Donated services include:

• Custom web design
• Flash web design
• Web design and hosting
• Web maintenance
• Seo – search engine optimization

We look forward to continuing our work in the community to help organizations get the most from technology and the Internet.

If your business needs web design services, seo – search engine optimization, html email templates or web maintenance, please contact us today for a free evaluation and quote.

In recent years the most popular and most widely used search engine, Google has started providing multiple services in addition to its great search engine on the web. Some of the most commonly used Google tools are the Google Business Listing and Google Maps services. You may have noticed or used the Local Google Business Listings yourself when doing web searches for businesses in your local area or nearby for certain types of services.

They function much like the old Yellow Pages did decades ago and provide multiple listings for services that you search for in almost any area, region or city. Since Google began providing the Google Business Listing and Google Maps function, other search engines have picked up on the programming and also offer their version of this service. Coincidently, the business listings on Yahoo show up much like they do on Google. These types of mapping and business listings are completely separate from Organic SEO ranking, and getting your business listed in these spots is a bit more simple than Organic SEO as there are far less rules and regulations.

It is important for some businesses to include their website and information in the Google Local Business Listings because often consumers doing searches for things on the internet may only click on the Google Business Listing links. Of course, businesses without a website that are included on the Google Business Listings are not valued as highly. For example – say your competitor is listed on the Google Local Business Listings and their site and information comes up in this area for searches related to the competitive SEO Keywords that you’d like to see your site ranking for; your competitor is likely to get that lead. While you should not solely rely on coming up for searches of SEO Keywords related to your business in the Google Business Listing area, it is important to many clients and should be considered when you are thinking of SEO Web Design and getting web design quotes.

We get inquiries from time to time from clients that have confused the Google Business Listing with Organic SEO listings. Some want to know why their site is not listed in the Google Local Business Listings and others simply are just trying to get their site included in this area of Google searches. In order to have your site included on the Google Local Business Listings, you must simply add a Google Map to your site. The Google Maps Code is generated by setting up a Google Account, or if you already have a Google Account, navigating to the Google Maps area and adding your business’s address to the data. You must set up an account if you do not already have one, and you as the business owner must properly provide the business’s address and confirm it, typically by telephone. Unfortunately we cannot set up an account in Google Maps for you, but we are happy to walk you through these steps via email or a quick phone conversation. Google Maps will provide easy to understand steps and directions for this process. While it is not a requirement to have a website to be included in this area, it does contribute to increased visibility on the business listings.

Google does provide a few guidelines for adding your site and business information to the Google Local Business Listings, and it is helpful that you read these before trying to get listed in this part of Google. With that being said, it is important to note that we do not control the Google Business Listing section of Google for all searches that are being done. We have no control over whether or not Google allows you to place your business information here, and you must follow their easy steps in their entirety to include your business. In most cases, if you are not being included here but have added the business and Google Map to the website that you have linked the account to, it is by some mistake or omission during the sign up process. You either have not confirmed the site properly, or something was done in error in the submission process. There is absolutely no way that an SEO Web Design company can go into your Google Account and affect your placement in the Google Business Listing space of searches showing up. All individuals online can communicate addresses, phone numbers and incorrect information to Google, however all of this is communicated in information that is sent to your Google Account and must be confirmed by you. Google uses a variety of means to validate your information; if you are trying to “trick” your way into these listings, their advanced programming will recognize this, and it will pull your listing and communicate the reason to you. If you feel that your listing was pulled in error, you can email Google directly regarding this issue.

