Below you are going to discover eight outstanding rules concerning SEO web design that will help you design a web-site and propel your site to the top of the search engine rankings.
SEO Web Design Rule #1: Write One-of-a-Kind Content
There are so many article directories out there in cyberspace that it might be tempting to simply jump online and copy one of the articles and place it on your site. Of course, as long as you place a link to the author's web-site and give them the credit they deserve, this is usually acceptable and even encouraged.
However, there are three problems with doing this. First, the major search engines like Google, Yahoo and Ask.com generally frown upon this type of thing. They won't ban your site or anything but they will probably drop that article from their listings. So, does it really help you?
Now you can overcome the uniqueness problem by rewriting the article but this falls into a gray area. Most authors don't really care if you change the content to make it unique as long as you still give the author credit and link to their web-site. However, some do mind because they have no control if you make the article less readable.
Third, while it gives your web-site content, it doesn't give your web-site authority and can actually lead to defections. Think about it. If you come across a outstanding article, you end up trusting the author and click through to their web-site.
The best solution to this problem is to just write unique content for your web-site and then allow others to disperse it for you by posting it on the article directories... be the writer and not the copier.
SEO Web Design Rule #2: Add Up-to-Date content all the time
Search engines love current content. So it's pretty simple, the more current content that you post to your web-site or blog, the more often the search engines will visit your site.
While it's certainly not the only factor that they search engines look at, it is a major factor. But, even more importantly, your visitors and subscribers love current content. Give them what they want and they will return more often.
Finally, when it comes to creating current content, each time you create a current page for your web-site, you have more of an opportunity to be answering a question that a search engine user is seeking to have answered.
I always tell my clients that they should create 30 content pages for their web-site as fast as possible. Once they reach 30 pages, they should keep building their web-site until they reach at least 100 pages by adding at least one current content page to their site each week.
SEO Web Design Rule #3: Create A Superior Keyword Phrase
This is one mistake that almost all web-site creators make. They take the time to see what people are looking for but they don't research how much competition there is for a particular key-word or key-word phrase.
Let's take this article for example. Writing about the same topic, many authors might focus on "search engine optimization" or "SEO". Sure, a lot of people are looking for information about both of these terms.
SEO Web Design Rule #4: Choose A Phrase That Is Popular, But Not Too Popular
However, creating a outstanding key-word phrase isn't enough. The problem is that there are just too many well-established web-sites that present info about both of the previous terms. No, matter how outstanding this article is, there is little chance that it will ever break the top 20 results for these terms.
But that doesn't mean that I shouldn't write an article. It means that I have to tighten the focus so I chose to focus on "SEO Web Design" instead. There are still over 10,000 searches for this key-word phrase but there is a lot less competition. Plus, checking the top 10 results for this term, I found that not many were focused on the exact term "seo web design".
So, there is outstandinger profitability in focusing on key-word terms that are searched for less but have less competition. In addition, by using this method, you will discover that in the future, your web-site will end up ranking higher for the more general search terms like "search engine optimization", "seo" and "web design".
SEO Web Design Rule #5: Write An Accessible Site
This takes a lot more practice than anything. You see, if your reader gets bored, they'll click the back button. Conversely, the more they read, the outstandinger the chance there is that they will end up doing whatever you want them to do. Whether you want them to visit your site or place an order.
Of course, most boring people don't even know that they're boring. Do you know if you're boring or not? Are you sure?
OK, so if you're not sure, here's a simple way to correct this problem. Have a family member, friend or colleague that you find interesting and smart read your article and ask them to spice it up a little.
To save time and make sure that you have a quality article, I highly recommend that you do not have them "give you notes". Just ask them to make the changes. Read what they wrote and do not make any changes to it unless you are 100% absolutely, positively sure that they screwed up.
Think of it this way. You go to a cardiologist because they know about your heart and you would never walk out saying something like, "Heart attack?! That's nuts! Three cheeseburgers a day can't give you a heart attack."
So, why wouldn't you trust the interesting person that you asked to spice up your article?
To a lesser extent, you also need to make sure that your web-site's content is physically readable. The font should be large enough for most people to read without having to change their browser or anything.
Also, some fonts are much easier on the eyes to read online. I highly recommend that you only use Arial, Tahoma or Verdana fonts for your body text. Even common fonts like Times current Roman can be very difficult to read online.
And be sure to use a good amount of whitespace. As a general law, I always try to keep my paragraphs to 3-4 sentences. Why? Think about what your brain says when as soon as it sees a big paragraph.
"Oh, my God! That article looks boring"
Keep sentences short and sweet. Get to the point online since people want answers fast. In fact, feel free to use bullet points liberally. Subconsciously, people feel more at ease.
SEO Web Design Rule #6: Use The Keyword Phrase In Your Title Tag
This one is pretty simple. By using your key-word title in your title tag, both the search engines and your readers know what the page is about.
Furthermore, most search engines take the user's search term and bold all of the search term words that show in the title and description. Bolding draws the eye's attention. Get the user's attention and they will most likely click on the link.
In addition, search engines can't read an article and understand what the article is really about. They have to "run the numbers". So, if they see your key-word phrase 2% in the body and then also see it in the title, they can determine what your article is focused on.
SEO Web Design Rule #7: Get A Domain With Your Keyword Phrase
Similar to using your key-word phrase in the title tag, placing your key-word phrase in your domain name tells the search engines what your web-site is about as well. After all, if you put "doggie treats" in your domain name, you probably aren't selling "cat treats" as well.
And the search engines do place emphasis on having your key-word in your domain name. Do a search for any 2-3 word phrase and you see that they overwhelming majority of the top 20 results have the key-word in their domain name.
SEO Web Design Rule #8: Use The Keyword Phrase In Your URL
OK, so if you have a web-site about "doggie treats", you're probably selling a wide variety of doggie treats, right? So, you'll probably create a web page about "organic doggie treats" or "vegetarian doggie treats".
Now, since your web-site is about "doggie treats" you want to use that key-word phrase plus a descriptor so that your ultimate URL would look like this:
http://www.phils-doggie-treats.com/organic-doggie-treats.html
Creating a URL like this makes it very clear what your page is about to the search engines. Clarity = higher rankings. Higher rankings = more visitors to your site. More visitors to your site = more money.
Those are just a few of the secrets to outstanding SEO web design. Check out our other articles for even outstandinger SEO web design tips and tricks.