SEOs Relationship With Website Architecture

SEO's Relationship With Website Architecture

Search engine optimization for today's search engine robots requires that sites be well-designed and easy-to-navigate. To a great degree, organic search engine optimization is simply an extension of best practices in web page design. SEO's relationship with web design is a natural one. By making sites simple and easily accessible, you are providing the easiest path for the search engine robots to index your site, at the same time that you are creating the optimum experience for your human visitors.

This approach ties well into the notion of long-term search engine marketing success. Rather than trying to "psych out" the ever-changing search engine algorithms, build pages that have good text and good links. No matter what the search engines are looking for this month or next, they will always reward good content and simple navigation.

Search Engine Robots

Search engine robots are automated programs that go out on the World Wide Web and visit web pages. They read the text on a page and click through links in order to travel from page to page. What this really means is that they "read" or collect information from the source code of each page. Depending on the search engine, the robots typically pick up the title and meta description. The robots then go on to the body text of the page in the source code. They also pay attention to certain tags such as headings and alt text. Search engine robots have capabilities like first-generation browsers at best: no scripting, no frames, no Flash. When designing, think simple.

Search Engine Friendly Design

Creating search engine friendly design is relatively easy. Cut out all the bells and whistles and stick to simple architecture. Search engine robots "understand" text on the page and hyperlinks, especially text links. The relationship of SEO and web design makes sense when you start with good design techniques for your visitor. The easier the navigation and the more text on the page, the better it is not only for the visitor but also for the search engine robots.

Obstacles For Indexing Web Pages

Search engine robots cannot "choose" from drop down lists, click a submit button, or follow JavaScript links like a human visitor. In addition, the extra code necessary to script your pages or create those lists can trip-up the search engine robots while they index your web page. The long JavaScript in your source code means the search engine robots must go through all this code to finally reach the text that will appear on your page. Offload your JavaScript and CSS code for quicker access to your source code by the search engine robots, and faster loading time for your online visitors. Some search engine robots have difficulty with dynamically-generated pages, especially those with URLs that contain long querystrings. Some search engines, such as Google, index a portion of dynamically generated pages, but not all search engines do. Frames cause problems with indexing and are generally best left out of design for optimum indexing. Web pages built entirely in Flash can present another set of problems for indexing.

Depth Of Directories

Search engine robots may have difficulty reaching deeper pages in a website. Aim to keep your most important pages no more than one or two "clicks" away from your home page. Keep your pages closer to the root instead of in deeply-nested subdirectories. In this way you will be assured the optimum indexing of your web pages. Just as your website visitor may become lost and frustrated in too many clicks away from your homepage, the robots may also give up after multiple clicks away from the root of your site.

Solutions And Helpful Techniques

If there are so many problems with indexing, how will you ever make it work?

The use of static pages is the easiest way to ensure you will be indexed by the search engine robots. If you must use dynamically-generated pages, there are techniques you can use to improve the chances of their being indexed. Use your web server's rewrite capabilities to create simple URLs from complex ones. Use fixed landing pages including real content, which in turn will list the links to your dynamic pages. If you must use querystrings in your page addresses, make them as short as possible, and avoid the use of "session id" values.

When using Flash to dress up your pages, use a portion of Flash for an important message, but avoid building entire pages using that technology. Make sure that the search engine robots can look at all of the important text content on your pages. You want your message to get across to your human visitor as well. Give them enough information about your product to interest them in going the next step and purchasing your product.

If you must use frames, be sure to optimize the "no frames" section of your pages. Robots can't index framed pages, so they rely on the no frames text to understand what your site is about. Include JavaScript code to reload the pages as needed in the search engine results page.

Got imagemaps and mouseover links? Make sure your pages include text links that duplicate those images, and always include a link back to your homepage.

Use a sitemap to present all your web pages to the search engine robots, especially your deeper pages. Make sure you have hyperlink text links on your page, and a sentence or two describing each page listed, using a few of your keyword phrases in the text.

Remember that the search engine robots "read" the text on your web page. The more that your content is on-topic and includes a reasonable amount of keyword-rich text, the more the search engine robot will "understand" what the page is about. This information is then taken back to the search engine database to eventually become part of the data you see in the search engine results.

Last of all, it is very important to test your pages for validation. Errors from programming code and malformed html can keep the search engine robots from indexing your web pages. Keep your coding clean.

Check List For Success

* Include plenty of good content in text on your web pages

* Incorporate easy to follow text navigation

* Serve up dynamically generated pages as simply as possible

* Offload JavaScript and other non-text code (style sheets, etc.) to external files

* Add a sitemap for optimum indexing of pages

* Validate your pages using the World Wide Web Consortium's validation tool, or other html validator

On Your Way To Indexed Pages

The best way to assure that your pages will be indexed is to keep them simple. This type of architecture not only helps the search engine robots, but makes it easier for your website visitors to move throughout your site. Don't forget to provide plenty of good content on your pages. The search engine robots and your visitors will reward you with return visits.

