Basics of SEO and Website Building

If you build it…they will come…

That may have been true for Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams, but it is absolutely NOT TRUE when it comes to a website.

Building your website is just the first step, and there are many more to go to be successful online.

So what does your website need to have to even begin to draw traffic? Besides a good (graphic) design with clear, optimized images; you want to be sure that your site’s layout, navigation, and architecture are user friendly. You may know what those pages of your site are about, and why they are there, but your visitor may not. Design your site using the “I’ve never heard of it” state of mind. Lead, guide, and direct your visitors…not only to where you want them to go, but make them feel like it’s where THEY WANT TO GO. Don’t lose your traffic because your visitors are confused!

Website & SEO Building Blocks:

The Website Header

Your website header should contain two types of elements: (1) What is seen by the visitor; and (2) What is seen by the Search Engines. Both are equally important.

• What is Seen by the Visitor

A well planned website header will contain your logo, your tagline, a way to contact you*, and navigation to key areas of your site. Key areas are determined by what type of business/site you are running. If it’s a service oriented or brochure site, you’ll want to include (at a minimum) links to an About page, a Contact page, and a Services or Portfolio page. Even though your logo may be linked back to your home page (and it should be) you should also include a “Home” link in your header navigation as well. Remember, you’re making it as easy as possible to find your way…

• What is Seen by the Search Engines

In order to be sure that your site meets compliance standards, every website header should declare a “DOCTYPE” above the opening < head > tag. For example:
< !DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd" >
< html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
The DOCTYPE should be the very first line in your website code.

Within the < head > tags of your site, you should include key meta tags for the Search Engines. The TOP PRIORITY when it comes to your meta tags is the < title > tag. Each page of your site should have a different title tag – one that describes the content succinctly, using keywords. New research shows that it’s no longer desirable to have your site title in this area. This now gives you more space to use your keywords and optimize your page even further. EXAMPLE: The old way: < title >Basics of SEO | Classic Creations Design< /title >. The new way: < title >Basics of SEO and Website Building for Targeted Traffic< /title >

Other meta tags that you’ll want to be sure to include are keywords, and description.

Keywords do not hold as much weight with all of the Search Engines as they used to, but they are still important, and they help you to make sure that you’re using your targeted keywords within your content. You should never list a keyword that you’ve not used in your page content (unless you’re using a common misspelling).

The description is used by the Search Engines in search results, and it is also used as a “teaser” when people share your page on social networking sites, such as Facebook. Your meta description should include some sort of “call to action” such as: Visit, Call, Contact, etc. In other words, direct the reader as to what they should do next.

The Website Body

The next most important aspect of SEO is within the < body > section of your website. It is equally important to your Title tag. It is the Header 1 or < H1 > tag. The H1 tag is used to define the content of your web page, both for your visitor and the Search Engines. There can be many header tags (all the way up to h6), but none holds as great an importance as the H1 tag: the top level heading tag for your site. Google sees the text within your H1 tags as more important than any other text on your page. In other words < H1 >Important Text< /H1 > is more important than… < p >regular paragraph text< /p >.

You can make your H1 tag fit the look of your site by adding it to your stylesheet.

Don’t forget the importance of back links. The more sites you have linking to yours the better your ranking will be.

Hire a Professional

When it comes to SEO, there are basics you can easily set up within your site, yourself. Keep in mind however, that to get the best page rank with the Search Engines, you’re better served when you hire a Professional.