Website design 110

Search Engines

It's all well and good designing a functional, attractive website but if no-one knows it exists there's not much point in having it.

There are hundreds of supposed tricks and cheats for achieving high rankings on search engines but there are some simple rules that if taken into account can help provide quality search engine referrals. Gaining good search engine rankings is a topic unto itself so view the following as a very basic starting point. For a much greater insight into search engine optimisation try visiting Search Engine Watch.

The first task is to decide on the search phrases most applicable to your site. For example, if your site is mainly about selling pet food your primary search term might be 'pet food'. With this in mind, narrow your terms down to gain more targeted traffic by focusing the search terms. For example, 'Norwich pet food wholesaler' might gain you more targeted traffic. Once you have decided your key search terms, combine the following measures with the guidelines listed under the accessibility section.

Page title. Ensure your search phrase features in the title of your page and make sure the title is appropriate to the content.

Meta Tags. Meta Tags have decreased in importance but should not be neglected. Specifically, be sure to include both keyword and description Meta Tags.

Page copy. Make sure your copy is search engine friendly. Don't expect the search engines to know what your page is about if your key search phrases for that page are not included in the copy.

Links. If you link to a page which you want to be found when people search for 'norwich pet food wholesaler' use that term for the link text. In other words, rather than using 'for Norwich pet food wholsalers click here' use 'Norwich pet food wholsalers'.

ALT Tag. Use the Alt tag for images. Search engines cannot guess what an image is, they need to be told.

Back links. Back links are links that point to your pages. The more pages on the internet that link to your site, the more important your site is considered to be by the search engines and the higher they put your site in the results pages.

Tip 8: Design your site with search engines in mind.

Next: Website accessibility

Mighty Media are a full service multimedia company and have employed an in-house team of website designers since 1997. Our practical, marketing oriented approach to website design has resulted in numerous site launches that succeed in driving qualified, targetted leads to our client's businesses.

Mighty Media is regarded as one of the premier Buckinghamshire website design agencies with a track record in corporate communications that forms the underlying foundation of their work.

Established for over 25 years, Mighty Media began making TV commercials and later diversified into the corporate video production sector working with household names such as Procter & Gamble, Mars, Nationwide Building Society and other familiar names. With a strong background in internal and external communications Mighty Media progressed into new media production. Mighty Media now specialise in CD-Rom design and production, e-learning solutions, intranet design, extranet design, video production and website design.

Based in Bourne End on the border of Buckinghamshire and Berkshire Mighty Media now provide website design and online marketing services to businesses from all over the UK.

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