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Is Your Website Search Engine Friendly? Your Personal Checklist
By Ross Dunn, CEO, StepForth Search Engine Placement Inc. (c) 2006

When I sit down with new clients and discuss the status of
their new or existing site they are often shocked when I am
forced to inform them that their site is not search engine
friendly. Encountered with a blank but slightly shaken look I
then explain that this means their site has a particular problem
that is hindering search engine rankings. Often this is
represented by an inflexible design, overuse of advanced web
technologies, or simply a weak navigation scheme. As a result,
if they were to continue with the site as it stands they are
unlikely to attain competitive search engine rankings.

The following is checklist designed to help you gauge the search
engine friendliness of your website and, if you are in the midst
of planning a website this checklist will help you avoid the
common pitfalls of unfriendly designs.

Technologies
First consider what technologies your website is using. There
are certain technologies that require a little more hand holding
than others to ensure search engine compatibility.

   1. FRAMES
   Lets start with this oldie. Luckily, frames are becoming a
   way of the past what with the use of DIV layers and the slow
   onset of incredibly flexible AJAX coding. The long and the
   short of it is that if you have Frames on your website then
   you are starting off at a disadvantaged position that cannot
   be truly search engine friendly no matter what you do. There
   are, however, some remedial fixes that will tie you over
   until you can redesign your site; yes I said redesign. The
   fix that I recommend is to use a noframes tag whereby you
   place another version of your web page inside of your framed
   page. This 'backup' page is what the search engines will
   view; here you can place relevant content and navigational
   elements so that the search engines can at least navigate
   portions of your site that are (hopefully) not framed.

   More info on the no frames tags
   (http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/present/frames.html).

   2. FLASH
   There was a big brouhaha that Flash had become search engine
   indexable and you no longer had to worry about its search
   engine issues. Frankly, I have not seen the fruits of this
   'improvement' to a respectable degree yet so I still consider
   it a kiss of death for websites designed solely in Flash. If
   you have a Flash-only website then I recommend one of these
   two options; one is to design an html version of your website
   and make the home page of your website html rather than Flash
   where you can then allow users to choose between html or
   Flash. The second option is to redesign the site so that it
   mixes both html and flash together. For example, this might
   mean implementing Flash amidst content on an HTML page as you
   would an image. I realize there are certain limitations to
   this option but if you can create a slick site in this manner
   then you will have the best of both worlds; clean search
   engine friendly content along with an interactive, multimedia
   feel. Just remember that the majority of relevant text should
   be in HTML format for the search engines to index.

   3. Search Engine 'Unfriendly' Dynamic URL's
   Unfriendly dynamic URL’s are a common side effect of using a
   Content Management System that is not designed with search
   engine rankings kept in mind. Here are some examples of some
   unfriendly URL’s:

   Sample 1:

   http://www.mydomain.com/myproducts.php&354=prod333&subproduct

   Sample 2:
   http://www.surfboardsforyou.com/boards/

filename.php?id=F98ZF4&productId=39222§ion=wicked&brand=582&template=532

   These URLs are problematic because a search engine may
   consider these addresses too complex to spider. Why too
   complex? Suffice it to say that the more complex the URL,
   the higher the chance that a search engine robot will consider
   the content too dynamic to read; it changes too often to be
   valuable to a search engine.

   The way around these types of URLs is actually not so
   difficult; it may only require a small investment of time and
   money. The 'time' will be required when researching which URL
   fix is right for your system. The money may be required to pay
   a programmer to implement and test the new URLs. Here are how
   the URLs might look once they are fixed to be search engine
   friendly:

    Sample 1 Fixed:
    http://www.mydomain.com/myproducts/354/prod333/subproduct/


    Sample 2 Fixed:
    http://www.surfboardsforyou.com/boards/wickedboards/39222/
    board532/

   These URLs are better because they do not include the
   extraneous characters that are so telltale on dynamic
   websites. In addition, the URLs are designed to appear like
   normal website directories when in fact they are dynamic URLs.

   Important: it is vital that you minimize the length of the
   URLs that you use. Search engines may stop crawling a website
   if there appear to be too many subdirectories. The samples
   above show fixed URLs that have about as many subdirectories
   as I would allow (4).

Design
This section focuses on the overall layout and usability of your
designs from the perspective of a search engine robot. Search
engine friendly design is occasionally quite complex so I have
provided a list of the most common issues to consider.

   1. Menus
   Are the menus on your website spiderable? If not you may be
   hiding major areas of your website from search engine spiders
   and missing out on additional search engine rankings.

   The fact is there are very few menus out there that a search
   engine will have a problem following, but there are definitely
   some worth avoiding. For instance do not use a JavaScript Jump
   Menu (example - http://www.doit.wisc.edu/accessibility/
   online-course/standards/jumpmenu.htm) as the core mode of
   navigation of your website; search engines cannot index this
   type of menu. Also be careful of Flash menus, they look slick
   but they will impede the progress of a search engine spider
   especially if they are the only means of navigation within
   your site.

