Summary: Some people believe SEO is a bit of a vague science and that nobody really knows how you get to the top of Google. But Google give out plenty of hints and advice! Here’s the top 8 design guidelines, as provided by Google, for creating a Google search engine friendly website.
Rule 1: Use a clear navigation
Use text links, not javascript or flash (Google can’t spider them otherwise). Ensure every page is reachable from at least one (static) text link.
Create a clear hierarchy that’s easy to follow – so using a simple folder / subfolder structure for example.
E.g.: computers > laptop-computers > dell
Rule 2: Use sitemaps
Create a sitemap for your visitors. If you have 50+ pages to link to, break the sitemap down into several pages (this goes for any page – don’t have more than 50 links).
Create an XML sitemap for Google and other search engines (here’s a good tool: http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/). Upload it to Google websmaster tools. Check back later and ensure it’s all valid.
Rule 3: Ensure your content is genuinely useful
Unique, useful content that people will want to read and link to is the key. As above, ensure the language you use is appropriate for your audience.
Rule 4: Don’t ignore keywords
Consider what your visitors will type in to find sites like yours. Make sure your site/pages actually include these key words and phrases.
Rule 5: Avoid using images except for decoration
Some images are good to make your site more attractive and appealing to visitors, and to illustrate your articles. Too many will slow down your site (which will harm your Google rankings).
Images used for content, links and important keywords/phrases/names, cannot be read by Google. If you insist on using them, use the ALT attribute to give a description that Google can read.
Rule 6: Use ALT wisely…
The ALT attribute on images should be used for a description, not for keyword stuffing.
Rule 7: Make sure everything works
Use a tool like Xenu (http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html) to check for broken links. Use a tool like W3 Validator to validate your HTML – http://validator.w3.org/
Rule 8: Avoid dynamic pages or keep them short
Search engines find it hard to read URLs with parameters e.g. www.yoursite.com/page.html?user=new – so if you must use them, keep them short and few.
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8 Responses to “Designing a Google friendly website – top 8 tips”
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said at 2:29 pm on July 20th, 2010
Please bear with us while we are still developing the knowledge base, all glitches and errors will be ironed out very soon
said at 1:05 pm on July 21st, 2010
Good, sound advice on basic SEO.
said at 1:33 pm on July 21st, 2010
Having a website that is Google friendly is now really important – thanks for the tips!
said at 3:45 pm on July 21st, 2010
Search engines find it hard to read URLs with parameters – this is simply NOT true.
said at 4:01 pm on July 21st, 2010
@Brandon Sheley – Search engines love clean URLs like they love clean code – what we are saying is use URLs like this, http://www.example.co.uk/services/ instead of http://www.example.co.uk/services?user=new. If you have to use parameters try using mod rewrite – this is a very good solution – hope that helps!
said at 9:19 am on August 1st, 2010
Great tips, Dave.
I agree with the rule about clean URL’s, let’s make life easier for Google and get every edge we can.
said at 2:56 pm on August 16th, 2010
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said at 9:43 pm on August 23rd, 2010
I thought I’d add an update to this article, and specifically, the part about search engine parameters.
Google used to hate them – now it’s pretty good at dealing with them and doesn’t necessarily penalise them, although remember that Google isn’t the only search engine.
But there are still some issues with using parameters in websites. Mainly, they can result in there being multiple URLs for the same page. Google (and other search engines) may view this as duplicate content.
I think the advice to avoid parameters or keep them to a minimum is therefore still valid.