I wrote one very short post about web site design tips before, so I figured I’d write a little more. I’m going to continually complain about writing on Friday, because it just feels impossible sometimes.
So you’re designing your website yourself. You throw some images on, you do some colors, you think it looks real spiffy. You post it online, thinking this is the best you can do, and it looks great. You’re not a professional, but this is still good.
I hate to say it, but I run across this all the time. People are always designing their own sites, because they can’t afford to pay a designer. I can understand this, but remember, thousands (if you’re lucky) of people are seeing your website each day. Is it costing you sales because your website’s not up to snuff? If you designed it yourself, it just may be doing that.
Logo
When the coffee’s gone, what do you do? You go buy more, of course. Everyone’s got a favorite brand, and you know it by the name and by the logo, whether you think about it or not. Your logo speaks the same for you. People identify with it. Everyone can recognize the Apple or Chevrolet logos. People who come to your site should recognize yours too. So look at your logo, look right now. Is it memorable? Is it memorable for a good reason? Does it look good? Does it relate to your business? Is it unique? If you have any doubts, then your logo isn’t good enough. Brand recognition, starts with the brand, the logo.
Tags
This is more of an SEO issue, but when your website is designed and coded, these things need to be taken care of. Do you image tags have an alt declaration? They should; alt declarations provide a better description of the image, and give a place to put major keywords. Don’t overdo it though. Do you have a title tag? Again, you should. This is what identifies your page, distinguishes it from all your other pages. Keep it short, but make sure it’s there and it concisely describes your page. Are you using header tags such as h1, h2, h3, etc.? From an SEO standpoint, these tell the SEs that those keywords are important to your page. They should be used to show different sections of the page, the important ones.
Javascript and CSS
This is one of my pet peeves: do you have <script> or <style> inside your <head> tag? Why is it there? With the advent of included files, you can/should keep your CSS and Javascript in separate files. This cuts down on code length, and brings your actual page’s code higher up, making it more relevant to the engines and given the SEs less code to sort through. Javascript is great to use for dynamic sites, you can do all sorts of cool things with it. But it’s not SEO friendly. The search engines can’t replicate the effects of Javascript because they can’t run Javascript. The same goes for flash. You might have a great flash index page that looks awesome, but if you’re looking for SEO, there’s nothing that can be done, unless you get rid of the flash and do a new site. CSS, on the other hand, is great all around. It doesn’t help or hurt SEO, and it makes everything look all pretty.
Ok, so this wasn’t just design tips, I through in some minor SEO hints. But hey, I can’t give away the farm, so there are only so many tips I can share with you folks. Hope this helps nonetheless.
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