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SEO for Design

SEO FOR DESIGN

Much of Search Engine Optimization is really about common sense and simplicity in the Web design and development. The purpose of SEO is to make the website as search engine friendly as possible so that it is properly categorized and displayed as high on relevant searches as possible. While SEO doesn't require advanced knowledge of programming and search algorithms but it does require a basic understanding of how search engines work.

In general, there are two aspects of SEO to consider: how the web crawlers read and categorize websites; and how the search engines figure out which pages relate to what keywords and phrases.

Search engines collect data about each website by sending a little program called a web crawler (also known as a "spider" or "bot") to visit the site and copy its content to the search engine's database. These programs are designed to follow links from one page to the next, and as they copy content from one page, they record links and send other crawlers to make copies of content on those linked pages. This process continues over and over through all links found on the website - and continues on to subsequent sites, continually collecting data for the search engine.

Knowing crawlers and how they read information on a site is the technical end of basic SEO. Crawlers are designed to read site content like a human would, going through each piece of content - image and text - item by item. If the crawler encounters a link it can follow, it will record that link and send another crawler to copy and record data found on the page the link leads to. The crawler will continue through the site until it has recorded everything.

As spiders follow links and record everything in their paths, one can safely assume that if a link to a site exists, a spider will find that site. There is no need to manually or electronically submit your site to the major search engines. The search spiders are perfectly capable of finding it on their own, provided a link to your site exists somewhere on the web. Search engines have an uncanny ability to judge the topic or theme of pages they are examining, and use that ability to judge the topical relationship of pages that are linked together. The most valuable incoming links, come from sites that share topical themes.

Once a web crawler finds your site, helping it get around is the first priority. One of the most important basic SEO tips is to provide clear paths for crawlers to follow to each part of the website. This is easily accomplished by providing easy to follow text links directed to the most important pages on the site in the navigation menu or simply at the bottom of each page. One of these text links should lead to a text-based sitemap, which lists and provides a text link to every page in the site. The sitemap can be the most basic page in the site as its purpose is more to direct spiders than help lost site visitors though designers should keep site visitors in mind when creating the sitemap. Google also accepts more advanced, XML based sitemaps, which can be read about in their Webmaster Help Center.

Having web crawlers access all the areas of the site is half the battle - the other half is found in the site content. Search engines are supposed to provide their users with lists of pages that relate to the search terms people enter in their search box. Search engines need to determine which of billions of pages is relevant to a small number of specific words. In order to do this, the search engine needs to know your site relates to those words.

To begin with, there are a few elements, a search engine looks at when examining a page. After the URL of a site, a search web crawler records the site title. It also examines the description meta tag. Both of these elements are found in the "head" section of the page or template source code.

Titles should be written using the strongest keyword targets as the foundation. Some titles are written using two or three basic two-keyword phrases. A key to writing a good title is to remember that human readers will see the title as the reference link on the search engine results page. Don't overload your title with keyword phrases. Concentrate on the strongest keywords that best describe the topic of the page content.

The description meta tag is also fairly important. Search engines tend to use it to gather information on the topic or theme of the page. A well written description is phrased in two or three complete sentences with the strongest keyword phrases woven into each sentence. As with the title tag, some search engines will display the description on the search results pages, generally using it in whole or in part to provide the text that appears under the reference link.

Due to abuse by webmasters, such as using irrelevant terms, search engines place minor (if any) weight in the keywords meta tag. As such, it is not necessary to spend a lot of time worrying about the keywords tag.

After reading information found in the "head" section of the source code, crawlers continue on to examine site content. It is wise to remember that crawlers read the same way we do, left to right and following columns.

Good content is the most important aspect of search engine optimization. The easiest and most basic SEO rule is search engine crawlers can be relied upon to read basic body text 100% of the time. By providing a search engine spider with basic text content, you offer the engines information in the easiest format for them to read. While some search engines can strip text and link content from Flash files, nothing beats basic body text when it comes to providing information to the crawlers. You can almost always find a way to work basic body text into a site without compromising the designer's intended look, feel and functionality.

