Website Optimization
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Website optimization consists of several important components. As I mentioned in the article "Designing a Website" keeping the HTML file size of each page (especially the index or home page) and image files as small as possible is important so that site site will load more quickly. Limiting the colors to the web browser safe palette could be considered a form of optimization, although of much less significance.
The website optimization techniques we really want to dwell on in this article are those of Search Engine Optimization or SEO. But, what is Search Engine Optimization and just how important is it? Well, in short, it depends.
If you're building a family photo website, or any site that is intended for a very limited or local audience, SEO has little importance. Typically, the people you want to visit your site will already be aware of the url (website address) because you've either told them, emailed them, or advertised it on a sign, in a bulletin, newspaper, etc.
However, if you are developing a business website that will rely on customers from a large regional, national or international base, you will need to optimze your site in specific ways so those prospective customers can find you via the search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.).
There are two factors involved in SEO: on-page and off-page. And by the way, the techniques we will mention can be used for any page of your website, but especially the index page. On-page optimization consists of determining keywords and keyphrases that are relevant to your site's content (particularly a specific page's content) and utilizing them in that page's meta tags and body text.
1. On Page Optimization Techniques
Meta tags are basically small sections very close to the top in the page's HTML code that specify the site title, description and a list of keywords and phrases. WYSIWYG software generally has a page editor or page properties where you can enter these. Search engines use this information to index the site in their database.
Of course, there's more to it than just picking keywords. You should try to find keywords that, though still relevant to your site, are not used as often as the most popular keywords. For instance, if your site is about 1964 through 1966 Ford Mustangs, you certainly don't want your main keywords to be cars or autos or even Ford.
Be specific with your title, description and keywords. For example, the title of your site could be "Classic Ford Mustangs". Your description could be "Classic 1964 to 1966 Ford Mustang information and clubs nationwide. Your keywords could be "classic ford mustangs, ford mustangs, mustangs, classic ford, clubs (etc.). I haven't researched these words or phrases; I'm simply trying to give you an idea of where to start with your SEO.
Meta keywords are generally of little importance to Google and Yahoo, but those keywords and phrases should be sprinkled throughout the body text on the page, obviously in a meaningful way. Try to limit your density for a particular keyword to 5%. There are several free sites where you can check your keyword density, although the ones I'm aware of would require your site to be online. This means that after checking the keyword density and finding it to be too high or too low, you would need to edit your wysiwyg file, re-publish it and upload the resulting html page to your web host's server to be checked again.
While headline or heading tags (H1, H2, etc,) played a fairly prominent optimization role in the past, in my experience, they are not really helpful in search engine rankings today. Besides, you'd need to understand a little HTML to incorporate them into the "published" wysiwyg document, so we won't attempt to go into that.
Although a site with good on-page optimization factors may get high rankings fairly quickly in a search engine such as MSN, it's going to take more than that to make headway into Yahoo and Google. It's going to take off-page factors and time.
2. Off-Page Optimization Techniques
Off-page optimization can generally be characterized as links to your website from other sites. There are two types of links: reciprocal and one-way. Reciprocal links have some value, so having a page or two with links to other quality sites that have reciprocated with your link on theirs is a good idea. Typical linking information includes an anchor text (title) link and a site description. View some of our reciprocal links.
Try to keep reciprocal links relevant to your site's content. You can join free reciprocal link exchange directories that make it easy to trade links, but be aware that you'll probably get requests from all sorts of sites. Simply refuse any totally unrelated requests.
Take the time to find other websites with related content and email them a friendly request for a link exchange. Place their link on your site first, and let them know the full url of the links location. If they refuse the exchange or don't respond in a couple of weeks, remove their link.
Web directories are a good place to add your link, too. Many of them will let you enter your link info in exchange for putting their link on your site. Even better, there are also one-way directories where you don't have to reciprocate. One-way links tend to carry more weight with the search engines. Note: many one-way link directories charge a fee.
Another method of getting one-way links is to write and submit articles (with content relevant to your website) to article submission sites. Most give you an area at the bottom of the article submission form to enter author information, including your website's url.
Perhaps the best method of obtaining one-way links is simply to have a well designed site with good, useful material on it. Eventually, others will start linking to your site, or to pages of your site as I have done with the previous links. And, as search engine algorithms continue to change and adapt to searchers' preferences, quality content is becoming more and more important in getting your website ranked highly.
Now, for the hard part: patience. Everyone would love to put a website online and have instant success, but that just isn't realistic. It may take several months for your site to appear in any search engine; it will probably take even longer to appear in Google. One thing you'll definitely want to do is create and submit a Google Sitemap by following the links at their website. The sitemap let's Google know the pages of your website to index. Remember to upload the sitemap into your website host directory and create a new one every time you add pages to your site.
