SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Basics for Developers


One of the most difficult but most important of web design is search engine optimization, or SEO for short. Regardless of how much time and effort you put into perfecting your website if you rank poorly in search engines is very likely not. Although the finer points of SEO should be left to a professional there are many things the web media developer can do to improve your position on sites like Google or Yahoo. This is what we recommend …

Acquire quality backlinks: Many experts will tell you that backlinking is one of the most important elements of SEO in maintaining a strong long-term classification. Search engines interpret any website linking to yours as a “vote” on its website in the evaluation of its importance. When approaching other companies to try to exchange links with sites contained white similar or complementary to yours. The achievement of links with subject matter similar to carry more weight than just random links.

Selecting the right keywords: It is important for research in advance what keywords or phrases people are more likely to use when looking for you on the web. Online resources such as Google AdWords can help you determine which keywords are most popular and sought with regard to your business. Also pay attention to your competitor’s web sites (to which the top positions in search engines) and try to incorporate the keywords you find most valuable.

Write quality content: One of the first SEO rule is “content is king”, ie the written part of your website plays a critical role in the success of its search engine. Make sure all the copy is written professionally and without error, while it also includes the most important keywords and phrases. No excessive use of keywords yet maintain a reasonable amount (about 5.15% is recommended) or risk penalties of “spamming” or unethical SEO practices.

Use ALT tags for all images: Alt tags are descriptive labels to name the graphics or images found on their website. Search engines can not read images, therefore, are based on ALT tags to decipher their meaning. Be sure to use ALT tags for all web graphics and include the main keywords when appropriate. Remember that ALT tags are sometimes visible in your browser to make sure you use names that reflect the image in question.

Refresh rate of your website: It may sound simple, but making a conscious effort to regularly update your website will remain active in the search engines to not drop due to inactivity. Search engines are always looking for new content and frequently monitor how often changes or updates have been made on their site. Try to update your website at least once a week and even if your schedule permits.

Include keywords in title tags, title tags are the search engines look for the first place to go through each page of your website. Make sure that all titles containing keywords or phrases that you think people are looking for in an Internet search. Also, do not give each page of your website with the same name. Each must have its own unique description based on the most important content from that page particlar.

Give each page of your website SEO Friendly name: The name of the file you choose to give each page of your website is as important as the title itself. For example, if your website housekeeping has a category called “services” it is better to name the main page-services.html cleaning rather than just services.html. Give each page a file name that comes to include important keywords in relation to that particular page.

Header Tags: search engines look specifically for header tags as you move through your site believing that the headers contain information more important than just regular text. Not only the headings in bold, make the effort to take the next step and use appropriate tags in your HTML header. As is the rule that your keywords and phrases in the headers where possible.

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