| If you're a website developer, or looking to add more | | | | and no matter how complicated your database |
| functionality to your company website, then you might | | | | queries are, or how secure your login process is, you |
| already know about SEO, and why it's important. If you | | | | need to be careful not to make things too complicated |
| don't know much about SEO, then here's what you | | | | for users. Not everybody has the same amount of |
| need to know so that you can attract new visitors to | | | | technical knowledge, or internet experience that you |
| your site. | | | | have, and might be put off by the functionality of your |
| 1. Ensure that you give each URL a meaningful name - | | | | website. |
| products.php?id=1234&cat=blue is not memorable | | | | 7. If you have a search facility, such as on most |
| and won't help visitors remember what your products | | | | ecommerce sites, then you'll need to make sure that |
| are. In addition, when visitors look through their history, | | | | the search results are relevant, and likely to be what |
| or the URL drops down in the address bar, they won't | | | | people searching the site would be looking for. This is |
| know what they have looked at. This is also a good | | | | especially relevant if the products are spelt phonetically, |
| opportunity to make the most of your keywords. | | | | or are hard to spell. You might also want to limit the |
| 2. It's important to make sure that each page has a | | | | search results to the product pages, so that any |
| unique page tile and meta description. If you're using a | | | | reference to the search query in the privacy policy or |
| Content Management System (CMS), then you'll want | | | | terms and conditions is not included. You'll want visitors |
| to ensure that there isn't the same default page title | | | | to buy items, rather than be guided to the "lesser" |
| and description for each page. | | | | pages |
| 3. You'll want to create a sitemap so that visitors can | | | | 8. Again, you'll want to make the site easy to use. This |
| quickly find what they are looking for. In addition, the | | | | includes all aspects of the site, from the registration |
| search engines like sitemaps because they list all the | | | | and login process to the search results and checkout |
| pages of a website. Make sure that you create and | | | | process. If the site is hard to use, visitors won't want to |
| XML sitemap that can be submitted to the search | | | | buy from you, no matter how good the prices are. |
| engines too. | | | | 9. If you use a CMS, make sure that the users can |
| 4. If you don't want certain areas of your website to | | | | actually use it. There's no point in having a site that the |
| be indexed by the search engines, then you'll need to | | | | client can update themselves, if they have to ring you |
| create a robots.txt file. This file allows you to block | | | | up each time they want to add a page, or change |
| access to files or folders. You might not want your | | | | product prices. |
| customer details to be indexed for example. You'll | | | | 10. Try and use includes to keep the code clean and |
| need to exercise caution when using robots.txt as you | | | | quick to load. Having a faster load time is beneficial to |
| might inadvertently stop the whole site from being | | | | both users and search engines alike, and will ensure |
| indexed! | | | | that visitors can see your content without getting |
| 5. Why not create a customised 404 page so that if a | | | | bored waiting for pages to load. |
| visitor finds a dead link, or mistypes something, they | | | | Now you know more about how to make your |
| can still find what they are looking for. Again, this is a | | | | websites better for visitors and search engines, |
| good way to promote your keywords and push | | | | perhaps now is the time to see what other SEO tips |
| certain areas of your website, or products. | | | | you can use. |
| 6. No matter how competent you are at programming, | | | | |