The content itself should be thematically focused. In other words, keep it simple. Some pages cover multiple topics on each page, which is confusing for crawlers. The basic SEO rule here is if you need to express more than one topic on a page, you need more pages. Fortunately, creating new pages with unique topic-focused content is one of the most basic SEO techniques, making a site simpler for both live-users and electronic crawlers.

When writing page content, try to use the strongest keyword targets early in the copy. For example, a site selling bananas might use the following as a lead-sentence:  "Bananas supplied by Weston Banana Emporium are the tastiest bananas available to the banana connoisseur, and are always ripe, fresh, and delicious."

The primary target is obviously connoisseur  of bananas. By placing the keyword phrases "bananas" and "banana connoisseur" along side other keywords such as the singular words, "ripe", "fresh" and "delicious", the sentence is crafted to help the search engine see a relationship between these words. Subsequent sentences would also have keywords and phrases weaved into them. 

One thing to keep in mind when writing page copy is unnecessary repetition of keywords, known as "keyword stuffing, is often considered spam by search engines, and might count against the website in terms of search engine rankings. For example, "Bananas When writing page content, try to use the strongest keyword targets early in the copy. For example, a site selling bananas might use the following as a lead-sentence:  "Bananas supplied by Weston Banana Emporium are the tastiest bananas available to the banana connoisseur, and are always ripe, fresh, and delicious."

The primary target is obviously connoisseurs of bananas. By placing the keyword phrases "bananas" and "banana connoisseur " along side other keywords such as the singular words, "ripe", "fresh" and "delicious", the sentence is crafted to help the search engine see a relationship between these words. Subsequent sentences would also have keywords and phrases weaved into them. 

One thing to keep in mind when writing page copy is unnecessary repetition of keywords, known as "keyword stuffing, is often considered spam by search engines, and might count against the website in terms of search engine rankings. For example, "Bananas supplied by the banana company Weston Banana Emporium are the tastiest bananas available to the banana connoisseur, and are always ripe bananas, fresh bananas, and delicious bananas. So we say or bananas bananas bananas today", could be penalized for overuse of the keyword banana.

Another thing to remember is that ultimately, the written copy is meant to be read by human eyes as well as search crawler. Read your copy out loud. Does is make sense and sound natural? If not, you've overdone the use of keyword phrases and need to make adjustments.

Another important element a crawler examines when reading the site (and later relating the content to user queries), is the anchor text used in internal links. Using relevant keyword phrases in the anchor text is a basic SEO technique aimed at solidifying the search engine's perception of the relationship between pages and the words used in the link. 

Remember, the foundation of successfully optimizing your site is simplicity. The goal is to make a site easy to find, easy to follow, and easy to read for search spiders and live-visitors, with well written topical content and relevant incoming links. While basic SEO can be time consuming in the early stages, the results are worth the effort and set the stage for more advanced future work.

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SEO Q&A's from Scream Media

                                                 

 SEO Q&A's from Scream Media:

      - What is Internal Site Search, and why is it useful in SEO?  How do you set it up?

Internal site search is another way to gather insight as to how visitors were looking for content on your website. It is found under the “Content” section. Site Search reports can bring a number of unique insights into how visitors are using the website. For example, the “Site Search Usage” report can identify the number of visits where internal searches were used. This can comment on site layout, terminology, or navigation issues. “Search Terms” is what Google Analytics calls internal site search keywords (so as not to mix it up with Web Analytics/SEO keywords).In terms of SEO, this information may be the most important as it can tell you directly what your customers are looking for and if they were satisfied with what they found – look at exits %’s and time after search. This can give you inspiration for new keywords to target, new content to create, or new products to stock to keep your visitors happy.

The destination pages report tells you those pages which were most commonly found via a search term. This again can give you clues into some of the following questions;

• Which pages are your website visitors looking for but struggling to find?

• Why can’t your visitors find the pages they want? Are there navigation issues, or

   are you categorizing pages in subsections your visitors don’t think to check?

