Search Engine Optimization

Getting your site seen

The holy grail of many website creators is to get their sites listed at, or near, the top of the search engine rankings. With the proviso that all generally applicable statements must by nature be somewhat vague, here are my top tips for search optimization. In no particular order:

• Content is king. You cannot optimise a page for searching if it has nothing that people are going to want to search for.

• Think "text". Your searchability is determined by what your site looks like with image loading turned off.

• Page titles and meta tags should all be relevant to the subject of the individual page rather than being the same sitewide. It helps (although it isn't essential) if you can make filenames and URLs include the page title as well.

• All pages must be accessible by means of text links (or image links with appropriate alt text). Don't have pages that can only be accessed by a search box. If you have javascript navigation, keep it as a shortcut alternative to normal href links, rather than being the sole means of moving from page to page.

• Every page on your site should be reachable from every other page via a short and obvious navigation route. Avoid excessively deep tree structures that require users to traverse to the top and back down again when moving between pages in different sections.

• Use logical structure, with tags as appropriate for headings rather than modifying the font size with <font> tags.

• Avoid frames. Iframes for page inserts are OK, but don't use a fully framed structure.

• Read Google's guidelines for webmasters, and don't break any of their rules.

• Avoid the dreaded "click here" link. The wording of links should be relevant to the target of the link, not to the page they're coming from or to the action of following the link. In other words,

  More information on <a href="page.html">Green widgets</a>

  is better than

  <a href="page.html">Click here</a> for more information on Green widgets.

• Be careful what you are paying for if you buy services from SEO companies. Some practices are distinctly dodgy, and can end up making things worse rather than better if your sites get banned from Google after breaking their guidelines.

Overall, 90% of search engine optimization is down to common sense and following normal good web practice. Other tricks and tweaks are unlikely to help unless you have the basics right first.