Website Optimization

error-free code authoring

The Importance Of Code Structure

There are many different ways to get text and graphics to display in a web browser. Some are more effective and efficient; while others are problematic. If the code used to create your website is not optimized for today's web environment, there could be hidden problems lurking in your site. These problems are avoided by designing with strict compliance to the W3C Standards and Guidelines.

Search Engine Visibility: Today's search engines use programs that crawl the web and take a "snapshot" of the web pages - called "indexing" - and store these snapshots in an immense database. Search engine results are pulled from this database, along with a link to the site where the snapshot was taken (which is how a search engine can deliver hundreds of thousands - even millions - of results in a fraction of a second). If the search engine is unable to take an accurate snapshot of your pages, your site does not get indexed properly, and might remain invisible to the search engines. Properly written code and an accurate sitemap ensures that your site gets indexed, and is among the results for searches containing keywords associated to your website.

Cross-Browser Compatibility: Web based code must be written in such a way that it can be interpreted by modern and older browsers alike. The code is like a blueprint, and the browser assembles the web page based on this blueprint. There are many different browsers in use today, and they all render this code in slightly different ways. Failure to follow the W3C Standards can result in a web page that looks great when viewed in one browser, but a complete mess when viewed in another.

Fast Page Loading: A properly written website uses methods that reduces the lines of code, while using code that is quickly rendered by all web browsers. This ensures that every page on the site will load quickly. Images must be sized properly so that bandwidth is not wasted loading unnecessarily large images. Image sizing includes optimizing the physical dimensions, as well as the resolution of the image.

Accessibility: Web based code must be written in such a way that it can be accessible to those with disabilities. These disabilities include those with visual impairments including blindness, low vision, and color blindness; auditory impairments including the deaf and hard of hearing; and photo-epileptic seizures caused by visual strobe or flashing effects. Optimizing a site for accessibility includes using meaningful alternate text for images for those using text-to-speech software and/or text-to-Braille hardware, and ensuring links are readily apparent by making them underlined, bold, italic, or otherwise visible.

Keywords

A well-designed website is rich with keywords relevant to your business, its products and services, the physical location and service area, and the industry in general. This ensures that your web pages are indexed by the search engines in a way that allows them to produce accurate search results which will include pages from your site when a user queries keywords relevant to your site. The search engines of today are very sophisticated and are able to understand language processing; thus are capable of analyzing the grammatical structure of a web page and autogenerate relevant keywords.

When writing the content of a website, it is important to make assumptions about what search engine users will be querying when looking for products and services relevant to your business and service area. This ensures that your site will be among the results when potential customers are using popular search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, Ask.com, and MSN.

Definitions

Website Optimization: The process of ensuring web pages are visible to search engines and properly rendered by all internet browsers.

Search Engine Optimization: A marketing technique which raises the "Page Rank" of the pages in your website.

Page Rank: A value assigned by a search engine to each individual page on the internet. This value is then used to determine the order of the pages in search engine results.

Website Optimization determines if your web page will be returned in a search engine result.

Search engine optimization determines where your web page will be displayed in the search engine result.

If you search for "Headache Remedies", microsoft.com will not be among the results of that search because Microsoft has not optimized their website for this search. If you search for "Software", microsoft.com will be among the results; and they will be towards the top of the list. This is because Microsoft has optimized their website for this search, and gone through the process of Search Engine Optimization to ensure that their website is highly visible in the software community.

Search Engine Optimization

moving to the top

Custom Tailored Campaign

Search Engine Optimization is a marketing campaign aimed at finding ways to get high quality links to your site in an effort to raise your search engine page rank. This campaign can vary due to the industry you serve, products you offer, demographics, physical location, and budget. There is no true "one size fits all" Search Engine Optimization technique which can be deployed due to these varying factors, so I will work with you one-on-one to ensure that the campaign used fits your specific needs.

Anchor Text

Anchor text is the text on your site that you click on to jump to another web page. The link should have text relative to the content instead of merely saying "click here". For example, if I were talking about business cards and wanted you to go to that page, I would have a link that said business cards. Links within your site can help raise your page rank IF THE LINKS ARE LABELED PROPERLY. If done improperly, you are passing up on an opportunity to increase your visibility in the search engines.

When others link to your site, it is important that the anchor text is relevant to the link (such as your company name or products offered). I can help by providing others with the proper html code necessary when linking to your site.

Free Directories

There are many totally free directories on the internet today. These directories are usually specific to the industry you serve. Most offer their free linking services as a means of developing their directory, and they sell advertising space on their website to generate revenue. Visitors are drawn to their site by the ease of searching for products and services specific to their needs and locale, which makes it easier for the directories to sell advertising space. Before linking with these sites, their page rank is tested to ensure that they are a legitimate website and not part of a "link farm" which could damage your own page rank.

Paid Directories

Depending upon your budget, you may want to advertise on a paid directory. For example, you can create an ad in a phone book’s online directory with a link to your site in their ad. The advantage to this is that many people use these online directories which will naturally increase your business’s visibility in the community; and their sites are highly ranked, which gives your page rank a boost by getting linked by a popular site. The disadvantage is that these ads can be costly. The Page Rank of all paid directories are tested prior to submission to ensure that you are making the most effective use of your money.

Pay-Per-Click

There are services such as Google AdWords that instantly bring your website to the top of any search engine result. You create ads and choose keywords relevant to your business. When users search using one of your keywords, your ad appears next to the search results. There are many advantages to this technique including:

You only pay when someone clicks on the ad
You decide how much you are willing to pay
You set the budget limiting the amount you can be charged
Keyword traffic can be analyzed before creating the ad
You can become visible on Google Maps!

More About Page Rank...

Page Rank is based on a complex (and highly classified) algorithm which interprets links from one page to another as a "vote". The more links to your website, the more votes you receive, which in turn raises the value of your site.

Sounds simple enough, but there is a twist; the voting process is not based on a democracy - it's an aristocracy! The search engines see the internet as a kingdom; with royalty, peasants, and even villains.

The search engines look at the page rank from the sites that link to yours. When a site with a high page rank links to your site, this raises your page rank greater than a link from a site with a low page rank. One vote from royalty is worth more than ten votes from peasants.

What's more, there are sites out there which can lower your page rank with their vote. These are the villains of the internet that the top search engines recognize as being malicious. They include Link Farms (uncategorized link sites), Free For All Directories, and known spammers and spamdexers; in addition to sites with adult content.

In search engine optimization, the goal is to get as many highly ranked pages to link to your site. There is nothing wrong with having links to your site from legitimate websites with low page ranks. But there is a serious problem when links to your site have been deemed by the search engines as being malicious. Search Engine Optimization is a process of raising your Page Rank by finding good places to link to your site, while avoiding the bad ones.

Search Engine Optimization is a long-term process. Getting a high page rank is not something that happens overnight. It is something that must be monitored periodically to ensure that the campaign is effective. There is no one true method for raising your page rank, because every business is different; and the internet is an ever-changing environment.

Some SEO firms promise to get you to the top of the list in a week. Beware, because you may fall to the bottom of the list in time, and it can be a costly endeavor to clean up the mess that these unscrupulous firms leave behind.