SE105 - WEB SITE DO'S AND DON'TS

Acorn Internet Services specializes in effective, affordable Web site promotion. Included below is a list of Website Design Do's and Don'ts. It's very important to make sure your Web developer understands what the search engines do and do not like. If you do not build your Web site to be search engine friendly, you will be missing out on the Organic / Natural traffic. Remember, it is this type of traffic that does NOT COST per click. You can get a robust list of Google Recommendations at Google's Webmaster Guidelines web page.

DO'S

Do have a pleasing, easy to read, easy to navigate, fast loading, informative (words and images) Web site that is tested on a variety of browsers.

Do have good Meta Tags with supporting text on each page.

Putting in descriptive Home Page Metas (title, description, etc) is GOOD.

Putting different descriptive Meta Tags (title, description, etc) on all your pages is BETTER!

Choosing the right Meta Titles (what the public is typing to find your property) is BEST!

Use a search phrase look-up tool such as WordTracker or Overture to determine what people are typing.

Do work to get good link popularity – Not link farms!

Do add ALT Tags to your images – but don’t use images in place of text. Search engines can’t “read” an image (other than the alt tag) but they do read real text.

Do have good navigation with interconnecting text links or a site map reference on all Web Site pages.

Do have at least 150 words of well-written, natural sounding, text on each page you plan to market.

ONCE YOUR SITE IS SEARCH ENGINE FRIENDLY ...

Do submit to any and all free listings and directories that support your business type.

Do submit to all the free search engines you can (Google, Lycos, Altavista, etc.). There are only about 6-8 major search engines left.

Do sign up with all the online directories that best support your business.

Do sign up for PPC (Pay Per Click) with Overture, Google, Looksmart, etc if you aren't getting the business you need.

DON'TS

Don’t have a “framed” site – search engines have difficulties crawling a framed site

Don’t be part of a link farm

Don’t over “stuff” your keywords in your text

Don’t overpopulate your Metas (title, description, keywords, etc.)

Don’t use hidden or slightly off-color text to fool the search engines.

Don’t search engine market more than 1 URL to your Web site.

Don’t provide more than 100 links on any one page.

Don’t create a Web site that replaces text with FLASH imagery.

Don’t use a splash entry page – but if you ABSOLUTELY MUST and can’t live without one, don’t create it without using additional text on the splash page for the search engines to use to index the page.