Web designing and SEO

[naman]

How many of you feel that a lot of search engine optimization depends on web designing. I have come across this question a number of times. People tend to confuse whether website designing is actually responsible for search engine optimization.

What are the things that are included in web designing which, result in better search engine optimization. How is it possible to create a website completely in flash and yet get it optimized in the search engines.

[temats]

>>How many of you feel that a lot of search engine optimization >>depends on web designing.
Personally, I feel that there are elements of design that absolutely help with (organic) SEO.

>>I have come across this question a number of times. People >>tend to confuse whether website designing is actually >>responsible for search engine optimization.
I don't believe "responsible" is the right choice of words here. Good design can and should help, but alone, it will not be responsible for rankings.

>>What are the things that are included in web designing which, >>result in better search engine optimization.
I have had a tremendous amount of success using some basic design standards and coding.
1) Window titles should be unique, and use keywords or phrases found on the page AND that you are optimizing for. A lot of sites list the company name first for the window title - I don't like this because the beginnings of all pages are the same. For example, the About and Services pages for XYZ Corp (Executive Search firm) would read: XYZ Corp - About Us and XYZ Corp - Services. But they would be more descriptive and better optimized to use key content like: Executive Recruiting - Career Counseling & Job Search - XYZ Corp.

2) Use the H1 tag for important content/headings on the page. (not just bold or larger font - specifically H1) This should be used in context to highlight the most important information on the page.

3) Place your sitemap link at the top of each page. Call it sitemap.xxx(x) and make it's layout clean and clear with links to all pages you wish to be included on the site.

4) Include HTML description and keyword meta tags that are relevant to the page you are on and include the keywords and phrases the page should be optimized for. Remember each page can only be optimized for a select FEW terms.

5) Content. Content is really the "responsible" factor for organic search. Your question deals with design, so I will respond to ONLY the question of the design of the content as it relates to SEO. (I am sure that many will come along and comment on this...) Do not hide your content. Include key words and phrases as close to the top of the page as possible but WITHIN THE DESIGN. My point is to not bury your targeted phrase 4 paragraphs down. Use list items and bolding only where appropriate but also to highlight your key terms and phrases.

6) Use the alt tage for all images using relevant and targeted terms/phrases.

There are a TON of of additional elements (robots.txt, yahoo dir submit, google sitemaps) that will help the site capitalize on the design implementations but this should give you a solid start.

>>How is it possible to create a website completely in flash and >>yet get it optimized in the search engines.
I wouldn't count on it. If you have to, create an alternate HTML and use the robots.txt to control.

[aks2008]

better web designing will lead to better search engine optimization. Infact, I consider web designing as the most important step towards seo. To optimize a site made completely in flash is not an easy task. know here: webconfs

[beu]

Design is one of the most critical elements for successful SEO.

It's best to design sites with text links, a site map, descriptive meta data and TITLE elements as well as other considerations.

Flash can cause problems for search engines, it's best to provide an HTML version of all Flash sites.