SEO list for creating the *perfect* website
-
If you could build your website from scratch and have your developers do anything you want (within reason), what list of SEO requirements would you send them?
Does anyone know of any good articles on the perfect SEO wish list?
Happy Holidays!
-
I agree.... my answer for NO CMS is based upon in-house work. If I had clients this could be a huge briarpatch.
-
And, I think that was the point. If the world were perfect, I would have a sailboat that was very fast like a J Boat and was the perfect cruiser like a Pacific Seacraft. Everything is a tradeoff.
You and EGOL made great points around why no CMS. I agree. As an agency we just don't have that luxury for our clients and so we use them. Just two sides to a coin.
-
I am not saying you cannot rank using a CMS, but simply you can do better by hand. A road sweeper can clean the street, but sometimes you need to get out with a broom to get into the corners, or even bend down and pick something up by hand.
-
All Great Comments, and Don't forget the basics such as.
- Setup a Google Account with marketing@domain.com
- Setup Google Webmaster Tools
- Setup Bing Webmaster Tools
- Upload Google, MSN verification HTML Code
- Build a Google /sitemap.xml file and upload then submit it to Google
- Signup for Google Analytics and setup tracking code on each page for tracking
- Setup Funnels within Google Analytics for tracking conversions
- Run a Server Check to test headers to make sure that the server is not a virtual server, blacklisted server
- Run Xenu for Broken Links, work to get any links fixed
- Web page title, description and heading tags.
- Develop a list for where the Company can improve content based upon the discovery of low hanging fruit “keywords”
- Run Competitor Analysis Reports to help understand how to improve rankings
- Build a robots.txt file to put in the root of the website
- Run keyword list and find other opportunities for rankings
- Run Reports to determine back links
- Run Reports on competition back links and look for areas we can leverage for expansion of external linking
- Add to Google Maps
- Add to Bing Maps
- Test with SEOMOZ Tools
- Run a report to find possible industry related forums as well other sites to post on for driving more traffic and related links
- Setup 301 redirect for website to go to www
- Setup Twitter profile
- Setup Facebook Page
- Setup Youtube Channel
- Setup a Google + Page
This is just a Phase 1 List there are so many other things to think about, focus on your visitors and content, watch your visitors and tweak it based on behavior. Look at your bounce rates, Time on site, ETC.
-
Not everyone codes for different reasons. Dummies use html editors for dummies, so put me in that group. We use a CMS and have plenty of page 1 ranks. Sorry, but me and my kids don't live in an ideal world.
-
If someone has just created a site with a CMS, it is hard to tell them it may not be a good idea. Its like telling them their kids are ugly.
-
I agree with not using a CMS.... with the exception of a couple of blogs my sites are all hard-coded html.... it enables you to make finely-crafted arrows.
Some people might give the thumbs down for a comment like this.... they are using crooked sticks for their arrows.
-
If it is a local ecommerce site (doing primary business in metro/state), local SEO is critical at startup. It is a good way to generate sales quickly while you build links/page authority/domain authority for broader more competitive keywords.
-
He did ask for a perfect site, in that case yes, i would suggest hand coded with complete control. I agree with the trade of with cost of hiring a developer and the ease of DIY CMS, but to be perfect it should be bespoke no redirects, no html errors, no script or css mixed in html. well segmented with html5, described with microdata, prefect crawlability. You just can’t get all this done perfectly with CMS.
But i agree there are horses for courses
-
Okay, If using a developer to build a site from scratch, this is a list of considerations that I have got so far.
Site Architecture
Use keyword rich breadcrumbs
Internal Link structure
- Page Depth
- Quantity of Internal Links
- Quality of Internal links
- Index Canonicalization
XML Sitemaps
Page Optimisation
- Page Titles
- Meta Descriptions
- H1 Tags
- URLS
- Duplicate Content
- Robots.txt
- HTTP Status Codes
- Image alt attricbutes
- Textual Content
Anything else?
-
Good job Miranda,
This is a thought provoking question. When I first read Alan's response I thought, "wait a minute, Alan" and then realized he answered it perfectly for Alan. I am not a developer and the thought of providing a client a site that required them to have one available did not make sense. At the same time, I can tell you with several of the known CMS's available there are problems within the SEO that if not addressed are at least annoying.
