Any company thinking about building a website these days is almost obligated to consider SEO (search engine optimisation). Major search engines are among the most visited websites in the world, attracting millions, if not billions of users per year. This is partly because the World Wide Web has grown at such a startlingly rapid rate that it is really only to search engines that are in a unique position to help make sense of the mass of information on tap. It therefore important for the website development company to follow some tips while planning a project will be keen for that site to gain high search result page rankings. Businesses crave clicks on search results from as many of those millions of regular users as possible.
Here are some suggestions for ensuring SEO is well integrated in to a website development project.
Build the site with a CMS
First and foremost, a CMS i.e. Content Management System can act as a great facilitator for some essential SEO measures. A web CMS is essentially a piece of password-protected browser based software that works in the cloud. It primarily allows site editors, who may not be technical experts, to add or edit content in a relatively simple, user-friendly way. Editors can add not only words but whatever media the site supports, including pictures and music.
The CMS benefits search engine optimisation because it enables users to make rapid changes to content in order to promote specific keywords of the moment. This increases the chances of a site gaining higher page rankings.
A CMS also makes it easy to edit metadata such as the page title, keyword and description tags. Even details, such as adding keywords to image alt-tags (which search engines favour), are facilitated without editors having to burrow in to dense lines of code.
User-friendly URLs
Some websites are produced with URLs which look meaningless to most users. In-fact the URLs are complex database references ensuring that any given page is unique. However, the long strings that makeup to the URLs is neither friendly to human users nor search engine indexing software. URLs with meaningful vocabulary will be added to a search engine index and will benefit the page rank score finally assigned to a search engine. This is especially the case if URLs mirror the all-important page title tag.
Clean and clear navigation
Once again, with users in mind, the web design team should focus on delivering a clear navigation; one in which each user knows exactly where they are and what options are open to them for their next click. Making navigation options clear and easy to use will enhance a website’s reputation and authority, making users more likely recommend it to friends. Reputation and authority also contribute, albeit indirectly, to a site’s ultimate position in a search engine’s results list.
Allow for a blog
Finally, a blog published to the website designed professionally can also bring long-term benefits. The web development team should ideally ensure that blog writing and publishing is a feature of the finished project.