The formula for webmasters looking for success with the
search engines is ROMM (Research, Optimize, Monitor, and
Maintain). Here are some helpful tips and details about
each portion of the ROMM concept...
Research
Before you even begin your website design, give thought to
the navigation, structure, graphic design, and formatting
of the URLs. Webmasters should not only have experience as
a graphic artist, but should also be well versed in Search
Engine Optimization. SEO should not be an afterthought!
Websites that are designed with SEO in mind will have more
success in ranking well in the search engines.
The link depth in a website should really not exceed 3-4
levels. Any links that are deeper than that (requiring more
than 5 clicks from the original domain) will be more
difficult, if not impossible, for search engines to crawl.
Design the navigation so that it is intuitive to the user,
and will lead them through the website. Use a navigation
structure that will allow the website to expand as the
content is added. Once you have the general website
architecture worked out, determine how often and where new
content will be added to the website.
The color scheme of the website should be designed in such
a way that valuable content or keywords are not hidden or
obscured from the viewer.
Optimize
Always keep in mind that each and every page on a website
should have a unique page-specific title and description.
The webpage title and description should always relate to
the content of the page. Webmasters should make every
effort to create continuity between a web landing page and
the keyword or keyword phrase that the page is trying to
emphasize.
If there are keywords or headings on the webpage that
require specific emphasis, use "header" tags to emphasize
the words.
Each page should have a different focus, and contain unique
content. Redundant content, with only minor changes to
emphasize specific keywords, are frowned upon by search
engines.
Webmasters are encouraged to use image "alt tags" to
describe the image or link that the image refers to.
Keywords should be used judiciously.
When formatting URLs, use hyphens rather than underscores.
Use related keywords and hyphenated keyword phrases to name
sub-pages on a website. In other words, a page containing
this article might be named "mydomain.com/basic-seo.htm".
Try to avoid excessively long URLs. If the webpages within
a website are being dynamically created, avoid using "ID="
in the URL, as many search engines will not spider the
pages -- they will often assume that the 'ID=' refers to a
session ID and does not refer to unique content.
Monitor
After launching a website, it is important to evaluate the
status of the site in the various search engines. Keep in
mind that major search engines will often delay ranking a
new website until the search engine deems the website
"trustworthy". Build links to the website and monitor the
site's progress in major search engines for critical
keywords and phrases.
Take a look at the web logs to determine the popularity of
pages within a website. Review the website logs on a
regular basis to determine any trends.
Maintain
Maintain the website by optimizing webpages that are not
performing well, and by adding new content on a regular
basis. Websites should be constantly expanding, and should
be updated regularly.
If the new content is something you wish to have spidered
quickly, be sure to add it to a web page that is already
spidered on a regular basis.
Successful websites require constant monitoring,
maintenance and optimization.
----------------------------------------------------
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll
http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing,
publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon
manages marketing for RecordForAll
http://www.recordforall.com audio recording and editing
software.
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