Typically, clients choose a domain name based on their business name, or some words related to the type of industry that their business is in. Domain names always start with “www.” and can end in a variety of ways including the most common .com, followed by .org (for nonprofits and other organizations), .gov (for government entities), .edu (schools and universities), and other endings including .biz, .net, and .tv. In order to get a domain name, one must first purchase and register the domain name that they want through a company that allows you to buy and register domain names. Domains can be registered and used for a year, two years and even up to ten years; however, it is important to make sure that your domain name is renewed before it is released back to the public, or—worse yet—to a domain name company that simply exists to buy up well ranked domains that have a high traffic volume. Companies with the aforementioned goal do exist; forget to renew your domain name and you will find out what happens!
There are several good companies who offer services that allow you to purchase and register domain names. Approachnet, a Florida web design company, is happy to buy and register a domain name for the website design you are interested in through the company that we have used for many years. If we purchase the domain name for you, you are the owner of the domain name. We list our contact information as the email on the account for the domain name to ensure that, when it is time for renewal, we will be notified. That way, we can renew the domain name in time to allow you to keep it. If you choose to use your own domain name company to purchase your domain name and keep the renewal registered for yourself, you will need to keep track of the renewal date and make sure you have properly renewed the domain name. If you allow Approachnet to keep track of this, you are still the owner and primary registrar of the domain name (which is important if you ever want to move your domain name or web hosting to another company); however, you will never need worry about losing your domain name, as we will keep it renewed properly.
In brainstorming for domain names, many clients find that the domain names they had their hearts set on are already taken. These are typically domain names that are the same as SEO keywords that people are searching for, as your domain name can play a miniscule part of SEO web design. Some have found that if you make your domain name a competitive keyword, you have a better chance of getting your site ranked for said keyword. However, since this piece this piece is so insignificant, we do not put much emphasis on making your website domain name a keyword related to terms for which you would like to rank. The most important thing to remember when brainstorming about domain names is you want the domain name to be short and easily remembered. That way, when potential leads and current clients are thinking of your business and company, they can easily remember the domain name associated with its website, and find it easily.
Once you have purchased and registered the domain name that you have chosen, the domain name must be hosted on a server if you wish to have a website. The host server is where the files that make up your website live, and the location to which any changes to your website need to be uploaded.

Approachnet is a Florida web design company and we host client domain names on our servers. Some of the companies that allow you to purchase and register domain names for a cheap price also provide domain name hosting. Keep in mind when trying to do anything with these types of companies that they are very large, international companies that could be harder to deal with than a smaller company such as Approachnet. In our experience, clients that host their domain names through these companies generally have much greater headaches than the clients that leave all of the technical elements regarding their domain name and Domain Name Hosting to our company. That being said, we do have clients who choose to host their domain name with a company of their choice, and they also take care of their renewals themselves. You must be very careful if you decide to take this route, and make sure that you are properly renewing your domain name at each designated period and paying the other company for website hosting.

Many folks who are just tuning into the HTML5 saga because of the battle between Adobe and Apple are surprised to learn that the push to create a fifth official version of the HTML specification began six years ago. And that’s just the first half of the story because the latest implementations, while nice, are far from standards. The HTML5 demos from Apple, for instance, are impressive, but they only run well on Safari.

That’s how slowly committees can work. The browser creators and other stakeholders have a big collection of ideas for improving the browser and the Web, and these are gradually coalescing into a fifth generation for the standard. But agreement takes time. Many of the new tags and JavaScript functions exist already as experiments on some of the browsers, but interoperability and standardization are still to come. That’s why the Flash groupies joke about HTML5 being a time machine to take you back to 2000.

While the jokes may sting and waiting for more general adoption is tiresome, it would be a mistake to simply ignore HTML5. There are not only powerful companies behind it, but there’s also the standard process of technological development. The software — both browsers and tools — tends to absorb all of the orbiting extras, incorporating them into the main standard.

HTML5 will change many aspects of life on the Web. It will not replace Flash or Shockwave: One glance at the games on Miniclip.com, such as Jet Ski Racer, shows how much ground the HTML5 committee must cover. But HTML5 will still remake the Web and enable basic Websites to do much more — from tracking our location to storing more of our data in the cloud. HTML5 tags will replace plug-ins for simpler jobs, at least some of the time, and it will open up advanced capabilities to a larger audience. It might even make the web more secure, more efficient, and more adaptable.

• What product/service do you provide? What is your business?
• Why are you planning to develop a web site?
• Do you currently have a web site, or is this your first web site?
• What is the goal of the project?
• What domain name would the client like to use? (.com, org. net etc?) What are two to three alternative domain names in case the first choice is already taken. Have they done a search to verify that the name is available?
• Are the client’s source materials in electronic form, and if so, does the designer need to handle file conversions? The designer may need to educate the client about how to submit materials in as consistent and compatible formats as possible. If necessary, the designer should provide the client with a variety of different options and be prepared to convert files if necessary.
• Does the web site require advanced functionality, such as database functionality (Microsoft SQL, mySQL, Access, Filemaker Pro, Oracle Server)? Does the site need to be coded in a special programming language such as Microsoft ASP, .NET, ASP.NET or PHP?
• Are there requirements for Ecommerce website design, such as the ability to process credit card transactions, development of Shopping Cart strategies, survey forms, advanced configurator sales selectors, online games and interactive demonstrations, online chat and message boards?
• What are your search engine placement expectations? Is search engine optimization (SEO) important to you?
• Is the web site to be hosted in-house or with another hosting provider? If in-house, the clients information services department should be included in the planned meetings.
• What is your target market? Who is the primary audience for the web site?
• What is your timeframe for developing your project?
• What will happen if your timeframe is not met?
• What are your future plans with the website?
• What is your budget?

