SEMbyDesign

February 2, 2009

Your Website Code and SEO Part 1

Filed under: Building a web site,Optimization — Tags: , , , — admin @ 8:37 am

One of the first steps in the SEO process (and I always check the code before I meet in person with a customer here in Omaha) is to make the code as SEO friendly as possible. A quick checklist:

  • Is there lots of flash code?
  • Is the site built in Frames?
  • Is there a lot of javascript, especially for the navigation

Those are the big 3. If Fireworks or Dreamweaver was used to construct the navigation, it is readily apparent, and very unfriendly to the search engines. Additionally, lots of graphic designers don’t know the difference between CSS menus and ones constructed from tables/javascript swap images – now, I am getting a little technical here, but these are important questions to ask your designer – it means the difference between a site that looks like a million bucks but gets no traffic, and one that can actually be indexed by Google efficiently.

If you have a web designer who is more designer than technical, that’s where I usually come in. I can fix some (but not usually all) without a major overhaul. Some issues require much more work, so I like to prioritize your changes, give some options, and work with the web or graphic designer to remedy the problems.

In my next post, I will address some other important code issues that should be addressed in the on-site SEO process.

I am an Omaha SEO professional who loves helping small businesses locally, give me a call if you would like to learn more about either do-it-yourself SEO or help with an SEO plan for your business.

November 16, 2008

Make your Site Navigation Easy – Part 1

Filed under: Building a web site,Optimization — Tags: , , — admin @ 10:53 am

Today I will be discussing how to make your site navigation more user friendly and, as a bonus, Search Engine friendly. This is a large subject, and I will likely have to break it down into more than one post.

Create a natural breakdown of your information and make it flow. Make it easy for users to go from general information on your site to more specific information.
Don’t:
• Make it overly complex. All your pages linking to one another isn’t always the best.
Use mostly text for navigation – Text links make the pages easier for search engines to crawl and improve accessibility. Make sure you use css standards – you can do a lot with css to make your links look attractive.
Don’t:

• Have navigation based entirely on images or flash – this slows down the page, makes it less accessible, and often adds large amounts of code (one other trick to optimization is code to content ratio – a whole other post – coming soon!)

Utilize “breadcrumbs” – These are rows of internal navigations, leading the user back to general information, from the most detailed information. It shows a hierarchy of info.

Having good navigation on your site will improve your user experience, lengthen the amount of time your user spends on the site, increases the possiblility of your user finding exactly what they need while there, and as an added bonus, you get the benefit of a potentially higher position in the search engines because you took the time to implement it.

If you need help with your navigation, or any other aspect of useability or SEO of your website, feel free to give me a call at 402-210-3283 (Steve). Factors like these are reasons you should hire an expert to develop your web site. You want to be found, you want your users to buy or contact you once they have found you!

July 3, 2008

Article Submission For Traffic

Filed under: Content Development,Marketing Your Site — Tags: , , — admin @ 7:20 am

Often, I will recommend article submission as a way for my clients to send traffic to their web site. A couple of well written articles can provide you with great backlinks and some traffic directly from the article site. The basic premise behind this is that someone who wants the content that you have written will copy it, leaving the link to your site intact (per the terms of the site you submitted your article to). This places your link on other sites of like content, which is helpful in the Search Engine Optimization process. This is a win/win situation for both sites…you get backlinks, and they get content.

Several sites that provide submission services are available and they are usually free. I like ezinearticles.com – they seem to be the highest quality, and all articles are human reviewed before releasing them to be read by the public.

Don’t forget that you should re-write the article if you are submitting to more than one service, or taking it from your blog.

June 17, 2008

Optimize Your Site With Content

Filed under: Content Development — Tags: — admin @ 7:22 pm

There are 3 basic website monetizing strategies. When I consult with someone, I usually recommend one or a combination of 2. What most people don’t understand are the basic principals of monetizing their site. So, today we will discuss the topic: Content.

I get a lot of questions about why a particular site ‘doesn’t even show up in a Google Search – what can I do?’

Well the short answer, that usually causes the deer in the headlight look is ‘Content, Content, Content’ It is really a simple equation – Content = Traffic = $$$$$. Let’s first define content: content is text of a readable size and contrast on a site that fits the context of the site as a whole that can be indexed by major search engines – now, this is my opinion, of course and could be debated, but should fit in most cases. What content is NOT: Content is not the background code used to render the web page by a browser OR Flash files or any other kind of jpeg, gif or graphics file, in and of itself. A page that contains text embedded in a jpeg and nothing else may look great to a human, but there is nothing there for the search engine to grab. Search Engines CAN NOT read or index graphics or flash.

Now, what is the meat of the content. I tell all my clients that THEY are the expert content provider on their web site. Only they can write the material that their site will be found on. If your sites topic is Real Estate, adding real estate articles to the site will give it the material it needs to be indexed by Search Engines. If the owner of the site does not have the time to provide the material, then content is best purchased to help with search engine optimization.

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