Whereas there are some search engine optimisation techniques which may be applied off site, there are a number of issues one has to keep in mind when designing a website and these are the initial steps.

Appropriate domain name and address for the site

Domain names are like a pointer to potential customers and these should be as appropriate as possible. Over and above the appropriateness of a domain name, it should also be easily remembered.

For a potential customer to remember a site, the rule is one should look for short and hard hitting domain names. A good example of a short and hard hitting name is Yahoo or Google. It takes no effort to remember them or even refer another person. Finally the domain name should not be difficult to spell. A domain name with a usually mis-spelt word such as necessary / receive may lead potential customers astray.

Keywording

Search engines use spiders to look for key words on sites and it is important that one identifies some of the most appropriate words when compiling the content for a site. It is important to put one’s self in the position of a potential customer, try and come up with what they would be looking for and then use the key words on the site. However, there is a difference between key words and repetition. One should not only look at the increase in traffic as there should also be the retention of the visitor to the site.

Search Engines ‘love’ simple layouts

After compiling the web content and an appropriate domain name, one should assign a good designer to develop the website. There are some very basic rules to designing which should be followed if the site is to be ranked top. Just as an over loaded site takes time to show, search engines may also ‘skip’ those sites with a lot of files in different formats.

It is important to take varying positions when designing a site. At one time the designer has to look at the site from a purely technical point of view, then from a marketer’s point, then from the search engine and finally from a potential customer. It is clear that there should be a balance of competing interests, that is, those on the technical side, the marketing and the external interests, that of the customer and the search engine. It is those sites which are well balanced which are usually well ranked.

Own submission of site

It is not always that when you fall the basic principles of on the site SEO then all the search engines picks your site. It is important that one takes the initial steps so that the search engines would at least have somewhere to start. One best way of doing this is to submit the site to the search engines. After submission, it is important that the site is regularly updated that the content meets the ‘weight’ that is recognised by search engines so that they would be searched and indexed.

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