One of the Best Impact that every blogger/Website owners dreams is to aim to be the best by attaining a higher search ranking on every search engine.
What they don’t realize is that, if done correctly, the optimization of
their site for the search engines can also see it optimized for site
visitors.
Surprisingly, this means that more people will find
the Website easily, which can translate to increased sales and lead to another generation of good marketing output.
But, are the tasks of search engine optimization and usability
compatible and reliable? Aren't there trade-offs between giving search engines what
they want, and giving people what they want? Read on to find out all those things you might looking for. (although I’m sure you can guess the answer!).
Here are the Ten Probable Benefits and Advantages of Search Engine Optimization:
1. Perform Keyword Research
Before
you even begin to build your Website, you should carry out keyword
research to identify which keyword phrases your site should target.
Using publicly available tools such as
Wordtracker, you can identify the keywords that are searched most frequently, then specifically target those phrases.
Keyword
research is also crucial for your site’s usability. Write your site’s
content using the keywords for which users search, and you’ll literally
be speaking the same language as your visitors.
For example, you
might decide to target the phrase, "sell toys", because that’s what your
Website does. Keyword research would undoubtedly show you that Web
users are actually searching for, "buy toys" (think about it: have you
ever searched using the word, "sell", when you want to buy something?).
Place the phrase "buy toys" on your Website’s pages, and you’ll be using
the same words as your visitors — they’ll be able to find what they’re
looking for more easily.
2. 200-Word Content Minimum Per Page
Quite
simply, search engines love content — the more content on a page, the
easier it is for search engines to work out what that page is actually
about. Search engines may struggle to work out the point of a Web page
that has less than 200 words, and may ultimately penalise that page in
the search rankings.
It’s also good to avoid low-content pages
from a usability perspective. A page with less than 200 words is
unlikely to contain a large amount of searchable textual information, so
site visitors will undoubtedly need to click elsewhere to find more
detailed content.
Don’t be afraid to put a reasonably large amount of information on to a page. Generally, Web users don’t mind scrolling down
anymore, and, as long as the page provides mechanisms to aid scanning
(such as employing sub-headings — see point 6 below) it shouldn’t be
difficult for site visitors to locate the particular information that
they want.
3. 100kb Maximum HMTL Size
If 200 words is the
minimum length for page content, 100kb is the maximum — at least in
terms of HTML file size. Include pages that are larger than this, and
search engines may give up on those pages as simply being too big.
A
100kb HMTL file will take 20 seconds to download on a 56k dial up modem
-รข€“ the kind used by three of every four UK Web users as of March,
2004 (
source: UK government PDF).
Add to this the time it takes for all the other parts of the page, such
as images and JavaScript files, to download, and you’re looking at a
highly user-unfriendly download time!
4. Use CSS for Layout
As I mentioned in Part 2
of this series, it’s not unusual for sites to experience significant
traffic increases after they switch from a table-based layout to a CSS
layout.
Search engines may prefer CSS-based sites and can score
them higher in the search rankings. The benefits of clean code,
flexibility of important content placement, and greater content density
make it easier for search engines to access, assess, and rank CSS-based
pages.
Using CSS for layout is also highly advantageous for
usability. The reduced HTML file size inherent in CSS-based sites
results in significantly faster download times.
5. Use Meaningful Page Titles
If
you know anything about search engine optimisation, you’ll know that
many search engines place more importance on the page title than on any
other of the page’s attributes. If the title adequately describes the
content of that page, search engines will be able to more accurately
ascertain what that page is about.
A meaningful page title also
helps site visitors work out where they are, both within the site, and
on the Web as a whole. The page title is the first thing that loads up —
often quite a few seconds before the content — so a descriptive,
keyword-rich page title can be a real aid to user orientation.
6. Use Headings and Sub-Headings
Search
engines often assume that the text contained in heading tags is more
important than the rest of the document text, as headings (in theory, at
least) summarise the content immediately below them. Many search
engines assign the most importance to <h1>, then <h2>, and so on.
Headings
are also incredibly useful for your human site visitors, as they aid
scanning significantly. Generally speaking, we don’t read on the Web: we
scan, looking for the information we’re after. If we, designers and
developers, break up pages with sub-headings that effectively describe
the content beneath them, we make scanning much easier for users.
Do
be sure not to abuse heading tags. The more text you have contained in
heading tags within your page, the less importance they will be assigned
by many search engines.
7. Opening Paragraph Describes Page Content
We’ve
already established that search engines love content, but many engines
are especially fond of the first 25 words on each page. By providing an
opening paragraph that adequately describes the content of the rest of
the page (or the site, if it’s the homepage), you should be able to
include your important keyword phrases in this crucial area.
When
we arrive at a Web page the first thing Web users need to know is
whether this page has the information they’re after. A great (and
logical!) way to find out is to scan through the first paragraph, which,
if it sufficiently describes the page content, should help out.
8. Descriptive Link Text
Many
search engines place a lot of importance on link text. They often
assume that link text will be descriptive of its destination and, as
such, examine link text for all links that point to any page.
If
all the links that point to a page about widgets read ‘click here’,
search engines can’t gain any information about that page without
visiting it. If, on the other hand, all the links read ‘about widgets’,
search engines can easily guess what that page is about. (The example I
provided in Part 2 of this series is a case in point.)
Descriptive
links are also extremely important for usability. If Web users scan,
rather than read, a litany of ‘click here’ links will be worthless to
them. Descriptive links act like signposts to scanning users: as the
person looks down the page, they understand immediately where the link
‘about widgets’ leads.
9. Avoid Frames
Frames are quite an
old-school technique, and although aren’t as commonplace as they once
were, they’re still out there. Using frames is commonly seen to be
detrimental to your search engine ranking, as most search engines can’t
follow links between frames.
Even if a search engine does index
your pages, and Web users find you through a search engine, they’ll
usually be taken to one of the pages within the frame. This page will
probably be a content page with no navigation (navigation is normally
contained in a separate frame) and, therefore, no way for the user to
move to any other page on the site!
Frames are also
disadvantageous for usability, as they can cause problems with the back
button, printing, history and bookmarking. Put simply, say no to frames!
10. Provide Quality Content
This
may seem like a strange characteristic of a search-optimised Website,
but it’s actually crucial. Search engines, in addition to page content,
look at the number of links pointing into Web pages. Often, the more
inbound links a Website has, all other things being equal, the higher in
the search rankings it will appear.
By providing creative, unique
and regularly updated content on your Website, other Webmasters will
want to link to your site: doing so will provide extra value to their
site visitors. Of course, you’ll also be adding value for your site
visitors.
Conclusion
Optimising your Website for both
search engines and people needn’t be a trade-off. There’s significant
overlap between the tasks required to reach these two objectives, and
this overlap can be used to your advantage. It shouldn’t be too
challenging to create a Website that users can find easily via the
search engines, and use once they reach it.