Naturally, these questions need to be woven into a discussion, not an interrogation.  But, if you listen carefully and gently probe into any hesitation or inconsistency, you’ll be a lot closer to making sure that your new prospect becomes a client.

Approachnet is a Florida web design company that has been developing websites since 1998. Our passion has been to deliver unsurpassed value in high-end Internet and company web design services. We help our clients grow their businesses, attract new customers, enhance relationships, and communicate more effectively.

Sales people that have been around the block, claim your ability to close sales is directly related to the quality of your prospects. So, the first step to completing a sale is finding good qualified prospects – people who need your products or services you offer and are able to make purchases.

You will need to actively find prospects if you are selling services, such as accounting or web design, or if you are selling products from somewhere other than a retail location, such as direct sales. Even if you sell products from a retail location, you will still need to select the right location for your store so that good prospects find you. Location, location, location, right?

Here are some of the most popular prospecting methods.

Referrals from Satisfied Customers
Referrals from your satisfied customers are highly effective because you have an endorsement as an introduction. Also, research time is saved because the potential customer has already been identified as an interested, and most likely qualified, customer who can benefit from your product or service. Your behavior is now a reflection on the customer who referred you, so don’t let them down. Be sure to promptly follow up on any referrals from customers. And, thank them for their referrals.

Community Clubs/Organizations
Use your contacts from clubs and organizations to which you belong. If you are not active in community organizations, it may be a good idea to join some. It is a great way to meet prospects and get known within your community.

Small Business Networking Organizations
Consider joining tip clubs or networking groups formed for small business owners or sales people to share sales leads and ideas.

Trade Shows
Exhibit at trade shows attended by your target audience. Follow up on sales leads from the show. The purpose of trade shows, after all, is to bring interested purchasers together with sellers.

Contests
Hold a contest to gather the names of people who show interest in your products. For example, at a trade show booth ask visitors to drop a business card in a fish bowl for a chance to win a free product or service from your company. That way, you will get the names and addresses of prospects as well as an opportunity to showcase your product or service to the contest winner. Contests and prizes should be appropriate for your business, industry and target audience.

Purchase Mailing Lists
You can purchase mailing lists of all kinds and in many forms. Contact a list broker for more information. Look in the Yellow Pages or check with professional sales or marketing organizations for suggestions of good list brokers in your area.

Develop a Personal Mailing List
Develop your own mailing lists from sources such as the Yellow Pages, professional association directories or your website. Talk to your web designer about add this functionality to your website.

There are many other ways to identify prospects. This is a creative process so use your own ingenuity to come up with methods that work for you.

Once you’ve identified potential prospects, you will need to gather information about the prospects to continue your evaluation of them as qualified prospects and to prepare for meeting with them. It is also wise to prospect and qualify by phone as a preliminary to making the actual sales call.

If you’re not familiar with HTML emails and HTML email templates, they’re annoying to develop and break all the rules you’ve ever learned as a web designer. Possessing the necessary skills to code them is a valuable skill set to have. Today, we’ll look at ten quick and easy tips to get beginners started on the path to creating functional HTML email templates.

1: Use Tables

Huh!? Ahh… Didn’t we abandon non-semantic table-based designs years ago? Yep, and now you get to experience the joy and fun all over again. Unfortunately, most email clients don’t support a plain old CSS layouts like you’re used to creating. Instead, it’s back to the stoneage and familiarizing yourself with tables and cell spacing.

If you’re unfamiliar with table-based layouts, here’s a simple example.

<table cellspacing=”0″ cellpadding=”10″ border=”0″>

<tr>

<td width=”100″></td>

<td width=”200″></td>

</tr>

</table>

Each table is divided into rows with cells. Each row is represented by <tr> and each cell is represented by <td>. Here’s a quick rundown from W3Schools of some available table-related tags.

2: Use Inline CSS

HTML email templates do support some CSS code, but you can not use an external style sheet. Instead, you must use inline CSS to style the various elements in the tables.

