Web site design to ensure maximum hits

This page will give you a brief overview as to why some web sites get large numbers of hits and some do nothing.

Content

The most important thing to get right is the content of the web site; there has to be a good reason for someone to look for your site, and a search engine will not rank your web site highly if there is little or no content (some search engines and directories will not list your site at all if there is little content, just a bit of marketing blurb).

Web site design and coding

• Tags - there are several important "tags" that should be used in any well designed web site (Internet Explorer users click to expand view for more details)

  • Title - this tag is one of the most important, it is what is displayed on a search engine results page and also on the title bar of your web browser, when you open the page.

  • Description - this is what most search engines will use to describe your page in its results. This is where you persuade people that your site is of interest to them.

  • Keywords - some search engines use these to help categorize your web page; to emphasize the main theme of your web page.

  • Alt - this tag specifies the text that can be seen in an image placeholder before the image is displayed, and also in the pop-up when the mouse pointer is held over an image.

  • Links - descriptive text links to your other pages will help both the users and the search engines to navigate your web site.

• Speed - the speed that your web pages load can greatly influence how popular they are. If there are too many images or the page is excessively long it can take a long time to load. This can discourage people from using the web site and some search engines will not list your web site for this reason.

• External links - most search engines look at how many other web sites link in to yours, and will rank you higher, particularly if from related web sites. Search the Internet for related web sites (preferably not in direct competition with your own), most will be happy to give a reciprocal link; just e-mail them and ask.

• Navigation - your navigation structure must be easy to follow. Try to use both graphics and text, never just graphics, as search engines will not follow graphic links as easily, and users may not either.

Search engine and directory submissions

A search engine will never list you if you do not submit your site to it. There are thousands of search engines, but except for specialist web sites, there are only about 10 to 20 worth spending the time to get listed in. These are a must.
Unfortunately the rules about submissions are complex and vary with each and every search engine and directory, and also they have a habit of changing them quite frequently. The best advice would be to always submit manually and to always read their submission policy, or to use the web site promotion services of a company such as ourselves www.thenetbiz.net. We are currently offering free submissions for the first three months, with any web site designed and hosted by us.

The good news is that most web sites, on the Internet, are poorly designed to take full advantage of the search engines. Therefore, a well designed web site can and will get a large number of hits from search engines, and well thought out and interesting content will convert hits into new business.

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