• Which pages do people want, and can you create more of them?

2.   - What is the difference between a Filter and a Segment in Google Analytics?

Filters allow you to limit and modify the data that is included in a view. For example, you can use filters to exclude traffic from particular IP addresses, focus on a specific sub-domain or directory, or convert dynamic page URLs into readable text strings.

A Segment is a subset of your Analytics data. For example, of your entire set of users, one Segment might be users from a particular country or city. Another Segment might be users who purchase a particular line of products or who visit a specific part of your site.

Segments let you isolate and analyze those subsets of data so you can examine and respond to the component trends in your business. For example, if you find that users from a particular geographic region are no longer purchasing a line of products in the same volume as they normally have, you can see whether a competing business is offering the same types of products at lower prices. If that turned out to be the case, you could respond by offering a loyalty discount to those users that undercuts your competitor's prices.

You can also use Segments as the basis for Re-marketing Audiences. For example, you might create a Segment of users who visit your menswear pages, and then target just those users (your Re-marketing Audience) with a re-marketing campaign that is focused on the new items that you are adding to those pages.

Segment – For a segment, every visit is checked to see if it satisfies the conditions of the segment. For sessions that satisfy the condition, all rows are returned. For sessions that do not, no rows are returned.

Filter – For a filter all the rows for ALL visits are considered, then only the rows that satisfy the conditions of the filter will be returned.

3.     - What technologies does Google Analytics use to keep track of visits and visitors to your website?

Google Analytics deploys specific tracking codes to each site to collect information on visits and visitors to the website.

  - Two ways in which website content can be changed to improve SEO.

1.    Have a well written, descriptive “description” meta tag that is easily readable by the spider:

A well written description is used by search engines to gather information on the topic or theme of the page. A well written description is phrased in two or three complete sentences with the strongest keyword phrases woven into each sentence. As with the title tag, some search engines will display the description on the search results pages, generally using it in whole or in part to provide the text that appears under the reference link.           2.    Titles should be written using the strongest keyword targets as the foundation. Some titles are written using two or three basic two-keyword phrases. A key to writing a good title is to remember that human readers will see the title as the reference link on the search engine results page. Don't overload your title with keyword phrases. Concentrate on the strongest keywords that best describe the topic of the page content.
 5.      When would you setup and measure a Goal in Google Analytics?  Give at least one example. You would setup and measure a Goal in Google Analytics when you successfully complete the planning phase of the campaign. A goal will determine the networks you target, the type of keywords, ad copy, and so much more. A branding goal is very different from a sales goal, so the approach to the account is determined by its goal.

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Distillery District, Toronto - It was the interview from hell.

An invitation from a possible client went all bad, pitting my good manners against her dizzy headed inability to recognize my name and what I was there for.

It all started with a call from Christy at Condos.ca. Christy had found my resume online, and was excited to see that I had graduated from college with a Journalism diploma. “What about your experience with the PMAC?” she asked, so I explained to her my professional experience with the PMAC.

“That’s great,” she said, and promptly booked me in for a nine-fifteen interview the next morning.

Usually, I don’t do a whole lot to get ready for an interview; except for the usual of course. So I researched their website, checked out their position in the market and all was good. I got to bed plenty early enough and I turned the t-v off when it was time.

Morning came, though admittedly much early than I was used to, so I sluggishly got ready for my appointment. The office was not far from my house, so I took liberty in that and left early. Much to my annoyance and dismay, the street car was having technical difficulties, which landed me just far away enough from my destination that I had to take a cab to get there, or risk being late. I am never late, so I jumped in a cab.

The cab ride was slightly embarrassing. It took about ten minutes to get to my destination. The cabby got a good deal; I gave him a tenner for a five dollar ride, but still, I was at my destination and I made it on time.

As I climbed the starts to the second floor I thought to myself “self, this wouldn’t be a bad place to work,” and I was being truthful. The décor was loft-office style, very high ceilings and very roomy. When I got to the front desk, I was directed to a meeting room where I was to wait for Christy.

