Search Engine Optimization and Web Design

Unless you are a “seasoned” developer, how do you know if someone is telling you the truth about what you need in your Web site in order to optimized the pages well?
Quite frankly, unless you are a seasoned developer it’s very difficult to know whether someone is simply another “snake-oil-salesperson” or someone who truly has your best interests at heart.

To help you know if someone is selling you (“the pitch”) or truly being honest with you, we’ve developed a list to help you spot a “snow-job” – someone/a company simply interested in taking your money.

• Q Do you need the h1 tag for optimization? A The h1 tag is viewed by search engines as “very important”. It’s not a special tag developed for optimization, but it’s used to show the search engines what content on a page should be viewed as very important to that page.
• Q Do you need meta tags? A Search engines use meta tags to help determine the content and keywords of your page. If there are no meta tags the search engine will only have the content (text) of the page to use in determining the subject or keywords. Left to the search engines to make that determination is like walking into a restaurant where you have never been and telling the wait person to just bring you something you will like. Good luck with that.
• Q Should my site have a sitemap page or XML sheet sitemap? A Only to provide a simple method of showing the search engines all the pages of your site. Is it necessary? No. Especially if you have great navigation methods in your site. As long as there is a way for the visitors of your site to easily find all of the pages in your site, the search engines will also easily find the same pages. If you have complicated coding to create your site navigation (“Mystery Meat Navigation”), visitors and search engines will find it difficult to navigate. Using a sitemap will not remedy the situation. Always provide a good, easy to use, intuitive navigation menu for your pages.
• Q Should you include titles in your links? A Only to make your text and links more accessible for impaired visitors. Search engines do not value the title tag.
• Q Is the “alt” tag necessary in all images? A Yes….but not because the search engines demand or appreciate the alt tag. It’s proper coding for browsers and is necessary to validate HTML code. If you have an image, whether it’s linked or not, it must have the alt tag included. The alt (“alternative text”) tag is used for visitors who are impaired. If an impaired visitor cannot see the image they depend on “alternative text” to tell them what is taking up that space. The search engines are only slightly concerned with linked images using the alt tag.
• Q Should my content have keywords repeated to a point that is considered “stuffed”? A NO! If keywords are repeated in more than 4% of the singe page of content, that would be considered “keyword stuffing”. It’s also going to make your copy sound really stupid for the visitors to your site. Just write your copy/content as if you were talking to someone about your product or service.
• Q Should I optimize for general keywords? A No. When search engine users search, and you can use your own experience here, they do not search one word. People use several words in their search. So, target keyword “phrases” – not simply single keywords. It all comes down to how relevant your page is for a keyword phrase – not a keyword. Attempting to target single keywords that are not relevant is a waste of your time.
• Q Should all the pages of my site use the same keyword phrases? A No. Regardless of the product or service you sell, there are many keyword phrases or search terms that people would search to find your product or service. Target various pages to the different terms.
• Q Will Google (or others) ads bring me targeted traffic and provide ranking to push me into better search results? A Sadly, no. This is a tactic that has been sold to many people, but it doesn’t work – now or in the past. Placing non-relevant ads or content on your page is counter-productive. Even relevant ads are counter-productive. The ads provide nothing positive for your site. Any ad is an opportunity for your visitors to leave your site. So, unless you have a highly trafficked site that makes money by selling ad space, placing ads on your page are of no value.
• Q Do “doorway” pages work well? A No. Creating similar pages that have duplicate content, or very similar content, ‘may’ get you banned from the search engines. If you have products or services that are similar, put them on the same page. Similar pages can get you into more trouble than they are worth. Search engines usually push that sort of site to the back of the search results – precisely the opposite outcome for which you had hoped. Or, they may simply ban your domain from the search results. Create pages that are different, relevant and written well.
• Q Should I create links to other sites from my site? A NO! Linking ‘to’ another site is viewed by the search engine as you saying the “other” site is valuable – but not yours. Popularity of your site is what gets you a better position in the search results. If “other” sites link “to” yours, then the search engines see that your site is more popular. SEO is enhanced when there are links “to” your site – not going away from your site.
• Q Can “redirecting” another domain to my current site help? A No. If you have 2 domain names and 1 is “keyword rich”, it’s of no value unless there is content on that domain. A redirected domain is not even seen by the search engines. In order for any domain name to be of value the domain name must have a Web site developed using that domain name. Redirects offer nothing towards SEO enhancement. If you have several domain names, create a Web site on each with different content that is relevant to the domain name.
• Q Should I re-publish articles written by someone else? A No. If you copied and pasted an article in your site from another site, even if you made obvious notes that it’s a “re-published” article, the article can actually hurt your site because it’s duplicate content (see above “Doorway Pages”). If you mention the article in your own, or perhaps quote parts of the article in your own words, they you have created your own content. At that point your page is relevant and unique.
• Q Will changing dates on old articles/pages help? A No. The article or page is already listed in the search results. Changing the date or maybe a few words is not going to aid your SEO or position in the search engines. Major changes might help, depending on the specific changes. If you feel it’s necessary to make some updates on a page, that’s fine. But unless you are well versed in SEO and what changes are necessary for that page to get a better search results position, only make changes you think will be of benefit to your readers.
• Q Will the “nofollow” in my anchor tag help my search engine position? A No. First, know when to use the “nofollow” tag. Generally that is used to tell the search engines you really don’t want that page visited or stored in the search engines. But disallowing the search engines from a page doesn’t increase the value of another page or your site.