Welcome!

[Hanne]

I think a chapter introducing basic SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and a chapter for more advanced SEO should be included in the book. There are too vague articles about this on the net. Perhaps a SEO checklist?

[skunkbad]

I agree

[WebAir]

I think a chapter introducing basic SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and a chapter for more advanced SEO should be included in the book. There are too vague articles about this on the net. Perhaps a SEO checklist?

Sure, I think it's most important the SEO chapter, probably with many links to the webmarketing chapter. When you say "Perhaps a SEO checklist", do you think something like this (SEO, Site optimization part)?

[Hanne]

I think a chapter introducing basic SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and a chapter for more advanced SEO should be included in the book. There are too vague articles about this on the net. Perhaps a SEO checklist?

Sure, I think it's most important the SEO chapter, probably with many links to the webmarketing chapter. When you say "Perhaps a SEO checklist", do you think something like this (SEO, Site optimization part)?

Yes, something like that. Haven't seen that website before, thanks for the link!

[Andy]

Good idea.

[John]

I completely disagree - when was the last time you saw a smashing post about SEO? I can't remember one at all though maybe a couple exist?

To me SEO is totally NOT what Smashing Magazine is about, in face half the time I come to SM to get away from all the SEO talk on other design blogs where it doesnt belong either!

[GeoEgo]

To me SEO is totally NOT what Smashing Magazine is about, in face half the time I come to SM to get away from all the SEO talk on other design blogs where it doesnt belong either!

I do agree that Smashing doesn't generally deal with it ... but I think that a modern introduction to basic SEO principles has its own place in any multifaceted web design book. Maybe introducing SEO from a different perspective ... as opposed to how to optimize for the most traffic possible, maybe just some pointers on how to not drive away traffic with SEO unfriendly markup. Maybe even just a stylized and short SEO dictionary, in order to provide a functional way to show off some killer design.

[John]

if it was something like the webconfs 15 minute SEO page then sure why not, but anything more than that is overkill.

Regardless of SEO - Smashing Content is maybe.. 80% design and 20% code? So a niche area of coding that has no set best practices or rules IMO is a recipe for disaster - you're always going to have someone tell you that you've got it totally wrong when it comes to SEO, so it's a tenuous subject.

[GeoEgo]

if it was something like the webconfs 15 minute SEO page then sure why not, but anything more than that is overkill.

Regardless of SEO - Smashing Content is maybe.. 80% design and 20% code? So a niche area of coding that has no set best practices or rules IMO is a recipe for disaster - you're always going to have someone tell you that you've got it totally wrong when it comes to SEO, so it's a tenuous subject.

You've got a couple of great points. It's funny, because I started to think along similar lines when I was thinking of making a "what not to do" as opposed to a "what to do" section ... but you're right, it's a difficult topic that may be best left out. I'd just like to explore some ideas of what direction to go if SEO was made a part of a book.

[branabothu]

Welcome to the second installment of “improve your SEO”. This tutorial will show the best way to structure the content of you website to make it is easier to read and better to find. If you haven’t already, why not check out the first installment of the series “Google tools“, which focuses on how to use Google’s webmaster tools to your advantage. This Tutorial is aimed at anyone keen to improve their websites search ability by using a few powerful techniques.

1. Pictures In Design

A popular way to improve the look of you’re website is to incorporate imagery. However, it is worth consideration that Google’s crawlers cannot read words written in images and unfortunately ‘alt’ tags will only take you so far. When you plan your layout try to use HTML for you’re content, with developments in CSS there are a lot of smart tricks you can use to improve the look of fonts on your page, why not spend a bit longer tweaking these, the key is to get the balance between look and readability, don’t sacrifice your design to comply with Google, use this to your advantage and get the best of both worlds.

2. Formatting Content

A very important aspect of SEO is how to structure your information. Your website should be structured in such a way that it is clear from just a brief glance what your subject matter is about. This can be achieved by using descriptive headings, sub headings and paragraphs. The Format of this structure is key here, using built-in HTML tags such as <h1><h2><p> are much more search friendly than if you were to use your own elaborate Div’s and naming conventions.

3. MetaTags

Meta tags are still used in seach Engines, not so much in the searching, but certainly in the displaying. Consider Google, when search results are displayed on the page, we can see a title, and then a very short piece of text describing in more detail the contents of the website. These are generated by the meta tag information. There are two main types of meta tags which are used today. The first are “Keywords” these will correspond to an array of keywords, which you would use to describe your website, The second is the “description” in which you can write a short summation of what your web page is about, which will then be served in Google results.

4. Descriptive Linking

When writing content you may well want to reference outside sources — this is a good practice for increasing traffic through affiliated websites. When doing so, it is very important to be descriptive with the link, don’t just write click “here.” Descriptive linking means exactly what it says. Explain what you are asking the reader to click on. For example, create the link using the website’s name or a descriptive phrase for the pages content. This will increase the number of keywords on your site as well as boost traffic between sites.

5. Keywords

It’s very important that your content reflect the subject on which your are writing. Copywriters and web editors will vouch for me when I say that writing in web media is very different to writing in print. This is because your content must use keywords, which search engines will identify when scanning your content.

A good way to approach this is to think how people may word a search term when looking for something. For example if someone searches for “TV to buy” but your article is titled “Great Televisions to purchase,” chances are that your page will rank way down in the listings. If you’re clever with your language you can capture a greater range of the market. Using the example above, we could write our title like this ”TV Buyers guide to Great Television Sets.” This will greatly boost your search listing, because your content will be deemed relevant to peoples searching for “tv” and “televesion.” Try it for yourself and see the difference.

If you like what you’ve learned please watch out for the next in the series of “Improve Your SEO” where more tips and techniques will be shared.

[vladgidea]

Yes indeed. You will need cover some basic stuff, but don't go into detail to much to bore the reader. It's important you point about the "need-to-know" explaining for beginners what a search engine thinks and how it sees your page.

@branabothu excellent brainstorm...

[John]

See there's our problem, I work in SEO and straight away I disagree with 2 of those 5 points - and if I rewrote the article I'm sure someone would disagree with at least 1 of my points too

[tombradshaw]

I would agree that SEO isn't perhaps what Smashing usually deals with, but I do think it warrants its own chapter due to the importance it holds in web development. It can be incorporated into the design if you wish.

Half my time as a web designer is spent designing, the over (sometimes more) is spent on SEO. Though I wouldn't like to see another checklist, I'd like to hear from an expert on the basics as well as on the subject at a more advanced stage.

[Pasci]

SEO - no doubt - is highly important in webdesign.
However, I think Smashing is more about the After-SEO (or the design) stage, i.e. when the user has already found you through a web search. And to really do SEO well, you need more than just a chapter or a checklist. Or else you may as well not cover it at all...

[earthwormjim]

I'm with John on this one. Smashing is all about the bling. Sure, you've got the articles about programming, but it's mostly all the free goodies, sweet graphics and exhaustive lists. SEO is best left for people like John or this other site called seomoz http://www.seomoz.org/blog.