Resources

To learn more about how to work around optimization problems with JavaScript, dynamically-generated pages, Frames and Flash, read the following articles:

Optimizing Pages with JavaScript and Style Sheets for Search Engines
http://www.searchinnovation.com/optimizing-pages-with-javascript.asp

Optimizing Dynamic Pages (Part I) http://www.searchinnovation.com/optimize-dynamic-pages-1.asp

Optimizing Dynamic Pages (Part II) http://www.searchinnovation.com/optimize-dynamic-pages-2.asp

Optimizing Frames for Search Engines http://www.searchinnovation.com/optimizing-frames-for-search-engines.asp

Html validation tool
http://validator.w3.org/

Stylesheet validation tool
http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

Daria Goetsch is the founder and Search Engine Marketing Consultant for Search Innovation Marketing, a Search Engine Marketing company serving small businesses. She has specialized in Search Engine Optimization since 1998, including three years as the Search Engine Specialist for O'Reilly Media, Inc., a technical book publishing company.

Copyright © 2002-2005 Search Innovation Marketing. http://www.searchinnovation.com All Rights Reserved.

Permission to reprint this article is granted if the article is reproduced in its entirety, without editing, including the bio information. Please include a hyperlink to http://www.searchinnovation.com when using this article in newsletters or online.

---

Absolute & Relative Links How Do They Rank?

The question for this article is whether or not you... Read More

Why Top Search Engine Placements Never Move?

#1 question when it comes to web advertising is how... Read More

How to Develop a Successful ROI for Your Website

Are You Really Measuring for Return on Investment (ROI) with... Read More

PPC v Natural Search ? A Cost Comparison Case Study

The attraction of Pay Per Click (PPC) online advertising is... Read More

A Link From An Ugly Duckling Website With A PR=1 Could Give You 10 to 80 Times More PageRank

Whether you want to start a business and sell on... Read More

Five Tips to Improve Your Chances with Google et al.

"Dear David: I just created a website on baby toy... Read More

Make The Search Engines Love Your Site

Most webmasters have no idea on how to make a... Read More

Getting Honest With The Search Engines

Getting Honest With The Search EnginesI spend a lot of... Read More

An Introduction to Google Sitemaps

... and why I 'm dying to get finally in... Read More

Google Rankings ? Achieving a Top 10 Position in Google ? Part 1

Achieving a top ranking position in Google is every webmasters... Read More

Search Engine Ranking - What Works Now

The methods employed to increase your search engine rankings may... Read More

SEO Help: Dont Try to Fool the Search Engines

Writing articles is all the rage these days on the... Read More

How To Avoid The 3 Biggest Title Tag Mistakes With Search Engines

Your title tag is the most important 3 to 12... Read More

The Power of Topic Specific Search

What are Topical Search Engines?Simply put, topical search engines are... Read More

3 Principles Of Google

When online "Use it. Use it. Use it."Google is our... Read More

SEO: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

I seem to have created quite a stir, on a... Read More

Pay-per-click ? the Ultimate Tool to Boost Affiliate Sales

The old ways are not always the best ways.The traditional... Read More

Duplicate Content Penalty - How to Lose Google Ranking Fast!

Duplicate content penalty. Ever heard of it? This penalty is... Read More

Supply & Demand - Stop Attacking Good SEO Companies!

As I read the latest news online about what Google... Read More

Its Not Just All About Google Anymore

Those webmasters that stick to the old ways and focus... Read More

How to Verify and Monitor Your Search Engine Listing on Google?

Being listed in search engines and ranked high on searches... Read More

Increase Your Link Popularity for Free

Among the many things you need to worry about for... Read More

10 Things to Expect from Your SEO Copywriter

From the perspective of a business owner, webmaster, or marketing... Read More

DMOZ: Rotten To The Core

I knew things were bad at DMOZ. But I guess... Read More

THREE Secrets to High Search Engine Rankings the Easy Way!

Let me guess, you've read article after article on how... Read More

Search Engine Optimization: Site Structure and Popularity

In the Global Internet era the industry presence is undoubtedly... Read More

Most Overlooked Search Engine Optimization Technique

Some of the basics when it comes to SEO and... Read More

Creating a Google SiteMap For Your Work At Home Business Web Page

Search engine traffic is the best traffic You can get... Read More

SEO for CEOs ? Search Engine Optimization Unmasked for CEOs

If you're like most other CEOs, the term "search engine... Read More

eMarketing Sabotage - Top 10 Steps To Kill Your Search Engine Marketing Practices

We at America Web Works find ourselves amazed at the... Read More

6 Ways To Attract Search Engines To Your Website More Often

Adding fresh, updated content to your website is the surest... Read More

3 Deadly Search Engine Marketing Sins

My inbox this week provided glaring examples of three all... Read More

How to REALLY Profit from SEO

I want to give you a few more things to... Read More