| New website owners and existing website | | | | page.Again, make sure that your designer |
| owners alike consistently make a very common, | | | | programmer understands that this is a |
| yet extremely costly mistake. They find a web | | | | |
| designer first and then an SEO second. | | | | requirement of the job.4) Clean, simple |
| Unfortunately, these entrepreneurs do not | | | | code. Ideally you want to define all |
| realize that literally every single thing | | | | aesthetic properties that |
| that goes into building a new website will | | | | |
| impact your SEO campaign. They commonly | | | | different types of text on your site are |
| funnel thousands of dollars into a brand new | | | | going to have in a separate CSS file. This |
| website, only to find out that there are a | | | | |
| lot of areas that must be rebuilt in order to | | | | means that you want to avoid using as many |
| have an optimum SEO campaign.I will identify | | | | tags as possible, especially font, size |
| 6 major areas of concern, in hopes that even | | | | |
| a small percentage of | | | | and color tags. You also want to avoid |
| | | | creating PHP scripts that are either two |
| these website owners will come across this | | | | long, |
| document at the right time, which is | | | | |
| | | | and contain a lot of unnecessary steps, or |
| BEFORE they begin to develop their | | | | ones that rely heavily on javascript. It is |
| website.1) Domain name registration & | | | | |
| hosting. Make sure that when you register | | | | best to avoid using javascript as much as |
| your | | | | possible.Remember, the most important thing |
| | | | your site can be doing is making it easy for |
| website's address that you register it for | | | | |
| at least 5 years. Sites that register their | | | | search engine bots to easy scroll through |
| site | | | | the code of your website and follow all the |
| | | | |
| for a short amount of time send up a red | | | | links that it finds. When there is |
| flag at Google, who end up thinking that | | | | unnecessary code and script on your site, it |
| | | | makes |
| site site has been registered short-term in | | | | |
| the hopes of helping another website, | | | | it a lot harder for them, thus hurting your |
| | | | SEO campaign.Make sure that whoever is |
| that is owned by the same person/company, to | | | | helping you build your site understands that |
| rank well by linking to it. When | | | | there job is |
| | | | |
| choosing your domain name, do not choose a | | | | to output the cleanest, simplest code |
| URL that is riddled with hyphens | | | | possible. If you have any questions about |
| | | | this |
| between all your keywords. It is more | | | | |
| important that you target this to your | | | | or don't understand it, it is best to talk |
| visitors | | | | to an SEO expert about it, to ensure that it |
| | | | is |
| than to the search engines.2) Creating | | | | |
| static URL's. This is one of the most | | | | done properly.5) Ensuring that visible |
| overlooked yet important things | | | | written content is editable. The writing |
| | | | within the body of |
| that you can do to ensure that your SEO | | | | |
| campaign is a success. By eliminating | | | | your site is one of the most important areas |
| | | | for you or your Optimizer to help your |
| dynamic parameters within your website's | | | | |
| URLs, you are ensuring that search | | | | site increase it's rankings. Ensuring that |
| | | | either of you can edit it at your own |
| engine bots will have no problems indexing | | | | |
| all of your pages. Creating static URL's | | | | convenience is extremely critical to the |
| | | | entire SEO campaign. This because from |
| can be accomplished by using the mod rewrite | | | | |
| command in the .htaccess file in the | | | | time to time search engine algorithms will |
| | | | change, and that might mean that a |
| root folder of your server. Here is an | | | | |
| example of a dynamic URL (which you want to | | | | strategy that was implemented in the past |
| | | | might not suffice, so you must be able to |
| avoid), and a static URL (which you | | | | |
| want):Dynamic: | | | | change it to keep up with the most up to |
| | | | date SEO techniques.6) Site structure. |
| Static: sure that any potential programmer | | | | Considering the nature of PHP, your site will |
| or designer that you hire understands that | | | | most likely (and |
| | | | |
| this will be a full requirement of the | | | | should) be created by a series of includes |
| job.3) Editing the head tag. There are three | | | | that puts all of the pieces of a given page |
| areas in the head tag that you will want to | | | | |
| | | | together. You want to ensure that the layout |
| be able to either edit yourself or have your | | | | and placement of graphics and |
| SEO edit. They are the page title, the | | | | |
| | | | navigational links within these includes is |
| description meta tag and the keywords meta | | | | strategically correct. Remember, you don't |
| tag. Having control over these for each | | | | |
| | | | want to have to pay someone to go back and |
| of your top level pages (all the pages | | | | redo this, so it is critical to get it right |
| linked to from your home page), will be | | | | |
| critical | | | | the first time.If you are unfamiliar with a |
| | | | lot of the information that I presented in |
| to your websites success in the search | | | | this article, it is |
| engines. You definitely do not want these to | | | | |
| | | | probably in your best interest to at the |
| be the same on every page (they must be | | | | very least, consult with an SEO or SEO |
| unique and reflect the nature of the | | | | |
| | | | company during the entire design process. A |
| content on the given page). For other pages | | | | good SEO will be very comfortable |
| that will be created in high volumes, | | | | |
| | | | working with you and your design team to |
| you will want to make sure that there is a | | | | ensure that the end product will be one |
| variable string (your web designer/ | | | | |
| | | | that will last you a long time, and will go |
| programmer will understand what this is) in | | | | a long way in helping your site generate |
| place for each of the three areas in | | | | |
| | | | revenue online.Bobby Heard |
| question, so that they will automatically be | | | | (bheard@abalone.ca) is the Vice-President of |
| filled with content that is the right | | | | Abalone Designs ( which offers great SEO |
| | | | results at affordable prices. |
| length and reflects the content on the given | | | | |