So, I would say, to the developers:
Use a CMS that allows the client the most ease of use within the context of providing the best framework for their project.
Make the key on site/on page SEO pieces easy for someone with even a small amt of ability: Title tags (Alan would give us code that would not allow a duplicate as an example), You would be required to use an H1, etc.
I would tell them I wanted a url structure that was almost flat.
That an internal link had to go to something relevant.
But, before I went to them, I would be very clear what it was we desired the web site to do for us.
Thanks,
-
#1 i would not use a CMS, i would code it from scratch and make sure I got a prefect score using the Bing SEO toolkit, making sure the search engines can crawl your site perfectly is something that is hard to fix later on down the road.
#2 I would make sure I have a good linking structure to allow link juice to flow to the correct places.
#3 I would think long and hard on my user friendly URL’s from the start
That’s a good start, I will let others add or subtract from the list.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Does interlinking on mobile site helps in seo & improvement in rankings
Hi, Does interlinking on mobile site helps in seo & improvement in rankings. Our desktop site & mobile site has same urls. Regards
Web Design | | vivekrathore0 -
How do I move a 200+ website properly with 301 redirect?
I tried to search for the answer but didnt find any direct answers. I need to move a 200+ site to a wordpress site. How am I suppose to 301 redirect all of them? Do I need to create the new pages first then have webmaster use ssh and 301 the entire list? Can anyone link me to a 1,2,3 step instructions for a huge website move? Im sure there are other issues that I need to know about.
Web Design | | bryonstout0 -
Will a .com and .co.uk site (with exact same content) hurt seo
hello, i am sure this question has been asked before, but while i tried to search i could not find the right answer. my question is i have a .com and .co.uk site. both sites have exact same product, exact same product descriptions, and everything is the same. the reason for 2 sites is that .com site shows all the details for US customers and in $, and .co.uk site shows all the details to UK customers and with Pound signs. the only difference in the 2 sites might be the privacy policy (different for US and UK) and different membership groups the site belongs to (US site belong to a list of US trade groups, UK belongs to a list of UK trade groups). my question is other than the minor difference above, all the content of the site is exactly the same, so will this hurt seo for either one or both the site. Our US site much more popular and indexed already in google for 4 years, while our UK site was just started 1 month ago. (also both the sites are hosted by same hosting company, with one site as main domain and the other site as domain addon (i thought i include this information also, if it makes sense to readers)) i would appreciate a reply to the question above thanks
Web Design | | kannu10 -
Tips on website redesign on site with messy URLs?
So I've inherited quite a messy website. It was in drupal and the owner wants it in wordpress. One of the problems is the link paths. Should I try to recreate them exactly? i.e. something/somethingelse/page/ or use redirects (which I'm not confident in doing). Also, some of the pages end in .html, others in a back slash and others without slahes, there's no consistency. Do you have any tips in general? I remember an older seomoz blogpost about successful website relaunches (with press releases and mass emails and stuff being sent out on launch to boot). Thanks!
Web Design | | seonubblet0 -
What is the best way to point newly built website on new domain name to the original more well known domain?
Live website on abc.com domain is being totally redone and moved to a new platform. to facilitate full testing and compliance, the new look and content was built on a different url - xyz.com for example. Now that all content is approved and testing, we want people visiting the abc.com domain to see the xyz.com website without necessarily redirecting abc.com to xyz.com What is the best to do this? Thanks all
Web Design | | wkismb0 -
Do you suggest a SEO Plug-in for Dreamweaver?
I would like to know it there is any plug-in for Dreamweaver that helps our SEO work
Web Design | | Naghirniac0 -
Removing important section of website, safely
Hi Mozzers, It's been requested that a top level page on a website I'm working on should be removed. It concerns me firstly because there are some nice links coming into that page. I'm also worried because website director has suggested the menu option for that page should simply be removed from all navigation, so you can't find the 'removed' page via his website, but it remains as an indexed page passing linkjuice to website. Is that a risky approach from an SEO perspective? What's the best approach to this? Thanks in advance! Luke
Web Design | | McTaggart0 -
SEO for product dimensions
I am taking over a new project that offers high price large products. I am trying to decide on the best way to do some SEO on the product titles, etc. for best practices what do ya'll recommend right now we're doing: 10' H x 10' W x 12' D product name blah blah blah and other thoughts on how to be more efficient in this?
Web Design | | malachiii0