SEO - Part I
A higher search engine ranking is what many website owners dream of. What they do not realize is that optimizing their sites for the search engines, if done correctly, can also optimize it for their site visitors.
Ultimately, this means more people finding your website, increased sales and increased lead generation.
But - - are search engine optimization and usability compatible? Are there trade-offs that need to be made between giving search engines what they want and giving people what they want?
Read on and find out!
1. Keyword research carried out
Before you even begin building your website, you should carry out keyword research to identify which keyword phrases your site should target. Using publicly available tools such as Wordtracker (http://www.wordtracker.com), you can discover which keywords are searched for most frequently and then specifically target those phrases.
Doing keyword research is also crucial for your site's usability. By using the same keywords in your website that web users are searching for in search engines, you'll literally be speaking the same language as your site visitors.
For example, you might decide to target the phrase, "sell toys", as your website does in fact sell toys. Keyword research would undoubtedly show you that web users are actually searching for, "buy toys". Think about it - have you ever searched using the word, "sell", when you want to buy something? By placing the phrase, "buy toys" on to the pages on your website, you'll be using the same words as your site visitors and they'll be able to find what they're looking for more easily.
2. 200-word minimum per page
Quite simply, search engines love content - the more content there is on a page, the easier it is for search engines to work out what the page is actually about. Search engines may struggle to work out the point of a web page with less than 200 words, ultimately penalizing that page in the search rankings.
In terms of usability, it's also good to avoid pages with very little content. A page with less than 200 words is unlikely to contain a large amount of information, so site visitors will undoubtedly need to click elsewhere to find more detailed information.
Don't be afraid to put a reasonably large amount of information on a page. Web users generally don't mind scrolling down and, provided the page provides mechanisms to aid scanning (such as employing sub-headings - see point 6 below), it shouldn't be too difficult for site visitors to locate the information they're after.
3. 100kb maximum HMTL size
If 200 words is the minimum page content size, then 100kb is the maximum, at least in terms of HMTL file size. Anything more than this and search engines may give up on the page as it's simply too large for them.
A 100kb HMTL file will take 20 seconds to download on a 56k dial up modem. Add on the time it takes for all the other parts of the page to download, such as images and JavaScript files, and you're looking at a highly un-user-friendly download time!
4. CSS used for layout
The Website of Juicy Studios (http://www.juicystudio.com) saw a six-fold increase in site visitors after switching from a table-based layout to a CSS layout. Search engines prefer CSS-based sites and are likely to score them higher in the search rankings because:
* The code is cleaner and therefore more accessible to search engines
* Important content can be placed at the top of the HTML document
* There is a greater density of content compared to coding
Using CSS for layout is also highly advantageous for usability, as it leads to significantly faster download times.
5. Meaningful page title
If you know anything about search engine optimization, you'll know that search engines place more importance on the page title than any other attribute on the page. If the title adequately describes the content of that page, then search engines will be able to more accurately guess what that page is about.
A meaningful page title also helps site visitors work out where they are, both within the site and within the web as a whole. The page title is the first thing that loads, often quite a few seconds before the content, so a descriptive, keyword-rich page title can be a real aid to help users orientate themselves.