Few SEO Tips for Designers

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a vital component of any website. As a web designer or blogger, it’s important for you to understand how SEO works. Here are few rules that one should follow for better SEO results:

Do Not Cheat. Period.
Google has hundreds of rooms full of genius scientists with PHDs, and their job is to work 60 hours a week to make sure you can’t fool Google. You can’t outsmart them. Ever. Ignore any advice on trying to cheat the system and focus on making great web sites with great content, and your sites will show up fine in searches.

Stick to Your Keywords
Pick a few keywords or phrases that describe your site. Use them, and words related to them, whenever it’s natural to do so. Repeating them uselessly is no good , use them in sentences, headlines, and links.

Content is King
Users don’t search for design, they search for content. If your site doesn’t have content people want, no one will look at it. Every page on your site should follow the Inverted Pyramid. Each page should lead with a relevant H1 tag with one of your keywords, and the first paragraph of text should be a summary of the rest of the page.

Clean Code is Searchable Code
Build your sites in a text editor, and write clean, human-readable HTML. The HTML should follow the conceptual structure of the page, navigation first, followed by the H1 tag, then the first paragraph, etc. Try to use descriptive tags when possible. Use UL for lists, P for paragraphs, H tags for heads and subheads, and STRONG for bolded text. Don’t overuse Divs. Your site can still be artistic and cool, that’s what CSS is for.

Links Have Meaning
Search engines pay a lot of attention to the links on your site, and the words used in those links. Never use “click here” or “see more” for a link. The link text should describe where the link will take the user, such as "more examples of CSS web design" or "learn how we can improve your SEO."

Title Tags for the Win
Every page in your site should have a title with the site name and a short description of the page. About 60 letters total. Include a keyword. Remember that the page title is what appears in search results, it should give users a clear reason to click on it.
Your navigation links should have title attributes that match the titles of your pages. It’s a small thing, but it will give you a significant SEO improvement.

Alt Attributes 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. Labelling it "screenshot" or "image" will do the opposite.

Have a Site Map
Make sure you have a site map. This is an xml file that describes the structure of your page. Make one, and give it to Google.

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 boundry. 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.

Using LinkedIn For SEO

Your LinkedIn profile can be an excellent source of SEO friendly links because:

• LinkedIn has great authority in Google
• Your website links can be given unique anchor text with the dofollow attribute
• Your LinkedIn profile can have highly relevant content relative to the websites you own

The 3 main things that every LinkedIn profile should have are:

1. A professional/personal picture of yourself.
   Don’t just upload an image of your dog/cat/fish/hamster/car/computer/world of warcraft, or any other beloved items. Be as transparent about who you are as you can. Sites like Twitter and others that don’t have a professional mindset don’t matter as much, but always have an image of something. If the site is geared toward professionals, err on the side of a professional picture.
2. As much information about yourself as you feel comfortable.
   At the very least, you should have a link to your personal or business website/blog. Also, you should write some really good compelling info about your current position, to make sure people know what it is you do, even though you might not be looking for a job, this helps put relevant content on your page.
3. A unique profile url for yourself if the option is available.
   This makes it easy for people to link to your profile, or find it again if they forget exactly how they found you. And if you put your name in your profile url, that makes it a little more SEO friendly for searches related to your name.

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