<p style=”background: #cccccc; color: white;”>Some text goes here.</p>

The snippet above shows you the basic syntax for inline CSS. As you can see, the code is essentially the same, you just embed it right into the code of your HTML rather than linking to another document file.

Inline CSS Tools

If you’re more comfortable using an external stylesheet during development, just use one of the tools below to convert it to inline styling once you’re finished.

• Premailer:      Converts CSS to inline styles and checks your code against email standards
• HTML Inline Styler: Converts CSS rules into inline style attributes

3: Nest Your Tables

Another quirk regarding some email clients is that they are quite inconsistent when it comes to interpreting table margins and padding. To overcome this problem, use nested tables whenever possible. The code is a little messier, but you’ll have much greater compliance across the board.

To “nest” a table simply means to place one table inside of another table. You can nest multiple tables, but just be wary of over-nesting and creating a huge mess. Some email clients start to get buggy around eight nests, but you should be able to come in far below this number for most of your HTML email template designs.

4: Watch Your Width

Several email clients are fairly limited in their width. For instance, consider the online Gmail client. Building a normal size webpage and then displaying it in the tiny Gmail window will force the user into awkward horizontal scrolling.

There are too many possible clients and screen sizes to code for every scenario, so the consensus among the web community is usually just to keep your emails fairly narrow. As a rule of thumb, try to stay under 600 pixels wide in every email design you create.

5: Be Careful With Images

There are a few unfortunate complications to consider when using images in your HTML email templates. First, some email clients don’t support background images at all, others do support them, but will often have them turned off by default. This is by no means an argument that you shouldn’t use images in your design. The strongest selling point of HTML emails is that they surpass the quality and possibilities of the rich text already available in most email clients. Eliminating images altogether can really reduce the benefits.

Instead of completely abandoning images, just make sure that your message works ok without images. Use background colors as a fallback so any text will remain readable and test your layout with images disabled.

Another thing you have to be aware of with images is that you can’t (or at least, shouldn’t) embed them into the email. Instead, you’ll have to host them long-term on a reliable web server and then link to them in your HTML code.

Finally, make sure you watch your email load times. People are used to clicking on an email and seeing the contents, not waiting for images to load. If you make me endure long load times, I’ll hit delete faster than you can explain why it’ll be worth the wait.

6: Always Allow For Easy Unsubscribing

HTML emails are most often part of a stream of newsletters subscribed to by a user. Many times users sign up for a service and don’t even realize it means they’ll receive email newsletters. Other times they consciously decide to sign up, but change their mind after.

In either case, unsubscribing should be a painless process that virtually anyone viewing the email should be able to figure out. To accomplish this, include an unsubscribe link and make sure it’s easy to spot. Designers and marketers who attempt to hide this link lack integrity and respect for their audience.

If the person doesn’t want your email, they’re not reading it anyway. There’s no value in sending 10,000 emails to spam folders all over the world. It’s far better to know that those receiving your newsletter are actually interested in your products or services.

7: Consider Your Content Carefully

Marketers and business owners often see an email newsletter as the sole source of consistent contact with their customer base. They are therefore often tempted to fill it with as much content and information as possible. As a designer, help them resist this urge by designing a template that showcases a little information extremely well rather than a lot of information very poorly.

The key here is quality over quantity. No on will read a thousand word marketing email. You have, at the very best, 3-5 seconds to grab the average reader’s attention before they hit delete. Accomplish this with fast loading, attractive visuals, concise copy and clear descriptive headers.

8: Include Other Viewing Options

In addition to including an unsubscribe option, you should present at least two alternate ways to view the email for anyone not receiving their preferred experience. For the minimalists, a simple text version is best. There are plenty of people out there who think that email should stay simple and simply don’t want to see your fancy-pants attention grabbing graphics.

At the opposite end of the spectrum are users who do want the full rich experience, but are being held back by a buggy email client. For these users include a fairly prominent link (often at the top) that allows them to view the email in a browser. Because browsers are infinitely better for displaying HTML and CSS, you can even beef up the browser-based version by coding it more like you would a normal web page (or simply have the browser display the original version).

9: Test Thoroughly

When designing a web page, one of the most annoying processes you have to go through is cross-browser testing. This process usually involves testing for Chrome, Mozilla, IE and maybe even Opera if you’re really dedicated. If you can believe it, designing for email clients is even worse!

There are upwards of 30 popular email clients, each with their own standards and varying support for different commands. To begin, test in the email clients that you have handy. Sign up for accounts with popular webmail clients like Gmail, AOL and Yahoo. Also make sure to test out the default apps for both Macs and PCs.

