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 Web design v Search Engine SpidersNaturally with any online business the main priority is to design a really attractive looking website that is not only appealing to the viewer but will have a high visibility in the search engines for your targeted keywords, as well as outranking those websites of your other competitors. From the spider / crawlers prospective text is considered to be food, so the more text the better. Hence the ideal website is created purely from text. Try to use the h1, h2, h3 etc and Strong tags on Keywords wherever possible as this will make them appear more important. The task now is to find that even balance that will not only ensure your website is appealing to the user but is also attractive to search engine spiders. The good news is that web designers can achieve this goal by following certain fundamental rules. Basic web design tipsText Content As mentioned above, search engine spiders absolutely love text and as such plays a major role in the optimisation process and that of your websites ranking status in the search results. Therefore the more text content, the more appealing your site will be, not to mention how successful your SEO campaign will be. The key is to incorporate your targeted keyword phrases and that the text look and reads naturally. Try to avoid cramming in keyword after keyword. Doing so will make the text appear unnatural and may well be penalised by Google for 'Keyword Stuffing' Navigation Menu These days many websites contain complex drop down, cascading menus in order to accommodate the large number of navigation links required. The problem then becomes that many of these menu in fact hide the URL details of each particular link. As a result, they are no longer deemed as being search engine friendly. Wherever possible try avoid using graphics for main navigation menu buttons as spiders cannot read images. Best results are achieved by using plain text. ALT Tags on Images It is very important to understand that search engine spiders / crawlers cannot read images, which is why we attached what is known as an 'Alt Tag' or 'Title Tag'. By doing so the web designer is able to now assign important Keyword Phrases to the images thus providing the spiders with valuable information that if not for the ALT Tags would otherwise be excluded. The Alt Tags are invisible and only become apparent when you pass your mouse pointer over certain images with Alt Tags attached. Title Bar Keyword Phrases Apart from the main text content and links, the Title bar is probably one of the most important aspects of the website and SEO process and for these reasons should not be rushed. Ideally the title bar should be capped to a max length of 80 - 82 characters, including commas, dashes and spaces etc. Whenever possible try avoid duplicating the same keywords over and over again as this will only serve to work against you. Additionally, never include throw away or unrelated keywords which are not relevant to that particular page. When in doubt, leave it out! META Description Apart from the main text content and links, the Title bar is probably one of the most important aspects of the website and SEO process and for these reasons should not be rushed. Ideally the title bar should be capped to a max length of 80 - 82 characters, including commas, dashes and spaces etc. Whenever possible try avoid duplicating the same keywords over and over again as this will only serve to work against you. Additionally, never include throw away or unrelated keywords which are not relevant to that particular page. When in doubt, leave it out! SEO tips for high ranking website designThis next section refers to the On Page Optimisation ( Optimization ) techniques which if done properly, will assist with attaining a high Google Ranking for your targeted keywords. Remember nothing is guaranteed, therefore results can vary especially if you are trying to compete against thousands of other competitors. ie Web Designers v Web Designers The On Page SEO process involves the optimisation of your website content. ie Text, Web Images and links. Although there are a number of key factors, including the use of 'strong tags' and 'header tags', Keyword density is regarded as being the most important. The term 'Keyword Density' refers to the number of times a certain keyword phrase appears on a page in relation to the total number of words. Listed below are some useful key elements that you need to take into account when designing your website.
 More information on On Page and Off Page SEO techniquesKey On Page SEO Elements explained furtherPage Name
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