Five minute or so later, Christy showed up.  

“Good morning Darren, thank you for coming in,” she said as she brushed her long chestnut hair away from her face. “Good morning,” I said, anxious to hear about the job she had spoken to me on the phone about less than 24 hours earlier.

“Well, let me tell you about  the job,” she said.

“I would love to hear it,” I said, brimming with sunshine and unicorns, thinking that I was finally meeting my destiny as a trained and skilled journalist. 

“Well it would be a lot of tedious work, working from templates writing condo descriptions for our site,” she said, and vied to get a co-worker in to help her with the job description.

“You see,” he said, “this job is mostly inputting data into excel spread sheets – that’s what you would be doing for the major part of the day. The writing is secondary.”

I’m sure at that point the disappointment was written on my face. The unicorns that I was fondly playing with earlier were now kicking me in the head repeatedly. Both Christy and her co-worker asked almost in unison how I was with Excel spreadsheets. I said I was intermediate with that program. I didn’t want the job anymore.

“So maybe we can call you if we need a freelance writer,” said Christy. And I should have said, “Well thanks for wasting my time you dumb bitch” but I didn’t. It’s the nice guy that’s built into me via my Cape Breton roots.

So here’s a word to the wise.  

Before you spend money cleaning your suit, before you spend time researching the company, before you spend money on transit, before you spend money on cabs, make sure the job you’re getting ready to interview for is the same job you were called for by the employer.

(Sidebar) Some Things To Request From the Employer Before The Interview  

1. A detailed job description with a job title.
2. An email confirming the interview place, time and date.
3.  A ball park figure of your possible salary.
4. Ask how soon the role is to be filled.
5. Listen to what the speaker says.
6. Watch and listen carefully for the “I” word. Nothing can take the sales out of a good proposition like the word Internship.
7. Watch out for “weekly pay”. Ask what this means right off the bat.
8. Watch out for the bargain hunters – 5 different jobs wrapped tightly into one description.
9. Blocked telephone numbers.
10. Company web sites that lead to nowhere in particular.
11. Companies that need staff for “new locations” that have “just been opened”.
12.  Companies that need staff with a “sense of humor”.

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Construction Girl with Renee Desjardins

Toronto, ON -To quote Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, every crane occupying the skyline of Toronto represents one-thousand jobs.

Whether or not those numbers actually add up is a fact yet to be seen, but there’s no debating Toronto is experiencing a construction boom; for better or for worse Hogtown is booming and people are making the best of it, some making inroads to careers that are typically occupied by men.

“My name is Renee Desjardins and I am Construction Girl.” Renee Desjardins didn’t always have her head in the clouds like those ominous cranes we see. At one point in her life she saw herself in a different kind of creative pursuit.

“When I was a little girl,” says Desjardins, “ I dreamt of being a writer; I use to write stories and re-write t-v theme songs”

Now in adulthood, Desjardins finds herself in a completely different line of work. “The company I’m currently working for is Tucker High Rise Construction.” Despite the fact that hers is a non-traditional role for a female, Desjardins says she has experienced some very positive feedback on the worksite.

“I’ve established a very mentor like relations ship with my site superintendent and my site VP; they’re pushing me towards getting out on the site and towards education.”

And there’s no doubt about it, Desjardins says that she is “one to watch,” stating that Tucker High Rise has invested in her career to ensure she moves forward, both in terms of time spent with her and her time on site. And Desjardins says getting where you want to be in construction is “no accident.”

“Tucker High Rise has made it incredibly clear that they are willing to invest in me both in terms of time spent with me as well as my educational pursuits – they’re very encouraging, pushing me towards education and getting on site more.”

Desjardins highlights that it’s never easy to get ahead for anyone, but particularly for women in construction. Desjardins says you have to be tenacious, you have to push, you have to be somewhat aggressive to get to where you need to be; you can’t be a wallflower, you have to ask for what you need and want and just go for broke.”

Desjardins went on to say that on her worksite, there are well over 200 men working in the trades compared to a mere handful of women.

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