Obviously, you can’t test every client. If you’ve got the budget, sign up for a month of a service like Litmus during the testing phase. This will allow you to quickly get a preview of the finished product on 33 different email clients and is one of the best ways to ensure that everyone is covered.

The social media ethics discussion is not a new one. For those of you who are at least somewhat active in this space, I’m sure you’re come across some of these discussions peculating on the net. As a Florida web design company, we often come across this situation.

The general question seems to be – “Do you promote your clients through your personal social networks?”

Obviously, it’s not a simple question, and quite a few variables can come in to play.

For example, if you do happen to have a large and engaged network do you,

• Retweet your clients posts?
• Post their content on your Facebook page?
• Disclose the client relationship?
• If so, how much disclosure do you provide?

Other questions end up presenting themselves too:

• What if your network followers aren’t interested in the content?
• Do you risk coming across as spammy if it isn’t relevant?
• Do you really  want to disclose every client you work with?
• Does your client relationship influence your true opinion of their product or service?
• What if you don’t like your client’s product or service?

We could go on.

For me, the general rule of thumb that I’ve been using is this: If a client creates content that is relevant to my personal or business network, I’m happy to pass it along. If not, I leave it be. I will also always denote the client / agency relationship somewhere in the post. I do not want their being any confusion there. The fact that it’s always in our best interest for our clients to succeed means that my opinion will always be biased, no matter how objective I think I am.

A lot of clients ask their web designers to optimize their website to increase visibility with the search engines and to attract more targeted visitors. Some designers and agencies offer specific SEO (search engine optimization) services and others really do not want anything to do with SEO. Most clients that ask for a search engine optimized website understand very little about what is involved in SEO and what it takes to achieve top rankings for competitive searched keywords.

Because web design and SEO should be closely related, it’s a topic that designers are frequently asked about, but there is often a lot of gray area about what is the responsibility of the designer and what is within the designer’s power. While many clients want the designer to create a website that ranks well and attracts targeted visitors, SEO is really an ongoing process that involves much more than just the design and coding of the web site. Things like keyword research, content development, and link building are also very critical aspects of optimizing a web site for the search engines, and typically these are all ongoing processes.

Although SEO involves much more than just designing the site, there is still a lot that the designer can do to set a good foundation for an optimized website. If the designer creates a search engine-friendly site any future and ongoing SEO efforts will have a greater impact. In my opinion, web design and SEO are separate services, and a designer cannot create a truly optimized website without other important pieces to the puzzle. The web designer should create a search-friendly site and educate clients on what else will need to be done (such as content development and link building) in order to effectively optimize the site for searches.

In this post we’ll take a detailed look at the subject of web designers and SEO and many of the issues that are involved.

What is the Designer’s Responsibility in Terms of SEO?

As was mentioned in the intro, the designer should create a website that is search engine-friendly and will set the foundation for all other SEO efforts. What does it mean to be search engine-friendly? Essentially the term recognizes that design and coding of a site only has so much impact on search engine rankings. A search-friendly site will make it easy for search engines to find the content, determine what the site and pages are really about, and allow the site to rank as high as possible based on the content of the site. However, a search-friendly website needs more work to be truly optimized for search engines. For a detailed look at what makes a website search engine-friendly see How to Create Search Engine Friendly Websites by Cape Cod SEO. We’ll take a detailed look at some of the specifics later in this article.

In addition to building a search-friendly site, the designer should also discuss the subject of search engine rankings with the client to explain what else needs to be done on top of having a search-friendly site, and also should work with the client to identify keywords and phrases to help the client reach the right visitors. In some cases the client will already have identified the words and phrases they want to target, but some clients may not have even considered this before hiring a designer.

Why Does SEO Matter to Designers?

If web design and search engine optimization are really two different services, why should SEO matter to designers? For starters, some designers and agencies offer both services, so naturally there will be some overlap and SEO must be taken into consideration during the design process.

Even for those designers that do not offer specific SEO services, clients hire a designer to get results. While the client’s opinion of the designer will certainly be impacted by the visual appeal and aesthetics of the design, what most businesses really want from a new website design is impact. If it’s an e-commerce site, they will want to sell more products. If it’s a blog, they will want more traffic, subscribers, and interaction in the comments. If it’s a service-oriented business, they will want more inquiries and ultimately more customers/clients that are generated from the site.

