We are going to approach this chapter as to what you should not do or avoid when practicing true SEO procedures.

Be aware that the entire objective of SEO is to make your site easy to find by the search engines and the end-user.

We will broach upon areas to avoid pertinent to the design of your site as well as how you compose your markup.

The first rule significant to your design is to avoid using a Splash Page.

Not only are splash pages bad as to the optimizing of your site, they are no longer very popular.

If you are in the beginning stages of site design then certainly do not use them. A Splash Page is totally lacking in keyword content and therefore is not a strong preference of the search engines.

Also, to more astute visitors to your site, they will appear dated as they are not generally used and have not been used for quite some time.

The second rule significant to site design is how you reference your CSS and JavaScript.

The best advice is to reference this type of code on an external level.

Your site’s visitors will not be able to see this portion of your site; however, the search engines will be able to “view” it.

Depending on your level of experience you may reference your CSS or JavaScript within a separate file.

If you prefer not to reference the code within another or separate file, the following code may be produced in order to comment on either CSS or Java Coding:

<script type=”text/javascript”>

<!- -

. . .

// – ->

</script>

<style type=”text/css”>

<!- -

. . .

// – ->

</style>

The third design rule and one you must strictly adhere is “do not try tricking the robotic search engines.”

For those of you who are unfamiliar as to how some webmasters try pulling this off, here is how it is done:

Generally such (web) masters of deceit will try placing key phrases within the hidden portion of his or her source code. This may include over-stuffing keywords into the title and alt tags or attributes.

Additionally, he or she may overwhelm the <Meta> tag portion of their code with keywords.

The robots are built to recognize such excesses as everything is worked out as to the evaluation of your keywords in the ranking of your site on a very mathematical level.

Following is a very simple description in how a search engine robot will evaluate your site in order to determine ranking:

1. When the robot initially visits your site it will evaluate all of your code and content. Their view is “text” only. Once they have appraised the entirety of your content, the content is placed inside of what is termed as a “tag cloud.”
2. Next, keywords found within elements possessing more weight with the search engines are included in the assessment. In example, as you may recall in Chapter Four regarding the subject of “visually appealing markup,” I alluded to the importance of placing keywords within the hidden elements of your code. The primary attributes included the heading tags such as <h1>, <h2> and other tags: <strong>, <b>, <em> and <i>. Should the robots find keywords within this portion of your site, in theory you should be able to attain a more significant ranking with Google and other major search providers.
3. Next the search engine robots look at the relevancy of the keywords as to the theme of your site. This is a strong reason why conducting proper keyword research is important as we’ve already illustrated in Chapter Two.
4. Last, as far as a simple description, keyword density relative to content is checked. Here again, as conveyed to you within a previous chapter, you do not want to overstuff your content with keywords; therefore, keyword density requirements must be followed to the letter.

There is a good deal more involved in the process; however, the above description provides you with some idea how the search engines process your site’s content and code relative to the keywords you provide.

The fourth rule as to the design of your site is to use text as opposed to graphics.

This rule isn’t implying you avoid pictorials, it merely means you should not make the title portion of your site or any of the attributes associated with navigation images.

In order to “please” the search engines it is best to use text. Additionally, browsers that are text based are generally better for the end-user. This is due to the fact that there are some individuals still using Internet providers supplying connections that are not high speed.

The best way to use text and still incorporate a graphic while practicing SEO is to place your text within a heading tag and provide an image using CSS.

The fifth rule you’ll need to employ in order to rank better with the search engines is to use sitemaps.

Although, this isn’t an area of avoidance as to the design of your site or in how you produce code, it certainly is worth mentioning as it will make you much more viable within the rankings of the search engines.

In fact, this is one area many webmasters admittedly fail to include when putting together their site but one you should never ignore.

Following are four sitemaps you may wish to include on your site and how they may be helpful to you:

The first site map is HTML. This map of your site is constructed for visitors.

Additionally, it is also possible to use an RSS or XML sitemap as long as you apply a style sheet to it. You will need to incorporate the style sheet to either one of these sitemap choices in order that your visitor may read it.

The XML choice is used in coordination with Google; and the former sitemap (RSS) is used in conjunction with Yahoo! Site Explorer. TXT is the former sitemap used for Yahoo!

Additionally, it is also possible to submit RSS and XML feeds to the Microsoft search engines if you wish to do so. Keep in mind there are a great many social sites that allow you to submit feeds.

If this seems a bit overwhelming, you may “opt” to create all the sitemaps I mentioned simultaneously. All that is needed is to download the tool: phpSitemapNG. After download is complete, the sitemap tool is installed upon your website. Thereafter you may create all four sitemaps mentioned above.

If you are unclear as to what precisely is a sitemap I suggest you visit several sites and look for the area “labeled” sitemap. Generally, I find this link at the bottom of the site’s page. You’ll discover I believe that the sitemap makes the site more navigationally friendly which greatly assists in your ranking with the search engines.

In conclusion of this chapter, you’ve been able to learn a bit in relation to the following topics:

1. Avoid Splash Pages. They are not advisable when it comes to proper optimization of your site. This is due to their high level graphic nature as well as their lack of text. Plus, individuals designing new sites nowadays no longer use them.
2. It’s advisable you reference any CSS or JavaScript on an external basis or within a separate file. The robotic search engines will, thus, view your site more favorably.
3. Do not get smart and try “tricking” the search engines. The robotics designed within the search engines are intelligent enough to recognize “deceiving” practices such as over-stuffing of keywords and keyword phrases inside the hidden portion of your source code and will not view it to your advantage.
4. Use text within the title portion and navigational elements of your site as opposed to graphics. This will prove more beneficial to you as to higher rankings within the search engines.
5. Create a sitemap or maps to appear more navigationally friendly to the search engines. An easy way to construct four sitemaps at one time, particularly if you are a novice, is to download and install the following “helpful” tool onto your website. phpSitemapNG. Once you download this tool you’ll be able to create the following sitemaps: XML, RSS, TXT, and HTML.

Chapter Five – How to Make Fast Friends with the Search Engines

From: Search Engine Optimization for Internet Beginners By Mike Crooks