Site Optimization: Key Points to Remember
(Page 1 of 4 )
If you are preparing to optimize a website, there are certain points you need to keep in mind. The site needs to be attractive both to your visitors and to the search engine spiders. If you want to build a site that will make both groups want to return, keep reading.
There are many things to keep in mind when you are optimizing your website. It helps to remember that you are not only optimizing your website for the search engines, but also for you site's visitors. After all, if you get a good ranking in the search engine results pages (SERPs), you have a better chance of garnering lots of visitors -- but it will be the site itself that keeps them there, and hopefully encourages them to buy your product or service (or do whatever else you want them to do).
Fortunately, many of the points you will want to tend to when constructing your website to be easily handled by the search engine spiders will also make it more congenial for your visitors. There are five basic components you will want to address. These are accessibility; URLs, titles, and meta data; text; information architecture; and "canonical issues" surrounding duplicate content. I will discuss the first two in this article, and the remaining three in a follow-up article.
The first issue I will address is accessibility. An accessible site is one that delivers its content successfully as often as possible. In other words, the site's content can be found easily by both search engines and users. This issue sometimes does not get taken as seriously as it deserves.
A number of factors affect the accessibility of a website. These include how well the pages function, the validity of HTML elements, reliability of the site's server, and others. Problems with these features will cause search engine spiders to move on. Web surfers, too, will select other sites to visit. Do not ignore accessibility problems, but fix them promptly if you want to gain and keep a loyal following online.
Most sites encounter their biggest problems in accessibility in five basic categories. These include link issues, HTML and CSS problems, forms and applications, file size, and server reliability. In the next two sections, I will discuss each of these problems in more detail.
Next: Accessibility Problems and Fixes >>
More Search Optimization Articles
More By Terri Wells
