Communicating Effectively with Your Web Developer - Teach the 7 Basics Continued
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Title tagsA site with no title tag is like a book with out a title. Even worse, a site with the same title tag for every page can be perceived as spam. Many times, a web designer will use a template page for all the pages in the site. They need to make sure they don’t forget to utilize it. Even a vague title tag can hurt a site: if a site doesn’t match a search engine query that a visitor makes, they will disregard the entire site; also, if someone bookmarks the site for later, and the title tag is vague, then they won’t remember why they bookmarked the site to begin with.
No broken links with clear anchor textYou should never give up the opportunity to use keywords and key phrases. If you want a visitor to view your page on how to make lemon meringue, then you should have a link anchor text that says, “View our easy to make, delicious lemon meringue recipe” instead of “Click here”.
You should check and double check for broken links. Many times, web developers are fast typists, and could be prone to typos. A simple solution to this is to proofread the site. Also make sure you understand the difference between permanent 301 redirects and temporary 302 redirects. Pages get moved or renamed all the time. If those links moved or renamed pages result in 404 errors, then they won’t get indexed, and the chances of your pages being completely crawled the next time are slightly smaller.
Easy site navigationEvery page on your site should have clear navigation, including a sitemap, so that visitors or search engine spiders don’t come to a brick wall, and then don’t know where to go. Chances are that if your visitors get lost in your site, then spiders will have a difficult time following the navigation pattern as well.
Meta keyword and description tagsMeta keyword tags should be handled carefully, and they should not be a substitute for your content. Don’t fill your tags with irrelevant keywords that have nothing to do with what your site is about, to try and capture some traffic. This is search engine spamming, and will likely not get your site indexed at all. Rather, choose your words carefully, and don’t over use them. In fact, using a word more than three times can be perceived as spam, too.
The information in the description tag can influence how search engines perceive your site. If I am searching for a lemon meringue recipe, and a result comes up with a description that said, “Come to our site. It’s great, and we like it very much,” it doesn’t tell me what I want to know, nor does it tell me if it’s what I’m really looking for. Chances are I will just go to the next one that says, “Yummy, easy to make tangy old fashioned lemon meringue pie recipes, just like grandma used to make! This recipe only takes 20 minutes to make. Plus, dozens of pie recipes for all occasions…”
Next: Examples, Compromise, and Manipulation >>
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