If a designer wants to keep clients happy and pick up more referral business, the designer should be equally concerned about the results that are achieved through the site as the visual appeal of the design. Regardless of the type of website being designed and developed, search engine traffic can help to achieve the desired results.

Since search engine traffic is so instrumental in the success of client websites, the designer should be well versed in building search-friendly websites and should give each site a chance to rank well. Otherwise, the designer may create sites that look great but ultimately wind up as a disappointment to clients.

The SEO Limitations of a Designer

Although the design and development process is critical to establishing a solid foundation for search engine optimization, there is only so much that can be done by the designer. Assuming the designer is not also providing services for content development, link building, and social media marketing, the chances of a site ranking well for highly competitive search phrases based solely on the work of the designer/coder are very slim. If the site is already well established in its industry and has considerable number of quality inbound links it will have a chance to rank well, otherwise, building a search-friendly site is just the start.

Web designers are frequently asked by clients to create an optimized website that will rank highly for their targeted search phrases, but unfortunately there is no magic wand that a designer can wave to achieve top rankings without other work. The design and coding of the site is simply one piece to the puzzle. The designer should educate clients on the basics of SEO and what will need to be done to achieve top rankings, or should help the client to identify less-competitive search phrases that may be achievable with a search engine-friendly site and some basic content development.

What Designers Shouldn’t Do

Because the design and coding of the site is really the foundation of SEO, it is important for setting things up properly, but it’s also important to not do anything that could cause this foundation to be unstable. Black hat SEO (anything that attempts to deceive the search engines and violates Google’s guidelines) may help a client to achieve better rankings in the short-term, but could seriously harm the site in the long run. Designers should have a basic understanding of SEO and what could potentially harm the rankings of their clients in order to avoid these situations.

Additionally, designers should avoid making promises like “I can create a site for you that will rank on the first page of Google for X keyword.” Particularly if the designer is providing just design and coding services and not additional SEO services, there is only so much that the designer can control and promises like this will often be difficult to keep. When clients ask for a site that will achieve specific search rankings, the best thing to do is to explain what is involved in optimizing a website, offer your help for the services that you provide, and recommend someone else for specific SEO-related services if there are parts that you do not offer.

Effective SEO for Web Designers

Now that we have discussed the role of the designer in the SEO process and why search traffic should be considered by designers, we’ll take a look at some specific things that designers can do to create a search-friendly site for clients. For the purposes of this article, references to web design are intended to include front end development (HTML/CSS coding) as well as visual design.

1. Thoroughly Discuss the Topic of SEO with Clients and Help Them to Determine Which Keywords Should be Targeted

At the start of any design project it is helpful to discuss the topic of search engine optimization with clients. This is helpful for a few key reasons: 1) If the client has unrealistic expectations about a designer being able to create a site that will rank highly, it is helpful to educate them on the breadth of SEO and the role of design as one aspect, and 2) The designer and the client need to work together to determine what search phrases should be targeted and how the site should be optimized. The client always knows their business and customers better than the designer, so it’s critical that they are involved in determining what search phrases should be targeted.

2. Basic Keyword Research

If the client has not considered or is not sure what keywords and phrases they want to target, the designer can assist them by doing some basic keyword research to determine which phrases searchers are using, what related phrases are also possibilities, and how much competition exists for these phrases. There a lot of tools and software available for keyword research, but the Google AdWords Keyword Tool is sufficient for basic research (and it’s free). With this tool you can enter some words or phrases, receive data on the number of searches that are done on a monthly basis for them, see the level of competition for AdWords (which is often representative of the level of competition for organic search results as well), and receive a list of suggested or related phrases.

Even if the client has already identified the phrases that they want to target, it’s not a bad idea for the designer to do some basic keyword research anyway. There may be other words and phrases not identified by the client that could be better in terms of number of searches or competition for rankings. Additionally, if clients have identified targeted phrases without doing any research it may be helpful to show them the level of competition that they will face by targeting these phrases and how that compares to the level of competition for other similar phrases.

3. Discuss Page Titles with Clients to Create Optimized Titles

The most important on-page factor for SEO is the page title. Ideally, page titles should include the targeted words and phrases in order to provide the best match when someone searches for the targeted word or phrase. Titles can include other text in addition to the targeted phrases, but the targeted phrase should be included in the title. Of course, each page on the site should have its own title and can be intended to target a different search phrase. For example, a photographer’s website may have a homepage with a title that targets the phrase “Philadelphia photographer” and secondary pages could target separate, but related, phrases like “Philadelphia wedding photographer” or “Philadelphia landscape photographer”.

