When designing the architecture and navigational structure of a web site, a sitemap can be extremely helpful. A sitemap can keep the navigation links organized by category, predict how any dynamic links will function, and keep the framework under control. Web developers are not the only parties involved in the process who can benefit from a well-structured sitemap. Many search engines, including Googlebot, can crawl through an XML file that contains the sitemap data to crawl and index the site's...
Most of the popular web search engines prioritize the sites that they index by two major criteria: content and links. The indexable content (i.e. content viewable in the source code) gives the search engine spiders material which they can store in their databases and sort according to relevance. The links within a site guide the spiders throughout the site's architecture. In many instances, web developers ignore the importance of links in creating a site that will bring them search engine results...
‘Search’ is the web’s most utilized and essential function. The major search engines process billions of keyword requests daily, but there are still some websites and blogs that have yet to incorporate the vital feature. While customized search box solutions are offered by various business entities, I prefer to use only the results from major engines: Google, Yahoo!, or Bing. Many of the commercial packages employ a free trial period to entice buyers, which tends to include very prominently...
In previous years, many of the major search engines were not fully equipped to read anything on a page aside from the text within the tags. Most of the “spiders” that “crawled” through web pages only viewed information at the most basic level. As technologies such as Javascript took over the web site design field, the search engine programmers found that their creepy-crawlies had to evolve in order to extract the most pertinent information from the sites they visited. Here are some DO's and...
Moving website pages is not only a traumatic experience but it actually does your website more harm than good when not done right. The Google Search algorithm uses over 200 elements to rate your website and one of these elements is how reliable your website pages are. When a “Page Cannot Be Found” message is displayed, this is one mark less for your website which means that your search ranking will likewise be affected. If you need to redirect your Web pages, then you need to do it in a way that search...
Some experts say search only drives 30 percent of a website’s traffic. While that may seem insignificant, that 30 percent often makes up visitors who are looking for the products, services or information specific to your company so losing them could have a significant impact on how well an organization performs. In part one of this series we looked at some things that web developers need to consider when it comes to search engine optimization, but now it’s time to step up to the plate. Let’s roll...