There are many sites devoted strictly to SEO, so if you want to learn everything you can about the subject, do some surfing and check some of them out. It may even be worth it for you to buy and download a good e-book on the subject as well.
The website optimization techniques we really want to dwell on in this article are those of Search Engine Optimization or SEO. But, what is Search Engine Optimization and just how important is it? Well, in short, it depends.
If you're building a family photo website, or any site that is intended for a very limited or local audience, SEO has little importance. Typically, the people you want to visit your site will already be aware of the url (website address) because you've either told them, emailed them, or advertised it on a sign, in a bulletin, newspaper, etc.
However, if you are developing a business website that will rely on customers from a large regional, national or international base, you will need to optimze your site in specific ways so those prospective customers can find you via the search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.).
There are two factors involved in SEO: on-page and off-page. And by the way, the techniques we will mention can be used for any page of your website, but especially the index page. On-page optimization consists of determining keywords and keyphrases that are relevant to your site's content (particularly a specific page's content) and utilizing them in that page's meta tags and body text.
1. On Page Optimization Techniques
Meta tags are basically small sections very close to the top in the page's HTML code that specify the site title, description and a list of keywords and phrases. WYSIWYG software generally has a page editor or page properties where you can enter these. Search engines use this information to index the site in their database.
Of course, there's more to it than just picking keywords. You should try to find keywords that, though still relevant to your site, are not used as often as the most popular keywords. For instance, if your site is about 1964 through 1966 Ford Mustangs, you certainly don't want your main keywords to be cars or autos or even Ford.
Be specific with your title, description and keywords. For example, the title of your site could be "Classic Ford Mustangs". Your description could be "Classic 1964 to 1966 Ford Mustang information and clubs nationwide. Your keywords could be "classic ford mustangs, ford mustangs, mustangs, classic ford, clubs (etc.). I haven't researched these words or phrases; I'm simply trying to give you an idea of where to start with your SEO.
Meta keywords are generally of little importance to Google and Yahoo, but those keywords and phrases should be sprinkled throughout the body text on the page, obviously in a meaningful way. Try to limit your density for a particular keyword to 5%. There are several free sites where you can check your keyword density, although the ones I'm aware of would require your site to be online. This means that after checking the keyword density and finding it to be too high or too low, you would need to edit your wysiwyg file, re-publish it and upload the resulting html page to your web host's server to be checked again.
While headline or heading tags (H1, H2, etc,) played a fairly prominent optimization role in the past, in my experience, they are not really helpful in search engine rankings today. Besides, you'd need to understand a little HTML to incorporate them into the "published" wysiwyg document, so we won't attempt to go into that.
Although a site with good on-page optimization factors may get high rankings fairly quickly in a search engine such as MSN, it's going to take more than that to make headway into Yahoo and Google. It's going to take off-page factors and time.
2. Off-Page Optimization Techniques
Off-page optimization can generally be characterized as links to your website from other sites. There are two types of links: reciprocal and one-way. Reciprocal links have some value, so having a page or two with links to other quality sites that have reciprocated with your link on theirs is a good idea. Typical linking information includes an anchor text (title) link and a site description. View some of our reciprocal links.
Try to keep reciprocal links relevant to your site's content. You can join free reciprocal link exchange directories that make it easy to trade links, but be aware that you'll probably get requests from all sorts of sites. Simply refuse any totally unrelated requests.
Take the time to find other websites with related content and email them a friendly request for a link exchange. Place their link on your site first, and let them know the full url of the links location. If they refuse the exchange or don't respond in a couple of weeks, remove their link.
Web directories are a good place to add your link, too. Many of them will let you enter your link info in exchange for putting their link on your site. Even better, there are also one-way directories where you don't have to reciprocate. One-way links tend to carry more weight with the search engines. Note: many one-way link directories charge a fee.
Another method of getting one-way links is to write and submit articles (with content relevant to your website) to article submission sites. Most give you an area at the bottom of the article submission form to enter author information, including your website's url.
Perhaps the best method of obtaining one-way links is simply to have a well designed site with good, useful material on it. Eventually, others will start linking to your site, or to pages of your site as I have done with the previous links. And, as search engine algorithms continue to change and adapt to searchers' preferences, quality content is becoming more and more important in getting your website ranked highly.
Now, for the hard part: patience. Everyone would love to put a website online and have instant success, but that just isn't realistic. It may take several months for your site to appear in any search engine; it will probably take even longer to appear in Google. One thing you'll definitely want to do is create and submit a Google Sitemap by following the links at their website. The sitemap let's Google know the pages of your website to index. Remember to upload the sitemap into your website host directory and create a new one every time you add pages to your site.
There are many sites devoted strictly to SEO, so if you want to learn everything you can about the subject, do some surfing and check some of them out. It may even be worth it for you to buy and download a good e-book on the subject as well.
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