So you’ve had your web site a while but you’re still waiting for all the business to start flooding in? It’s a familiar story. As a web designer I’m constantly amazed at some of the very basic mistakes I see on company web sites.Here are 10 tips that will help you get the most from your web site and perform better in search rankings. Some of these are primarily from a point of view of helping you perform better in search engine rankings, others are general improvements that may improve usability and convert viewers to customers.
1) Splash pages are bad
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been asked to make an ‘intro page’ over the years. My answer is always the same: Why? What purpose do they serve? A giant graphic, or worse, a Flash animation, only serves to delay your customers from getting to what really counts: Your content. Your home page is the gateway to your business and should immediately show your product or service offering. If you make your clients wait for it, you increase the chances of them going elsewhere. What’s more, search engines hate intro pages as they can’t find any real content on them, so they’re less likely to include your site in search results.
2) Page titles are good
Your page title is the text you see in your browser title bar – the bar at the very top of your Browser window. (It will be prefixed with “Microsoft Internet Explorer…” if you still haven’t realised there are better web browsers out there). I’m amazed how many sites have nothing more than the company name in there. Search engines regard the title as very important in deciding if your site is relevant enough to show on a search results page, so “Smith & Co. tyres, exhaust, brakes and wheel balancing specialist” is a lot better than “Smith & Co”.
3) Use image Alt Tags
If you’ve seen the text that appears in a little pop-up box near the cursor when you hold your mouse over a graphic, that’s an Alt Tag. It’s code that your web designer inserts to describe the image. Search engines like it, because without it they can’t tell what an image is supposed to be. So if you have product photos on your site, make sure each one has an Alt Tag describing what the product is. Doing so will contribute towards your search engine ranking.
4) Repeat links at the bottom of your page
Whatever page links are in your navigation bar at the top of your page, and elsewhere on the page, should be repeated as text at the very bottom of your page, in the footer. Doing so will win favour with google, and provides another way for your users to find what they’re looking for.
5) Use key phrases but speak English
Google is a lot like a human, it scans your page for text and phrases relevant to the subject it is looking for. So if you run a pond cleaning business and the phrase “pond cleaning” appears multiple times on your page, Google is going to realise your site is all about pond cleaning, and you stand a good chance of performing well in search rankings. BUT don’t overdo it. If your attempts to repeat your key phrase are so obvious that they are detrimental to the grammar and overall information value of your text, you will be penalised.
6) Make it really easy to navigate
The importance of usability cannot be stressed enough. Your site should be clear and easy to navigate. Your customers shouldn’t have to try too hard to find stuff or guess where the content they want is located. Try to stick to the ‘two clicks rule’: Nothing should be more than a couple of clicks away.
7) Avoid gratuitous use of Flash
I’m tempted to say avoid ANY use. Flash rarely brings anything to the party. It hogs system resources, it can’t be indexed by search engines and it often annoys users. Remember those elaborate intro animations that were popular about a decade back? They fell out of favour for some very good reasons. Unless you have specific use for a particular functionality offered by Flash, why bother using it on your site? In 99% of cases where Flash is used, it could have been done better with different technology. What’s more, Flash doesn’t work on the new breed of smartphones including the iPhone, which are becoming increasingly important with todays Internet users. Which means Flash will become less and less relevant as time goes by.
8) Navigation links should be text not graphics
Navigation links on your site should be ‘real’ text rather than graphics. This one is a bit difficult to explain to non web designers, but in a nutshell, your links should be ‘selectable’ in your browser along with the rest of your text. This will ensure search engines can index them properly. Any designer worth their salt can still make them look good, with clever use of background images and colours, so nobody will know the difference – except search engines, which is what counts here.
9) Update your site regularly
Nothing looks worse than a latest news section that hasn’t been updated since June 2008 or a page that looks like a time warp to the early days of the Internet. Even no web site at all is better than a desperatly outdated cobweb of a site. It doesn’t cost much to make a few updates each month, in many cases no more than a few pounds (talk to me). First impressions last, and the web is the first place many people look these days. Your site is the face of your business, make sure yours is up to date and professional.
10) Don’t try to trick search engines
Search engines aren’t stupid. Attempting to fool them with overloaded key phrases (see above), or trying to trick them into displaying your page in search results when your content doesn’t really warrant inclusion is futile. Hidden keywords, copying other people’s content and pretending to be someone or something you’re not are just some of the old tricks that won’t fool Google and will get you penalised.If you follow these fundamentals you’ll be well on the way to a more successful web site. But I’m just scratching the surface here, there’s a lot more we can do. I’m always available for friendly advice and a free consultation, so talk to me about cost effective ways to improve your web site.
Tags: Business Mistakes, SEO
