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Search Friendly Search Friendly Content

How To Be Search-Friendly
Here are some easy-to-follow tips for basic Search Engine Optimization. Keep your website search-friendly so the search engine's "spiders" can easily navigate through and include all the content on your site. If a spider can navigate a website, then it can better assess its importance when ranking organic search results for keywords and phrases.

HTML Is King
Use HTML to display the contents of your website. While some search engines are attempting to find ways to spider javascript or flash content, they have not made a lot of progress. Stick with using HTML, which can be spidered easily by search engines and viewed by all visitors.

Text Links
HTML text links should be used for website navigation rather than images. It is easy for search engine spiders to follow text links. Search engines also use the text contained in the link as part of their algorithm to determine what the linked page pertains to.

Site Maps
Site maps can be a good tool to assist search engine spiders in navigating your website's linking scheme. Keep your website search-friendly by including a site map.

Robots.txt
Use the robots.txt file to prevent search engines from spidering content that is redundant or irrelevant. Make sure that the robots.txt uses the proper syntax so you do not inadvertently exclude important pages.

Navigation Obstacles
Avoid placing any obstacles in the path of the website visitor, or the search engine spider. Requiring user registration or a login will often prevent a spider from following and including any links that are located behind the login.

URL Format
Avoid using complex urls with session IDs. Search engines may have difficulty with complex URLs. In particular, avoid using the syntax "ID=" in the website's URLs.

Avoid Frames
Frames are the enemy of search engine spiders. Avoid using frames at all costs.

Focus Optimization
Do not try to optimize a single page for too many keywords or phrases. Keep the optimization very focused for each page on a website.

A search-friendly website will help generate targeted organic traffic from search engines. Keep the design and navigation basic so the website can easily be spidered and indexed by the search engines.

Related Articles:
How to Optimize for Organic Search
Search Engine Optimization Guide
Search Engine Spider Food

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