search engines make sense to a visitor in their own right, and give
easy access to other parts of the website.
4)pages within frames
are unlikely to be read by the search engines
To maximise your
chances: focus your pages around simple concepts and unique relevant
search terms, then include the term in: the page file name (e.g. search-engine-optimization.htm),
the text, the headline page title, in the Alt tag for an image, and
in the meta data (title, description and keywords). These coding terms
are explained in web design books.
Link your site clearly
between pages and avoid frames on important pages. The content of the
page should match the search term,but avoid writing drivel, just to
bring in search traffic, its pointless.
You can read more
about the specific stages of optimizing search performance elsewhere
in this website. If you want to study the subject in depth, join Search
Engine Watch.
For an example of
a site that appears to have mastered the art, go into Google
and type in:"Ford Focus Manchester", or "Renault Espace
Nottingham" etc. etc. - you will find the same website coming up
each time. They have a very large site, but they have carefully interlinked
and focused pages on likely search targets - so each page can be a front
door to their showroom. Other similar sites use databases to generate
the pages, so they cannot compete for useful search traffic.
If you require further
guidance on this subject, we would be pleased to help. Please contact
us .
If you want to buy
a used car, contact Carsource,
they look like they know what they are doing!
