This document provides 10 SEO tips for web developers and designers, including keeping websites flat with content within 4 clicks of the homepage, using keyword-rich and static URLs without file extensions, adding semantic HTML tags like <title> and <h1-h2> with descriptive text, avoiding duplicate content through 301 redirects and canonical tags, using appropriate meta directives and HTTP status codes, including XML sitemaps to improve indexing, and providing sufficient on-page text content.

1. 10 SEO Tips Web Developers & Designers Should Know Daniel Bianchini Senior SEO Consultant @danielbianchini

2. Site Architecture

3. Keep website as flat as possible. Keep ALL content within a maximum of 4 clicks from the homepage. Ensure cross linking between pages. Benefits Improved indexing Improved Page & Domain Authority (PageRank) Improves long tail keywords and phrases. Site Architecture http://twitter.com/ danielbianchini

4. URLs, Files & Folder Naming Conventions

5. URLs Keyword rich. Static. Remove file extension. Hyphen not underscore. Lowercase. URL length. Bad URL: www.example.com/index.php?category=2&page=tents&sortBy=price Good URL: www.example.com/camping/tents/ URL Structure http://twitter.com/ danielbianchini

6. Files & Folders Keyword Rich. Relevant. Concise. Images Descriptive filenames. Keyword rich filenames. JPEG or PNG. Well optimised Images can help improve visibility within the Image Search results. Files, Image & Folder Naming Conventions http://twitter.com/ danielbianchini

7. Semantic HTML

8. Using W3C compliant code is not an SEO must have, but validated code makes crawling the site easier. HTML tags & attributes you should have. <title> - Essential. <Meta Description> - CTR, limited SEO benefit. <h1 > - 1 Per Page, primary keywords. <h2> - Secondary keywords. <a title=“”> <img alt=“”> - Descriptive & keyword rich. Use CSS for Layout. Remove ALL CSS & JS to minimise number of external files. Semantic HTML http://twitter.com/ danielbianchini

9. Duplicate Content

10. URL Parameters www.example.com/jackets.html?colour=red Printer friendly pages www.example.com/print/jackets.html Session IDs www.example.com/jackets.html?sid=123 Solutions 301 redirects. Rel=“canonical”. Parameter handling in GWT. Duplicate Content Issues http://twitter.com/ danielbianchini

11. Decide on www. Vs non-www ; make sure one is 301 redirected to the other: oxondigital.co.uk  www.oxondigital.co.uk www.oxondigital.co.uk  oxondigital.co.uk Canonicalise URLs by removing file extension. www.oxondigital.co.uk/index.html --> www.oxondigital.co.uk www.oxondigital.co.uk/events.html --> www.oxondigital.co.uk/events Link to canonicalised URL throughout the website. Canonical Issues http://twitter.com/ danielbianchini

12. Rel=“canonical” <link rel=&quot;canonical&quot; href=&quot;http://www.example.com/jackets/&quot; /> <meta name=“robots” content=“index, nofollow”> Index page, don’t follow the links. <meta name=“robots” content=“noindex, follow”> Don’t index the page, follow the links. To remove duplicate content but allow the search engine to follow the links. <meta name=“robots” content=“noindex, nofollow”> Don’t index, don’t follow links. Used for print pages. Meta Directives http://twitter.com/ danielbianchini

13. HTTP Status Code

14. 301 Redirects - permanent redirect. Use for everything – expired pages, deleted content, canonicalised URLs, etc. 90% SEO benefit passed. 302 Redirects - temporary redirect. No SEO benefit passed. 404 Page – error page. Always use 404 pages for errors & not standard website pages. Do not automatically 302 redirect an error page to homepage. Customise the 404 page to make it user friendly. HTTP Status http://twitter.com/ danielbianchini

15. Sitemaps

16. Benefits Helps improve site indexation & speed of indexing. Webmaster controls the pages in the sitemap. XML Sitemap 50,000 URLs. Use sitemap Index for large websites. HTML Sitemap 100 links per page. +100 links split by category – e.g. ecommerce. Link from every page to help speed up indexation. Sitemaps http://twitter.com/ danielbianchini

17. Do not embed content in images. Do not make core pages image based. Provide room for HTML text on every page. Minimum of 350 words per page. Allow ability to create landing pages. Provide UGC ability. Customer Reviews. Forums. Content http://twitter.com/ danielbianchini

18. Daniel Bianchini http://www.oxondigital.co.uk http://twitter.com/danielbianchini http://twitter.com/oxondigital Thank You

19. HTML & H Tags - http://www.demonslounge.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/matrix_17.jpg Site Architecture - http://christine.americasfoundation.net/construction/West%20Elevation%20Colegio%20La%20Esperanza%20High%20School.jpg File & Folder Names - http://drdeclutterblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/pile-of-folders-proj-1.JPG Duplicate Content - http://www.flickr.com/photos/emilley/3796489073/ Content - http://brogdencastle.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/king_john-11.jpg Image Credits