|
 To be successful in the search
engines it's important to design your web site with the
spiders in mind. Using the latest in web page design is
not generally the best way to go. Spiders don't view web
pages like humans do, they must read the HTML in the page
to see what it's about. Below you will find tips on how to
best design your web site with search engines in mind.
Do not use frames at all. Some search engines cannot
spider web pages with frames at all. For the other search
engines that can, they can have problems spidering it and
sometimes they too can't index the web page. Do not only
use image's to link out. You should always use text links
to link out to important content on your web site. Spiders
can follow image links, but like text links more though.
Use external JavaScript files instead of using Java Script
code in the HTML document, using Java Script in the HTML
document will make the page size much larger. Using an
external Java Script file to do the job will reduce page
size and make it easier for both spiders and browsers to
download the page. Using Cascading Style Sheets can reduce
page size and making the download time much faster in most
cases. It will allow the spider to index your web page
faster and can help your ranking.
Avoid using web page creators such as FrontPage,
Dreamweaver or a WYSIWYG editor. Software such as that
will often times add scripting code that is not needed,
making the page larger than it needed to be and making it
harder to crawl. It will also add code that can't be read
by the search engines, causing the spider not to index the
page or not index the whole web page. It is better to use
standard HTML. Adding code that they can't read or have a
hard time to read can lead to major problems with your
ranking.
Try not to use Flash when possible. Flash cannot be read
by the search engines to date and will cause download time
to slow a bit. If you do decide to use Flash anyway, make
sure you add text to the web page, so the search engines
have something to read and find out what your web page is
about. It will also allow your visitors to have something
to read while the Flash file loads. Also don't use Flash
as a way of navigation, as I said before spiders cannot
read Flash.
It's important to add a site map to your web site. Not
only will this make it easier for internet surfers to get
around your web site, but it will also allow spiders to
find your site's content easier and index your web page
sooner. The site map should contain text links and not
image links.
I highly suggest that you look at your web page with a
Lynx browser because this is similar to how search engines
will view your web page. There are other tools on the
internet that will allow you to view your web page without
a Lynx browser, but see a web page just like it, so you
may want to check those out as well.
|