Because page titles are so influential in search rankings, designers should discuss them with clients (at least on key pages) and use the keyword research to aid in determining what should be used for the titles. For clients that use WordPress, designers can install the All in One SEO Pack plugin that will allow users to control page titles on any pages and posts that they create.

4. Clean Code

Part of having a search friendly site is using clean code that makes it easy for search engine spiders to crawl the pages. If search engines have a hard time determining the content of a page it is unlikely to rank very well (see What Beautiful HTML Code Looks Like from CSS Tricks for an example of good code). CSS-based layouts makes it much easier to keep the HTML code clean by separating the content and the design, as opposed to table-based layouts.

5. Keep Primary Content High in the Code

The main content of a page should be located as high as possible within the HTML code of the page. Within the body, the header content will typically appear first, but the main content of the page should appear above sidebar content. Even if the sidebar is shown to the left of the content on the screen, a CSS-based layout can be used so that the content is still placed above the sidebar content in the code. Keeping the main content higher means that search engine spiders will find it quicker and they’ll have an easier time recognizing what they page is truly about.

6. Use Headers and Sub-Headers Appropriately

Heading tags (such as h1, h2, h3, etc.) should be used to indicate headers and sub-headers within pages. While it is possible to achieve the same look by setting font weight, style, or size without using header tags, the header tags indicate importance and structure for search engines. They make it easier for search engines to know what is being emphasized on the page, and they can help the designer to be able to target specific phrases.

7. Use Internal Links to Help Visitors and Search Engines Find the Important Content

Throughout this article we have talked about link building as an important part of SEO. Attracting links from other high-quality sites to pages on your own site (or your client’s site) is a critical part of achieving high search engine rankings, but internal links (a link from one page to another page on the site site) are also important. In general, search engines will assume that the pages that have the most internal links pointing towards them are most important. For instance, if every page on a site includes a link to a particular page that includes detailed information about a product, it would be logical to assume that the product detail page is pretty important.

Using internal links effectively can make it easier for search engine spiders to crawl through the site and find all of the content/pages, plus effective internal linking will make a site easy to use and navigate for visitors, which is ultimately more important than search engine rankings.

8. Use Appropriate Anchor Text

The anchor text (the clickable text in a link) is also important for search engine rankings, both from internal and external links. For the purposes of this article we’ll stick with internal links, since that is what the designer can control. Ideally, anchor text should match up with the targeted phrases or at least include them within a larger phrase of anchor text.

Using keywords and phrases in the anchor text helps to indicate to search engines the topic of the page that is being linked to. For optimization purposes it is better to use keyword-rich anchor text as opposed to “click here”.

9. Set Up a Sitemap

There are two different types of sitemaps and the each have their own purpose. XML sitemaps or Google sitemaps are not intended to be used by human visitors, rather they exist to help search engines find all of the important content of a site. An XML sitemap makes it easier for the search engine spiders to crawl the site and it reduces the chance of a spider missing a certain page and not including it in the index. WordPress-based sites can use the Google XML Sitemaps plugin to automate the process, and for other types of sites you can use a tool like XML-Sitemaps.

HTML sitemaps are intended to be used by human visitors as a way to find specific content on the site, however, they also have an SEO-related purpose. While HTML sitemaps are primarily intended for human visitors, they also provide an opportunity to use internal links to point towards all of the important pages of a site. When the search engine spiders find the sitemap they will be able to easily crawl through the site using the sitemap and the links in the sitemap can help the search engine to determine the important pages on the site (for large sites that don’t include a link to every page on the sitemap).

10. Use Friendly URLs

The URL of a page can have some impact on its search engine rankings, so it is best to use keywords or phrases within the URL. The ideal URL will include the important words or phrases that will tell both human visitors and search engines what the page is about without being ridiculously long. Very long URLs make it harder for users to copy and paste, email, and write down, and search engines also prefer shorter URLs.

Hyphens or underscores are often used as a way to separate words in a URL. This can make it easier for visitors and search engines to read the URL and determine the keywords. Most content management systems will allow you to have some control over the URLs that are created.

