SEO rules for designers – 3 years on.
There was an old SEO blog post I came across just recently and it made for interesting reading. I thought I would revisit it just to identify if things have changed much in the last couple of years. As someone who has only come into the profession within the last year, I think I can offer insight into the techniques and values instilled in me.
Do not Cheat – I have to say that the use of black hat techniques is still considered to be trying to ‘cheat’ Google. Even in the older post, it emphasised not even to attempt trying to fool Google.
Stick to your Keywords – Again, the older post did suggest repeating them needlessly was of no benefit or ‘cheating’. I would have to agree and only use them in sentences, page titles, headings and internal links.
Content is King – I do agree that the content needs to meet certain criteria to be SEO friendly. The structure of the page should reflect the priority of the keywords. This is exactly how I have been taught 3 years on.
Clean Code is Searchable Code – Again, I couldn’t agree more and I fully understand the benefits of techniques that reduce the coding. CSS allows a designer to be artistic and creative, controlling everything from the style sheet. If the coding is tidy and reduced wherever possible, the less there is for the search engines to read.
The Home Page is the most Important Page – This is of course still the case, even if it is simply because it is the most likely landing page. As such it should be a clear and attractive, summarising the rest of the site.
Meta Titles – The page title is still what appears in Google and should include appropriate keywords. This illustrates to the user what is offered by this particular page/site.
It has been fun to compare but I have realised that most things have remained pretty constant in recent times. I was expecting historical blogs to be outdated, inaccurate and to be perfectly honest, I couldn’t have been more wrong. It suggests to me that I have been taught well and I will continue to uphold these techniques.
