Website Optimization
Optimizing your website structure and navagation for SEO

Optimizing your Website Structure and Navigation

The ease with which search engine spiders can move through your website will determine how they perceive it. Once you are sure that your website structure and website navigation are optimized then you can concentrate on the content.

Website Navigation Models We will examine three different website navigation models and see how they work and how the search engine spiders see them. They are:
Linear Navigation	Linear navigation is used for a website where you want the visitor to go from one step to another in a particular order. This is usually used within a website but seldom as a stand alone design. The idea here is that the visitor follows the pages in a predefined order or sequence that you determine. This is particularly usefull for tutorials. But, it also has many other uses.
Database Navigation	The database or grid design of website navigation is made up of multiple main divisions and each division is linked to its own database. This type of navigation can be used effectively when large amounts of data are required in the website design. With database navigation the visitor begins by selecting the main heading that best serves their purpose. From there they can drill down deeper and deeper into the selected database.
Hierarchical Navigation	The hierarchical navigation design goes from the general to the specific; from a home page to main sections to subsections and databases. A visitor could easily go from the home page to other areas of the website and back again. The goal of any hierarchical navigational system is to offer the user a clear and simple way to access all pages in a site.

Optimization tips

1. Put your keywords in your title tags
   
   
2. Be sure that your keywords are in your content
   
   
3. Do your keywords accurately describe your website theme or the subject of your webpages?
   
   
4. What words or phrases will users type into search engines to find your website?
   
   
5. Does the page contain JavaScript? If so, how much of it precedes content?
   (CSS and JavaScript is nice, but engine robots don't have a clue as to what to do with it and often give up if there's no content nearby.)
   
   
6. If your website is a business, have you made sure your business address and other information is easily available on each webpage layout?
   (Directories look for this when reviewing business sites.)
   
   
7. Did you optimize several pages of your site for certain targeted keywords? Be sure that your page titles reflect your keyword research and be sure to repeat them in the body text of the page.
   
   
8. Are there plenty of text links on your pages for robots to follow?
   (They don't follow image map links or options in drop down menus.)
   
   
9. Did you read each engine FAQ to make sure you avoid SPAMMING their database before your search engine submission?
   (FAQ's change often, so you need to keep checking back.)
   
   
10. Do you have any websites linking to your website? Links tracking from other web sites and your own will increase the relevancy of your website in search engine results.

ROR/RSS Sitemap Generator

Search engine spiders can quickly evaluate a website by scanning your ROR/RSS document and this helps you to get indexed faster and with more accuracy.

Note: You don't want to put a direct link to everything on your website on any single page. Your website links should progress through several levels of your website basic layout branching out as they go. Too many links to choose from and the search engine spiders will get confused and improperly index your website.