11. Use Alt Text on Images

Images and photos used on pages should include alt text for describing the image. The primary purpose of alt text is for accessibility and usability purposes, including screen readers for handicapped users. With effective alt text it is possible to know the purpose or the point of an image without even seeing it. For SEO purposes, keywords or phrases can be used in the alt text for a small boost. Alt text shouldn’t be used strictly for SEO purposes at the expense of usability, but it is helpful to use targeted words or phrases in the alt text when possible and appropriate.

12. Canonical Re-Direct

Search engines view http://example.com and http://www.example.com as two different pages (one has www and one does not). A canonical re-direct is helpful because it indicates to search engines which version of the page is preferred and eliminates the need to view them as two separate pages. Without a canonical re-direct search engine rankings may suffer. A re-direct can be setup in the .htaccess file, see 301 Redirects and www/non-www Canonical Problems.

13. Minimize Page Load Time

Page load time is important for user experience, and also Google has indicated that it will become more influential on search engine rankings as well. Minimizing load time is a rather large topic that could justify an article of its own (see How to Minimize Load Time for Fast User Experiences) but we’ll quickly look at a few issues here. Things like images, audio and video, as well as calls to a database will increase load time of pages. In general, the connection speed of most internet users has increased in recent years so larger page files and slower loading pages are not as big of a nuisance to most visitors today. However, it is still helpful to optimize files.

Conclusion:

While designing the site is a part of the SEO process, there are a number of on-page factors that a designer can, and should, control in order to build a search-friendly website. In situations where clients have unrealistic expectations for what a design can accomplish without efforts for building links or adding optimized content, the designer should communicate with the client to educate them on the basic factors that determine search rankings and what needs to be done in order to better  rank for competitive phrases.

Forum link building and forum backlinks can be totally 2 different concepts. Forum link building would be utilizing forums to build backlinks for a site. In other words, link building using forums with a sole intention of getting the link juice transferred from forum signature links.

Forum backlinks on the other hand can be the produce of forum link building but can be done with only marketing or promotion in mind. For example, you have a site that you want to promote and find some resourceful, high traffic, high PR forums where you post using your signature links so that forum members that are within your same niche can find your signature links and hopefully visit your site. If you post on a related forum using your signature link, then there is a good chance that some forum members reading that specific thread might find your signature link appealing meaning traffic for your site. How much traffic you will get form such promotional activity will depend on how much time you devote in your forum posting, either posting new threads or comment on existing threads. If you are a new member and reply to an existing thread saying “yes, I agree” or “thank you,” then you will be pushing your luck getting someone interested in your post and pay a visit to your site. If you however manage to build a reputation on the forum, make a few friends within the community, and keep posting useful posts, then people will find your posts credible and will eventually visit your site today or tomorrow. As you can see, promoting a site this way requires quite a bit of workand time, but if done correctly, benefits can be outstanding.

Link building using forum signatures doesn’t work however. This might come as a shock to some as there is a whole separate industry of forum link builders out there these days. Lots of businesses online that are offering forum link building services only showing the prospective clients how many backlinks they can get form such service.

While getting the backlinks using such technique is not hard to do, how much true value these backlinks provide in terms of passing link juice is the question. Let’s go over some facts which will help us understand the situation a little better.

Forums that allow you to post your signature links usually allow you to post 4 signature links on average with some forums restricting the members by allowing only two signature links where some forums not restricting the members at all meaning you can have all the links you want on your signature. Some are actually taking advantage of such forums by using as many as 6 – 8 links on their signatures.

Now, if we look at how many comments one single tread many have and how many signature links each individual forum thread many have, we see that a single thread having 20 comments per page with each member having 4 links in there signature, that’s 80 external links on each page! Not to mention all the Adsense and other external links the forum owners add in an attempt to monetize their forums. It is therefore not unusual for a single page to have somewhere between 100 to 140+ external links on a single page and that a LOT of external links.

Since the value of the link juice is weighted based on the number of external links are found on that page with more value per link from a page with least amount of external links, you hardly get any value for your links form such page.

Another important fact that needs to be considered here which is that a new thread usually only stays on the category front page for couple of hours on a busy forum after when it moved to the inner pages allowing Googlebot only a 2 hour window to find that thread, index it, and crawl each and every links found on that page which is something that doesn’t happen all the time. Since a new thread page will not have any PR of its own, will not have much authority individually, and will not stay on the forum front page for long, having a backlink form such page will hardly pass any link juice if any at all.

I’m not trying to burst the bubbles of people that provide forum link building services. I’m just pointing out some facts to consider, so that all your hard work doesn’t go in vein.