SEO Marketing

Web Site Design – Half Art, Half Science

"I am an artist," the man proudly proclaimed. "I don't care," the critic proudly responded. "The frame is too large, the colors are dark and it will not match my furniture," the critic further explained.

Many times web developers experience a similar scorn but not always from humans. A site has been designed with an interface that pops with beautiful GIFs and JPEGs, dazzles with Flash and functions like a charm with JavaScript. The search engines do not care. The content, the keywords and the tags do not correspond with the criteria of the search engines. Therefore, the beautiful web site is simply ignored.

It is a struggle between art and science that frustrates many. The responsibilities of web developing -- the art -- clash with the role of the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) -- the science.

Some web companies have two separate departments, the Web Design and the SEO handled by separate specialists. Many smaller web developers are not even aware of the SEO side of web site development. Or if they are, only understand a very small percentage of it.

At IMS-21 we are marketers first and foremost and as such we appreciate both aspects of web development. Below are a few of the “tricks” we use in your web site design…

Content
Optimization is about solid text. Search engines are predominately text driven but there are still some basic HTML tags to keep in mind (i.e., h1, h2, meta tags, title tag). Keep in mind, even the best SEO helps improve search engine results, it does not guarantee top ratings.

Patience and realistic goals are important. Search engines have to crawl a site to determine what a site is about. This takes time, usually 4 to 6 weeks, before crawls and indexing are completed by the various search engine spiders.

In the Beginning
When we develop a web site we take time to think (a lot) about the purpose of the website. We write down a lot of text in a word document. Then we edit and edit some more, we get some feedback and we are sure to sprinkle in the proper amount of keywords and keyphrases that identify the unique quality of your website.

Keywords and Keyphrases
Keywords used to be easy. Those days are gone. Keywords are highly competitive. A keyword phrase (keyphrase) helps identify the uniqueness of a website.

The keyphrase "card game" will generate about 50 million results. The keyword "game" will generate about 1 billion(!) results. That is a difference of about 20 times or 950 million. The keyphrase "magic card game" will generate about four-million results. We spend the time to research and find the unique keyphrases that will work best for your USP (Unique Selling Point) and will get you noticed.

Keyword Density
The density formula is D = WC/KC (D = density; WC = word count; KC = keyword count)
For major keywords target 3-7% density
For minor keywords target 1-2% density

Keyword density measures how relevant keywords are in a page. The formula density = word count divided by keyword count will provide a general idea of the density percentage. These are a few of the tricks we use when writing your text.

We will not participate in the unethical practice of keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing will get your site penalized and possibly banned from the search engines which is worse than doing no optimization at all.

Meta Tags
The meta tags are important although some will disagree. Meta tags have fallen out of favor because these tags used to be the magic solution to optimization. Not anymore. Keywords and content are more beneficial in getting a web site in top rankings. However, meta tags are still important. Meta tags are a part of the HTML and are used by most search engines to find a description of your website.

Therefore, we use the meta tags for description and keywords.

The keyword meta tag helps you keep track of the keywords and having these meta tags give a small boost to search engine ranking. While it is true that meta tags do not perform the magic they once did it is better to have the tags than to have none. Think of meta tags like vitamins. Vitamins are not necessary for being healthy but vitamins do provide a healthy boost.

Title Tag
We make sure you have a unique title tag for every page.

File Names
We will name your pages with search engine friendly file names!

Developing websites is fun. Optimization is work. Work we take very seriously!

Granted there is far more to optimization than the items addressed on this page but this gives you an idea of how we properly tackle web site development from both and artistic and scientific point of view.

Call us today to properly design your web site from the start and get the results you deserve!

More on Search Engine Marketing | Home Page | Internet Marketing