These are just a few SEO tips I’ve learned while trying to become a better designer.
Use your Headers
The header tags (<h1><h2><h3><h4><h5><h6>) are designed to structure your site’s content based off their importance. Don’t use custom CSS tags for things like titles of pages or subtitles, modify the existing <h1> and <h2> tags instead.
Hyphens vs. Underscore
Use hyphens to separate words in directories and file names. This is because search engines treat hyphens as spaces whereas underscores are not.
Example:
| File Name | Search Engine Sees |
|---|---|
| my-keyword-loaded-picture.jpg | my keyword loaded picture |
| my_keyword_loaded_picture.jpg | mykeywordloadedpicture |
Use your TITLE tag well
Use keyword-rich titles to help promote certain search terms for your site. Also the title tag is what used for your sites name on Search Engine Results Pages. If you were searching for puzzle and the top two results were Bob’s Store | Homepage and Andy’s Puzzle Warehouse :: Puzzles, Games, and Toys. Which one would you think is more likely to have what you need? Also try to keep the title to around 7 words to avoid looking like spam and to give your chosen keywords more weight.
Generate a Sitemap
Sitemaps are files that contain the basic heirarchy of how a webpage looks. They are used to organize the links and type of data on each page. Google, Yahoo, and MSN all support the Sitemap 0.9 protocol. With sitemaps, search engines can now more efficiently find all your website’s pages and how each page links to others.
Content Heirarchy
Search engines read HTML. Sites only get fractions of a second when first being indexed by search engines, so the higher up your main content is, the more accurate the initial indexing will be. Even after your site has been fully indexed, search engines give higher priority to content higher up in your HTML. Luckily the wonder of CSS makes it possible to structurally put your content first put visually move it around to different parts of the site.
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