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.