Using content and keywords for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

A webpage, particularly for a business or organisation that needs to be found by new potential customers or users, must be findable. That seems like an oxymoron... but it's an important point for the webpage designer RIGHT AT THE START of the design process.

Optimising a webpage for quick loading and correct cross-browser rendering is one issue; optimising a webpage for search engines is another. Coincidentally - or not so coincidentally! - the two aims are not disparate. A good webpage designer can accomplish both aims at the same time, with only a few different elements to consider.

Both for webpage optimisation (WPO) and search engine optimisation (SEO), it's essential to use correctly validated code. While that makes immediate sense for WPO, it's not quite so obvious that search engine spiders will favour well-coded pages over poorly-coded pages with deprecated elements. It's at least partly due to keyword-rich content density in the webpage.

Understanding good use of keywords - keyword-rich text, keywords in meta tags (even though some search engines will no longer give meta tag information the weight it once had), keywords in alt tags (text describing an image, necessary for all images in XHTML), keyword proximity, keywords in headers, keywords in links within a page, keywords in proximity to links, avoidance of keyword-spamming - is essential to good webpage construction.

It sounds like an awful lot of keywords, doesn't it? And with all of that going on, the keyword-rich text must also read well - it shouldn't sound as though the webpage designer has stuffed it full of keywords and written the text around them.

The owner of a carefully designed webpage needs to bear this in mind if considering altering text. He/she may be alarmed a few weeks later to find the site position has dropped mysteriously in search engine results...

Content - informative, rich content within elegant code - is unimaginably important for webpages.

Using informative text for images is intrinsic to XHTML. This is because there is an enormous emphasis upon accessibility. For users whose vision is poor or non-existent, browsing online needs to be as informative as possible - and that means using text wherever possible in preference to (or in addition to) images or other visual media.

It's clear that good copy for a website is not exactly the same as good copy for a magazine article or a brochure.

Many website designers won't concern themselves overmuch with the textual content of a page - they will focus upon good coding, descriptive meta tags, and optimised images and other media. But text content is as important to a well-designed webpage as good coding.

Both businesses and corporations can be assured of expert copy editing or writing in their Web Empress designed website. It's part of the design focus. It's part of the whole look.

From concept to design, Web Empress works to provide you with a website to suit your design criteria.