Top 11 Things to Avoid When Designing Your Website

There are key things you need to know if you want an SEO-friendly website design. And learning what NOT to do and what to avoid will help save you a ton of time and avoid headaches down the road.

These are the top 11 of things you should stay away from when you’re designing your website:

#1 – Headings and Text in Graphics

Google can’t always read these. At the very least, use alt tags on your images, to explain to search engines and disabled visitors what it says, if you are stuck with graphical headings. Make sure you are using great keywords as you describe your images in your alt tags.

#2 – HTML Frames

These cause the search engines to index only portions of your content (such as the right column of a page only with no logo or left navigation column).

#3 – All Flash Sites

Flash sites do not index nearly as well as HTML sites and are bad for mobile users largely due to Apple not supporting it. Use HTML5 and JQuery instead.

#4 – Dynamic Content

Dynamic URLs have long names (and use lots of numbers and special characters like “?” and “%”), which are difficult for the search engines to crawl. That said, today dynamic URLs are easier for search engines to index than back in the 1990s, but the cleaner the URL the better.

#5 – Image Maps for Navigation

Image maps for navigation: Use text-based navigation, even if just in the sitemap to ensure that crawlers can find your inner pages.

#6 – JavaScript for Navigation

This is generally bad. Disable JavaScript in your web browser and then look at your website. If you can’t see the site navigation then web crawlers won’t see it either. A sitemap or text links in the footer can help offset this, but it is better to use crawl-able navigation.

#7 – Robots.txt Files

This is a file containing instructions for search engine crawlers telling them where they can and can’t go. If the web designer accidently blocks the root folder of the website in this file it prevents the crawlers from crawling the entire website. If your Robots.txt file says “Disallow: /” then you are blocking your entire website.

#8 – Duplicate, Weak, or Poorly Written Content

This has been the focus of several were the focus of Google algorithm updates. Avoid copying even small amounts of other people’s content or making multiple versions of your own.

#9 – Doorway or Splash Pages That Load Before the Main Site

Doorway or splash pages that load before the main site: Your first page should be rich with text and part of your main site structure.

#10 – Indexed Pages That Require Passwords or Registration

If you want Google to index pages that require registration, cookies, or passwords, it’s not good. These can turn the search engine crawlers away.

#11 – Too Many Graphics, Too Much Code, or Lots of Multimedia

Make sure your important keywords don’t get skimmed over because the search engine’s spider bailed out before seeing them because the page loaded too slowly.

Additional Reading: Website Redesign SEO Blunders