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I'm buliding a new site. I'm only just learning SEO. Are there any suggests you can give about do's and don't.
I know I need to have lots of content.
I know its better to have plain html.
Any other things I should consider when starting a site that will be very hard to change afterwards?
Thanks
If the site will one day be large then plan for the final result rather than how it will be in the interim.
If you are building a quality site and putting a lot of work into it, keep it clean.
Avoid pushing seo to the edge unless you are happy to burn the site
Good luck with it
However, if using images, use alt text, works very well
Does it matter if the links are the form of images instead of text links? or is it best to use text links?
If you have to use images, make sure to have the links in text form in the footer, and have a site map.
What do you mean by buring the site?
Cheers
What do you mean by buring the site?
Getting penalised for over optimising and possibly ruining the domain forever.
Some penalties you do not come back from.
The goal posts shift, so what you may get away with today you may not week.
The point being, if you value your site and the content keep it very clean and just follow Brett's 26(?) Step Guide which can be found somewhere on this site
You say that keeping .html is better. Yep, but not the way you think. Through experience I have found that your first statement, lots of content, and your second statement, html pages do not go together.
Solution: PHP with mod_rewrite. Make your site as dynamic as possible, thank me later. Get .html urls and Google will love you for it. Don't read books about SEO, they are all outdated, find information here. Wait, actually there are only a few main concepts you should know:
A) Focus on your visitors. Don't write content to attract more keywords, NO! Make every word count and write it for someone in mind. It's very easy to make a C++ application whereas thousands of machine-generated pages are displayed on your site. Believe me, don't waste your time making garbage.
B) Good titles. I can't stress enough how important good titles are. Put the most important keywords there and arrange them properly.
C) I am tired, just read more on this forum... but that's pretty much it.
Hope this helps
[edited by: caveman at 1:31 am (utc) on April 6, 2006]
[edit reason] Removed specifics, per TOS, and delinked links. [/edit]
11)Keep domain name concistent (use .htaccess to change all site.com to www.site.com)
I agree, and understand, that domain names should be kept consistent through out the site.
What I don’t know and don’t understand (really, I am not trying to be sarcastic) is why suggesting a preference for www over non-www. Is it just an example, or ‘concrete’ suggestion to use www? If so, why?
2. Organize it so you can keep track of things.
3. Use good markup
4. Plan for growth.
Under #1
a. Use clear and logical anchor text in your navigation (text links are best - use CSS to make them fancy). "Places to Stay" is arguably better than "Cheap Hotels" (unless you are really trying hard for that cheap hotel key phrase)
b. Write your copy naturally, but stay on point to the subject of the page. If you are wandering off subject, do another page. This will keep you focused on the key phrase(s) that page is likely to rank for. If you are writing a page on the history of umbrellas, and you begin talking about beach umbrellas, its time to dedicate a page to beach umbrellas.
c. Use good informaton architecture - [webmasterworld.com...]
Under #2
a. Use a logical system of folders and files. If you are doing a site on automobiles, you might set up folders by manufacturers, folders by model and pages by year. Your urls will then naturally be www.example.com/ford/mustang/1967.html You will then be able to find things no matter how big it gets. So will the search engines. You will be happier, and so will the SE's
Under #3
a. Validate
b. Title and H1 tags should be pretty close to a match. <title>Aardvarks - All Animals guide to mammals</title><h1>Aardvarks</h1> (That menu item will probably read "Aardvarks")
c. Remember, people don't read anymore. They scan. Write your copy with this in mind. Lots of headings (use them like an outline). Lots of lists. Lots of bolded text (to make it stand out). Not only will your visitors like this, so will the SE's
Under #4
a. Try to visualize ahead of time all the place you will go with the content on this site (easier said than done). Design you first level of navigation around that. If your site is about Europe, the menu might be a list of Countries.
b. Settle on a logical approach that will let you expand without pain. Click on Spain and find a submenu of Geography, Politics, Culture and Society, History, Attractions, etc. The same submenu will show under France, Germany, Italy, etc. Your visitors will find comfort in the consistency. You will stay organized. All is good.
c. If down the road you want to add a section on transportation, it will fit naturally. Under transportation, you can add automobiles - by manufacturer, model and year :)
So now you have a page:
www.example.com/italy/transportaion/autos/lamborghini/countach.html
<title>Lamborghini Countach - My Europe Site</title>
<h1>Lamborghini Countach</h1>
<p>Some intro text</p>
<ul>
<li>list defining features of Countach</li>
...
</ul>
<h2><a href="">LP 500 Countach</a></h2>
<p>Some info about the LP500...<a href="">more</a></p>
etc....
While I have waxed at length here, the point I am trying to make is that SE's will like what you and your visitors like. That, in the end, is their job.
If you want to rank well, and continue to rank well, then you have to build a site that deserves to rank well. The SE's are looking to return the most relevant pages for any given search.
So, you have to, first, build the most relevant pages, and, second, demonstrate to the SE's (and the world) that the page is the most relevant.
WBF
What I don’t know and don’t understand (really, I am not trying to be sarcastic) is why suggesting a preference for www over non-www. Is it just an example, or ‘concrete’ suggestion to use www? If so, why?
It was just an example. But I believe it's better to use www.example.com and not example.com Why?
1) If you are serving not just www service, but also ftp or mail server it's better if you are using all names concistent - ftp.example.com, www.example.com, mail.example.com. Why not to use example.com for all sevices? Maybe in future you will want to separate mail server from web server physicaly (they will have different ip adresses) and it will be easer to direct user to the right server by domain name.
2) I have a site http://www.example.lv If I want to write it on print media or somewhere else in short form, i like to write it as "www.example.lv" - everyone understands, that it's a web adress. If I would wrote "example.lv" - some latvians will understand that it's a web adress (they are used to ".lv"), but still not all. I believe a lot of people in other countries will never get, this is a web adress, because of unusual ".lv" If you have .com domain name, it's not such a big problem, but still people are more used to "www.example.com" than to "example.com"
3) Try to look at my site logo. Maybe in future I will make some printed zine as addon to www.example.lv. So it will be easy to call that zine as "zine.example.lv" and to make logo for it, just by changing "www" to "zine". In that way I will keep my "example.lv" branding concistent. The same with some event name or something else, what is associated with "example.lv" - "gig.example.lv" for example. I like that :)
[edited by: pageoneresults at 8:58 am (utc) on April 6, 2006]
[edit reason] Examplified URI References - Please Refer to TOS [/edit]
