Many believe that websites that are search engine optimized sacrifice usability and quality for the sake of getting a higher page ranking. However, this need not be the case. Many SEO techniques can make your website more user friendly while generating more traffic at the same time. In the first part of a two part article we look at how you can combine SEO with building a great website.
On the internet, content is king. If you can provide good content that people like you will attract and keep visitors, and even encourage other website owners to publish links to your website. This will boost your popularity among the search engines.
Before you start building your website you should carefully research you keywords. Yes, these are essential for SEO but can also improve the usability of your website by clearly communicating the purpose and benefits of your website to users. If you sell cheap airline tickets, then the phrase 'cheap airline tickets' in the title, the headline and the first paragraph of your content will let users know they have come to the right place.
However, do not stuff your content with keywords and key phrases to the point that the quality of the content suffers. This will only serve to drive away visitors to your website. As we said, content is king. A few carefully chosen keywords cleverly placed in your content should be enough.
SEO is a balancing act. When you design a web page you want to deliver the best user experience possible while keeping it user and search engine friendly. While large images, flash animations and audio can all add to the quality of the user's experience, they can also increase download time. Also, search engines tend not to like very large pages so do not over do it in features that are high on memory.
It is best, perhaps, to consider using high quality written content to boost your search engine page ranking, and good, informative articles are always popular with users. In general, try to keep your articles to at least 200 words, although it is best to aim for the 500 word mark. If you can write a good, catchy intro, your readers will have no problem scrolling down to read more. Search engines will usually favor pages with a good amount of written content.
When planning your website, try to think of good ideas for articles that will genuinely entertain and/or inform your users. Sticking with the cheap airlines idea, popular articles might include: 'What you can and can't take in your luggage' or 'How to find bargain flights on the web'. These are popular topics that can only help your SEO.
In part two of this article we will look at more ways to use SEO to improve the quality and usability of your website.
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