So in my earlier post, and inaugural post on this theme, I discussed how I designed this theme with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) playing a big part in the coding portion of it. Well I thought I would share some of my SEO secrets and tricks of the trade with you all in the hopes that it helps you out. As I’m sure you’re well aware, Search Engine Optimization is the driving force behind and a vital component of any website. In this post, I want to share with you the 10 steps I take and rules I stand by in designing web pages for SEO.

Rule One: Keywords Keywords Keywords

Pick very targeted and effective keywords that describe your website and business/service efficiently. Use them, and words that are related often, but only when it is natural to do so. Don’t force keywords into situations for the sake of placing them, because 9 times out of 10, it will appear like you did so intentionally. Repeating keywords uselessly is not good. Instead, uses them in your sentences, headers and links.

Rule Two: Content is King

You may have heard this a million times, but I can’t stress it enough: users don’t search the web for neat website designs; they search for content. If your site doesn’t have the content people want, no one will look at your site, and your rankings won’t improve.

Rule Three: Organized and Clean Code is Searchable Code

Remember all of those times growing up when your mom yelled at you for not cleaning up for yourself? Well, in this instance, she was right. If you have trouble coding cleanly and efficiently, build your sites instead in a text editor (such as Textmate), forcing yourself to write clean, readable code. The code that you write should follow the conceptual structure of the page – Navigation, then the H1 tag, then the Paragraph, etc. Use descriptive tags when possible: <ul> for lists, <p> for paragraphs, <h> tags for headers and <strong> for Bold text. Don’t overuse the <div> tag because eventually you will confuse yourself. But don’t panic; your site can still can artsy and cool as that’s what CSS is for.

Rule Four: Home is Where the Heart Is

Your home page is the key to your site being found by search engines. It needs to summarize the entire site, provide a clear and compelling reason for a user to look at the other pages in the site. However, do to the overwhelming growth of blogs and specialty websites, more and more users that are coming to your website are entering through pages other than your homepage. Make sure these pages carry navigational and content structures consistent with your homepage.

Rule Five: Links Are Really Important

Search Engines really like links on your site. In fact, they pay a ton of attention to the links and the quality of these links. They also look at the words used in the links. Try to stay away from the link text saying “click here” or “see more…” as your link. Instead, describe where the link will take the user. An example for a link to this blog post could be “learn how to develop your site to be optimized in search engines.”

Also, the more relevant the links are on a page, the more findable the page becomes by search engines. Don’t go overboard with links or link to anything irrelevant as that will negatively impact your rankings. If your page is focused on minimalist web design, a link to the Design MeltDown page on minimalism will boost your SEO; A link to a hilarious picture of a cat will not.

Rule Six: Title Tags Are Winners

Every page in your site should have a title on it with the site name, as well as a short description of the page. The title should be no more than 60 characters. Include a keyword in your title, because that the page title is what appears in search results, therefore it should give users a clear reason to click on it.

A trick to really boost your SEO is to include title attributes in your links that match the titles of the pages to which they are linking. This looks like <a title=”name of page” href=”link”>. It’s a small thing, but it will give you a significant SEO improvement.

Rule Seven: Alt Tags Really Do Matter

Every image on your site should have an alt tag, especially images that are relevant to the page. If your page is focused on CSS tricks, labelling a screenshot “example of rounded CSS corners” will improve your page’s findability. Labeling it “screenshot” or “image” will do the opposite.

Rule Eight: Ignore Most Meta Tags

A long time ago meta tags were the secret to SEO. Those days are gone. The only meta tag that really matters now is the description tag. Search engines may use it to provide the text under the link to your page in their results. Take this into account, and make sure it describes the page in a way that explains why a user searching for your content would want to look at your page.

Rule Nine: Give the Search Engines Some Directions

Nowadays, how often do you pass a car on the highway and see the passenger frantically reading a map that covers the entire windshield. Those days are gone. Now, everyone has a GPS. Same concept, new technology. Well the search engines still like the old-fashioned way; a site map. Moral of the story, make sure you have one. It is a simple XML file that holds the hand of the search engines and walks them through your website. Make one, and submit it to Google.

Rule Ten: In the End, Design for Humans

Even though we technically want our emphasis in designing a website to be so that it is optimized to its’ full capabilities, in the end we need to design for humans. Search engines are designed to find what humans want. That means the best way to make your site findable is to design it for humans. Your job as a designer is to solve a problem, not make art, prove a point, serve your ego or break a boundary. In this case, your problem is to provide your users with a site that is easy to use and full of what they’re looking for. If you can do that, the search engines will find you.

For further reading we recommend this SEO Guide for Designers.

Do you have any other tips for SEO Design? If so, we’d love to hear them from you. Drop a comment below.