A basic website includes the following architecture:

• a HEADER-which typically contains your logo or business name and states the purpose of the site as quickly as possible through text and images. Some other items included in a header might be: trust symbols (such as security certificates, or BBB, etc.), a search box, a tagline, or contact information (such as a phone number, or email link).
• NAVIGATION-links to other sections of your site-typically on the top, left, right, or all 3-should be easy to read and understand. Text navigation is preferable for better SEO. Drop down navigation can provide better structure, and easier flow through the information on your site, and can help to lead your visitors to the right section. Lower or footer navigation is important when your pages require the visitor to scroll down for viewing. Lower navigation allows the visitor to find their way without having to scroll back up to the top of the page.
• the BODY of the website-the place where all of your information and images go. Placement is key in the body of your website. Important items should go “above the fold” (the area viewable before any scrolling is done).
• CONTACT INFORMATION-always make yourself easily accessible to your visitors. This is a key component for promoting security.
• COPYRIGHT-you should always include a copyright statement on your website to protect your content legally.

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That may have been true for Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams, but it is absolutely NOT TRUE when it comes to a website.

Building your website is just the first step, and there are many more to go to be successful online.

So what does your website need to have to even begin to draw traffic? Besides a good (graphic) design with clear, optimized images; you want to be sure that your site’s layout, navigation, and architecture are user friendly. You may know what those pages of your site are about, and why they are there, but your visitor may not. Design your site using the “I’ve never heard of it” state of mind. Lead, guide, and direct your visitors…not only to where you want them to go, but make them feel like it’s where THEY WANT TO GO. Don’t lose your traffic because your visitors are confused!

Website & SEO Building Blocks:

The Website Header

Your website header should contain two types of elements: (1) What is seen by the visitor; and (2) What is seen by the Search Engines. Both are equally important.

• What is Seen by the Visitor

A well planned website header will contain your logo, your tagline, a way to contact you*, and navigation to key areas of your site. Key areas are determined by what type of business/site you are running. If it’s a service oriented or brochure site, you’ll want to include (at a minimum) links to an About page, a Contact page, and a Services or Portfolio page. Even though your logo may be linked back to your home page (and it should be) you should also include a “Home” link in your header navigation as well. Remember, you’re making it as easy as possible to find your way…

• What is Seen by the Search Engines

In order to be sure that your site meets compliance standards, every website header should declare a “DOCTYPE” (document type) above the opening < head > tag. For example:

< !DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
< html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >

The DOCTYPE should be the very first line in your website code.

Within the < head > tags of your site, you should include key meta tags for the Search Engines. The TOP PRIORITY when it comes to your meta tags is the < title > tag. Each page of your site should have a different title tag – one that describes the content succinctly, using keywords. New research shows that it’s no longer desirable to have your site title in this area. This now gives you more space to use your keywords and optimize your page even further. EXAMPLE: The old way: < title >Basics of SEO | Creative Dot Publishing< /title >. The new way: < title >Basics of SEO and Website Building for Targeted Traffic< /title >

Other meta tags that you’ll want to be sure to include are keywords, and description.

Keywords do not hold as much weight with all of the Search Engines as they used to, but they are still important, and they help you to make sure that you’re using your targeted keywords within your content. You should never list a keyword that you’ve not used in your page content (unless you’re using a common misspelling).

The description is used by the Search Engines in search results, and it is also used as a “teaser” when people share your page on social networking sites, such as Facebook. Your meta description should include some sort of “call to action” such as: Visit, Call, Contact, etc. In other words, direct the reader as to what they should do next.

The Website Body

The next most important aspect of SEO is within the < body > section of your website. It is equally important to your Title tag. It is the Header 1 or < H1 > tag. The H1 tag is used to define the content of your web page, both for your visitor and the Search Engines. There can be many header tags (all the way up to h6), but none holds as great an importance as the H1 tag: the top level heading tag for your site. Google sees the text within your H1 tags as more important than any other text on your page. In other words < H1 >Important Text< /H1 > is more important than… < p >regular paragraph text< /p >.

You can make your H1 tag fit the look of your site by adding it to your stylesheet.

IMAGES: It can also help your site’s ranking when you provide ALT tags for your images. The ALT tag is a description of the image…and yes, you should use your keywords here as well! Be sure to also add a TITLE tag while your up to it (in WordPress this is super easy to do). The alt tag will show up upon image hover in Internet Explorer, while the title tag does the same in FireFox. These tags also show up when or if your image does not load on your site (for whatever reason). If a visitor has images turned off in their browser settings they can still tell see what your image is via these tags. And lastly, for those with visual impairment, these tags provide an auditory description of your image.

BACK LINKS: Don’t forget the importance of back links for SEO. The more sites you have linking to yours the better your ranking will be. Social Media has provided us with a great platform for back links!

Hire a Professional

When it comes to SEO, there are basics you can easily set up within your site, yourself. Keep in mind however, that to get the best page rank with the Search Engines, you can sometimes be better served when you hire a Professional.

The post Basics of SEO and Website Building appeared first on Nola Cooper Designs.

It’s actually a very easy question to answer. Does your tagline include any of your keywords? If that answer is yes, then your tagline should be text and should be placed in your website header.

This was a lesson I learned early in my internet career. When I went online in 2002 with my Stationery shop, I decided that my creativity meant that I could design and implement my own website. I had a logo for “Classic Creations Stationery & Gifts” and so I used it. Within 6 months of starting my website, I had learned a lot about keywords and SEO. I realized that “Classic Creations” could be anything and while it was important to my current catalog customers (for finding my site), my crucial keywords were “Stationery and Gifts”. Thus, I made the decision to use them as a text tagline in my page header. Of all the things I did back then, that was the smartest! My traffic tripled within the days and weeks following that change!

If your tagline is something akin to “Your One Stop Shop”-there are two issues at play here…

ONE: it obviously is not important to your SEO, so use an image with a cool font.

TWO: WHY aren’t you using keywords in your tagline and taking advantage of the benefits it will provide to your Search Engine Optimization??? Just adding one word would make all the difference: “Your One Stop Stationery Shop”. And suddenly the text “stationery” is on the top of every page of your site.

Something very important to consider…

Sam asked:

Interesting article. I actually use two taglines on my employer’s website. One is a generic “slogan” that I have never really understood. The second I aimed to give visitors a 2 second introduction to what we do; it’s pithy, but not very exciting.

For the first tagline I place it as part of the logo. Yes, for shame, but it does load faster with one image instead of two. However, even though it is generic, it does have some keywords in it. Since it’s part of the logo, I make sure to put the full company title and tagline in alt text. What are the SEO benefits and hindrances of this approach?

Nola answered:

Good Question…the answer is that the Search Engines no longer use image Alt Text to determine relevancy. When you have a text (keyword rich) slogan it will be considered…because it’s text.

Expert SEO Researcher, Jerry West explains:

“According to a Google engineer, what you should do is create an ALT tag that is relevant to the picture, so it gives the user a good experience, including the visually impaired. The ALT text is indexed, but it is down graded in the algorithm. The reason?”

‘We see ALT text as relevant as the Keyword Meta tag,’ said the engineer. That should say it all as Google has never used the Keyword Meta tag due to the high spam rate.”

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