   General Menu Rules
   The ideal menu would be text based and each text link would
   include the keywords you are targeting on the destination
   page. Setting up a menu with this much forethought requires
   that you determine the layout and content for your site
   before web design begins. Once you have a clear picture of
   the content for each page you can then research the keywords
   that are best to target per webpage. This essential keyword
   research can be done in house easily enough using systems-like
   keyword research tools (http://news.stepforth.com/tools/)
   that provide you with a glimpse into how your customers think
   by showing how many searches there are per month (or year)
   for a particular term.

   Remember, almost every page within your site has a very real
   opportunity to gain a top ranking; all you need to do is
   ensure that the design, content and site structure is
   optimized. Ensuring that the menu is carefully thought out
   and designed is a crucial step for top rankings.

   Finally, if you are at all uncertain whether your menu is
   search engine friendly then be certain to back it up with a
   text menu in the footer of your page using the same keyword
   targeting principles noted above.

   Tech Advice: a simple text menu may be less than desirable
   for you; in this case I recommend DHTML menus
   (http://www.smartmenus.org/). These menus use text but in a
   manner that is quite appealing and very search engine
   friendly.

   2. Sitemaps
   Sitemaps can dramatically help the visibility of your website
   by allowing search engine spiders easy access to all of the
   pages in your site. Place a link to the sitemap on every page
   within your site to ensure easy access no matter where a
   search engine or user enters your site.

   Sitemap Tips
   Just having a sitemap will help but how you build your
   sitemap will also play a role in how well the search engines
   catalogue it. For example, if you have a twenty-page website
   it would be ideal to create a sitemap where each page is
   represented by a title along with a short description.
   Ultimately, the page may be a bit long but it will have
   content that the search engines like to index and it will
   boost the relevance of the linked pages because the titles
   will accurately represent the content. So in effect, you will
   now have more than just a sitemap; you will have a table of
   contents for your site that has the potential of getting a
   ranking and provides an extra boost to the ranking worthiness
   of each page.

   Google Sitemap
   Google Sitemap is an additional design element that you
   should consider adding. Here is an article Scott Van Achte
   wrote on how to implement your own Google Sitemap
   (http://news.stepforth.com/2006-news/Google-XML-Sitemaps.shtml).

   3. Layout
   How you layout your page can make a significant difference
   in how well your site ranks and ultimately how search engine
   friendly it is.

   Tips for Layout
   Search engine robots read a webpage from the top of the
   source code (the programming that made your page – see "view
   source" in your browser) all the way to the bottom. As a
   result, it is important to ensure that both of the following
   elements are found as close to the beginning of code as
   possible:

   A) A short sentence introducing the topic using the keyword
   targets you have chosen for the page.
   B) Your text menu and other navigational aids, or if this is
   not possible it would be even more beneficial to start with a
   paragraph or two of relevant content followed by the
   navigation.

   By placing this information near to the top of the page, you
   will promptly present the search engine robot with relevant
   text that backs up the page title and backlinks. You will
   also provide an immediate sitemap of sorts for the search
   engine to spider, which includes keywords relevant to each
   page.

   4. Splash Pages – ACK!
   With the odd exception Splash Pages are a kiss of death for
   a website because the home page (the first page seen when
   someone visits your domain), your most important page, is
   often converted into nothing but an excess entry point with
   little or no relevant content on it. Aside from reducing your
   chances for ranking, you are also making your visitors take
   another step to get to content or sales material in your site.
   Any additional steps you add will lessen the likelihood of a
   successful sale.

   Please Let Me Change Your Mind
   If you think you need to use a splash page then you need to
   talk to someone who will change your mind. No, honestly, give
   me a call if you want because there is nothing more painful
   to a SEO or search engine friendly web designer than to see a
   Splash Page in use. If, in the unlikely scenario your splash
   page is required, there are ways to make it slightly more
   search engine friendly.

   1. Add a highly relevant and well-worded paragraph to the
   page so that the search engines have something to index that
   shows them they are in the right place.
   2. Either provide a link to your sitemap or implement a text
   menu in the footer of the page so the search engines can
   access the internal workings of your website without having
   to take an extra step.

In Summary
Creating a search engine friendly website requires a basic to
advanced understanding of how a search engine works, depending
on the complexity of the planned website. Complexity aside, the
notes above provide a good basis for you to evaluate the
friendliness of your website and make changes where necessary.
If you have questions regarding your website, you can call me
toll-free at 1-877-385-5526 (within North America) or email me
(ross@stepforth.com) and I will do my best to help or I will
direct you to someone who can.
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Ross Dunn is the founder and CEO of StepForth Search Engine
Placement Inc. (http://www.stepforth.com/) Based in Victoria,
BC, Canada, StepForth has provided professional search engine
placement and management services since 1997. Ross is a search
engine optimization and placement expert with over 9 years of
marketing experience and is a Certified Internet Marketing and
Business Strategist (CIMBS).  Blending his experience in the art
of web design and search engine optimization, Ross offers a
unique and informed perspective on obtaining top search engine
placements. Ross can be reached at ross@stepforth.com
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