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SEO's Relationship With Website Architecture
by Daria Goetsch, Search Innovation Marketing ©Copyright 2004

Search engine optimization for today's search engine robots
requires that sites be well-designed and easy-to-navigate.
To a great degree, organic search engine optimization is
simply an extension of best practices in web page design.
SEO's relationship with web design is a natural one. By
making sites simple and easily accessible, you are providing
the easiest path for the search engine robots to index your
site, at the same time that you are creating the optimum
experience for your human visitors.

This approach ties well into the notion of long-term search
engine marketing success. Rather than trying to "psych out"
the ever-changing search engine algorithms, build pages that
have good text and good links. No matter what the search
engines are looking for this month or next, they will always
reward good content and simple navigation.

Search Engine Robots
Search engine robots are automated programs that go out on
the World Wide Web and visit web pages. They read the text
on a page and click through links in order to travel from
page to page. What this really means is that they "read" or
collect information from the source code of each page.
Depending on the search engine, the robots typically pick up
the title and meta description. The robots then go on to the
body text of the page in the source code. They also pay
attention to certain tags such as headings and alt text.
Search engine robots have capabilities like first-generation
browsers at best: no scripting, no frames, no Flash. When
designing, think simple.

Search Engine Friendly Design
Creating search engine friendly design is relatively easy.
Cut out all the bells and whistles and stick to simple
architecture. Search engine robots "understand" text on the
page and hyperlinks, especially text links. The relationship
of SEO and web design makes sense when you start with good
design techniques for your visitor. The easier the
navigation and the more text on the page, the better it is
not only for the visitor but also for the search engine
robots.

Obstacles For Indexing Web Pages
Search engine robots cannot "choose" from drop down lists,
click a submit button, or follow JavaScript links like a
human visitor. In addition, the extra code necessary to
script your pages or create those lists can trip-up the
search engine robots while they index your web page. The
long JavaScript in your source code means the search engine
robots must go through all this code to finally reach the
text that will appear on your page. Offload your JavaScript
and CSS code for quicker access to your source code by the
search engine robots, and faster loading time for your
online visitors. Some search engine robots have difficulty
with dynamically-generated pages, especially those with URLs
that contain long querystrings. Some search engines, such as
Google, index a portion of dynamically generated pages, but
not all search engines do. Frames cause problems with
indexing and are generally best left out of design for
optimum indexing. Web pages built entirely in Flash can
present another set of problems for indexing.

Depth Of Directories
Search engine robots may have difficulty reaching deeper
pages in a website. Aim to keep your most important pages no
more than one or two "clicks" away from your home page. Keep
your pages closer to the root instead of in deeply-nested
subdirectories. In this way you will be assured the optimum
indexing of your web pages. Just as your website visitor may
become lost and frustrated in too many clicks away from your
homepage, the robots may also give up after multiple clicks
away from the root of your site.

Solutions And Helpful Techniques
If there are so many problems with indexing, how will you
ever make it work?

The use of static pages is the easiest way to ensure you
will be indexed by the search engine robots. If you must use
dynamically-generated pages, there are techniques you can
use to improve the chances of their being indexed. Use your
web server's rewrite capabilities to create simple URLs from
complex ones. Use fixed landing pages including real
content, which in turn will list the links to your dynamic
pages. If you must use querystrings in your page addresses,
make them as short as possible, and avoid the use of
"session id" values.

When using Flash to dress up your pages, use a portion of
Flash for an important message, but avoid building entire
pages using that technology. Make sure that the search
engine robots can look at all of the important text content
on your pages. You want your message to get across to your
human visitor as well. Give them enough information about
your product to interest them in going the next step and
purchasing your product.

If you must use frames, be sure to optimize the "no frames"
section of your pages. Robots can't index framed pages, so
they rely on the no frames text to understand what your site
is about. Include JavaScript code to reload the pages as
needed in the search engine results page.

Got imagemaps and mouseover links? Make sure your pages
include text links that duplicate those images, and always
include a link back to your homepage.

Use a sitemap to present all your web pages to the search
engine robots, especially your deeper pages. Make sure you
have hyperlink text links on your page, and a sentence or
two describing each page listed, using a few of your keyword
phrases in the text.

Remember that the search engine robots "read" the text on
your web page. The more that your content is on-topic and
includes a reasonable amount of keyword-rich text, the more
the search engine robot will "understand" what the page is
about. This information is then taken back to the search
engine database to eventually become part of the data you
see in the search engine results.

Last of all, it is very important to test your pages for
validation. Errors from programming code and malformed html
can keep the search engine robots from indexing your web
pages. Keep your coding clean.

Check List For Success
   Include plenty of good content in text on your web pages
   Incorporate easy to follow text navigation
   Serve up dynamically generated pages as simply as possible
   Offload JavaScript and other non-text code (style sheets,
   etc.) to external files
   Add a sitemap for optimum indexing of pages
   Validate your pages using the World Wide Web Consortium's
   validation tool, or other html validator

On Your Way To Indexed Pages
The best way to assure that your pages will be indexed is to
keep them simple. This type of architecture not only helps
the search engine robots, but makes it easier for your
website visitors to move throughout your site. Don't forget
to provide plenty of good content on your pages. The search
engine robots and your visitors will reward you with return
visits.

Resources
To learn more about how to work around optimization problems
with JavaScript, dynamically-generated pages, Frames and
Flash, read the following articles:

Optimizing Pages with JavaScript and Style Sheets for Search Engines
http://www.searchinnovation.com/optimizing-pages-with-javascript.asp

Optimizing Dynamic Pages (Part I)
http://www.searchinnovation.com/optimize-dynamic-pages-1.asp

Optimizing Dynamic Pages (Part II)
http://www.searchinnovation.com/optimize-dynamic-pages-2.asp

Optimizing Frames for Search Engines
http://www.searchinnovation.com/optimizing-frames-for-search-engines.asp

Html validation tool
http://validator.w3.org/

Stylesheet validation tool
http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/


Copyright © 2002-2004 Search Innovation Marketing.
http://www.searchinnovation.com All Rights Reserved.

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Daria Goetsch is the founder and Search Engine Marketing 
Consultant for Search Innovation Marketing
(http://www.searchinnovation.com), a Search Engine Promotion
company serving small businesses. She has specialized in search 
engine optimization since 1998, including three years as the 
Search Engine Specialist for O'Reilly & Associates, a technical 
book publishing company.
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