Good web design should be able to have both good form and function. There doesn't need to be a compromise. Although many people do compromise by taking only one or the other, it doesn't have to be that way. An example of sites that take form over function are sites that are riddled with Flash, video, and too many large images. Search engines like Google can't tell what you're video is about and could care less about a sites animations. Search engines care more about content, having a "well connected" website and sound web site coding.
Even though search engines don't really care about how nice you site looks, that doesn't mean it has to look bad though! Some web designers completely ignore good design because they either don't have any design talent or they just don't care. A website can be designed beautifully while still being an easy to use and easy to find site.
Let's talk about being "well connected".
The world wide web is exactly as it sounds, a web. It consists of billions of webpages that are linked together through a web of... links. Generally when I say "connected" I am referring to links. When search engines like Google scan all of the websites out there, the search engine has one main concern and that is ranking important websites first. Google is trying to make sure that the websites that come up first in its rankings are reliable, informative, and in demand. One way that Google decides what websites are important is by how many links are going to and from that website. In other words a website that has thousands of other websites linking to it, is probably more important than a website that has no links. For example, websites like eBay or the mayo clinic are linked to by thousands of other websites. When Google sees this it thinks wow a lot of people are interested in this eBay thing, so it must be important. Please keep in mind this is grossly oversimplified example and this is only one of a lot of reasons websites are ranked the way they are but it is a very important reason. If I made a website today that was suddenly being linked to by 5 million websites this week, I guarantee it would be ranking very well in Google even if the rest of the content was awful. The problem is that you can't make other people link to your site... or can you?
The answer is yes and no. A simple way to get a website to link to your website is to post in a forum. Sites like forums let you add content to their site. Which means you can take the issue into your own hands. Adding a link on a website that allows user editable content is essentially the only way to add links to your site yourself. The other way is old fashioned and that is networking with people. Saying "Hey Joe, I know you have a website for your furniture business, if you link to my site, I'll link to yours." This can be very time consuming but it's a great place to start.
Even though search engines don't really care about how nice you site looks, that doesn't mean it has to look bad though! Some web designers completely ignore good design because they either don't have any design talent or they just don't care. A website can be designed beautifully while still being an easy to use and easy to find site.
Let's talk about being "well connected".
The world wide web is exactly as it sounds, a web. It consists of billions of webpages that are linked together through a web of... links. Generally when I say "connected" I am referring to links. When search engines like Google scan all of the websites out there, the search engine has one main concern and that is ranking important websites first. Google is trying to make sure that the websites that come up first in its rankings are reliable, informative, and in demand. One way that Google decides what websites are important is by how many links are going to and from that website. In other words a website that has thousands of other websites linking to it, is probably more important than a website that has no links. For example, websites like eBay or the mayo clinic are linked to by thousands of other websites. When Google sees this it thinks wow a lot of people are interested in this eBay thing, so it must be important. Please keep in mind this is grossly oversimplified example and this is only one of a lot of reasons websites are ranked the way they are but it is a very important reason. If I made a website today that was suddenly being linked to by 5 million websites this week, I guarantee it would be ranking very well in Google even if the rest of the content was awful. The problem is that you can't make other people link to your site... or can you?
The answer is yes and no. A simple way to get a website to link to your website is to post in a forum. Sites like forums let you add content to their site. Which means you can take the issue into your own hands. Adding a link on a website that allows user editable content is essentially the only way to add links to your site yourself. The other way is old fashioned and that is networking with people. Saying "Hey Joe, I know you have a website for your furniture business, if you link to my site, I'll link to yours." This can be very time consuming but it's a great place to start.
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