Introduction
Web development and design are at the heart of successful eMarketing.
Important Factors to Consider When Optimizing for Search
Usability
Use standard conventions, such as links that are distinct (blue and underlined is standard), menus top or left, and the logo in the top left-hand corner.
Search boxes are usually on the top of the page and should use standard wording such as “search” on buttons.
Important elements (such as menus, logos, colors, and layout) should be distinct, easy to find, and consistent throughout the Web site.
The site map should be available from every page
Text content can be
Highlighting or making bold key phrases and words
Using bulleted lists
Using paragraphs to break up information
Using descriptive and distinct headings
There are some key “don’ts” when it comes to building a user-friendly Web site:
Never resize windows or launch the site in a pop-up.
Don’t use splash pages. These are pages at the entry to a site that are usually animated and contain some variation of the phrase “click here to enter this site.”
Never build a site entirely in Flash—most search engine spiders cannot even crawl Flash sites.
Don’t distract users with “Christmas trees” (blinking images, flashing lights, automatic sound, scrolling text, unusual fonts, etc.).