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The importance of Search Engine Friendly Website Design

Some people think that the design of a website has nothing to do with the SEO or Search Engine Optimization of a website. However, this is a completely wrong assumption. Search Engine Optimization is affected by a number of factors, which include both on-page optimization as well as off-site or off-page optimization techniques.

Title Tags, Meta Keywords and Meta Description Tags, along with the website content and keywords used in the body content all contribute towards the on-site or on-page factors. What webmasters sometimes ignore is that the design and development of a website is also another factor which affects Search Engine Rankings.

A website can be designed with a table layout or it can be made div-based. The DIV based design uses CSS styling to control the layout of the entire page. Since most of the design is controlled through the CSS Style Sheets, the HTML code of the web pages itself decreases considerably, hence improving the Text to HTML ratio of every page of the website. This improvement helps in on-page optimization and hence, can lead to improved Search Engine Rankings.

Having a Search Engine Friendly website is important for improved Search Engine Rankings. Some webmasters focus on making their websites W3C compliant. However, it should be taken into consideration that W3C standards are over-hyped and making websites compliant is not extremely necessary.

Other factors which contribute to having a Search Engine Friendly website include the following:

  • Text based navigation
  • Good Internal Linking of the web pages
  • Website Sitemap

Other things to avoid are the following:

  • Flash navigation
  • JavaScript drop down navigations
  • Use of Frames
  • Flash based website

So when you design and develop your website, make sure you follow the above listed points to make it as Search Engine Friendly as possible. Stay tuned for more tips on making search engine friendly websites.

Site Sift Web Directory

Site Sift Web Directory
The Site-Sift Web Directory is a professional human edited web directory and is one of the most popular paid directories on the web today. The web directory is PR 6 which shows its authority compared to several other paid web directories. All the internal pages of the website have Search Engine Friendly URLs, which makes it easy for the bots and spiders to quickly index the internal pages and assign them Page Rank.

Site Sift Paid Web Directory has been online since September 2004 and has an Alexa Rank of less than 40,000. This clearly shows its popularity and gives an idea of the traffic coming to the directory. Submitting your site to Site Sift can be beneficial in terms of driving traffic and users to your website. Since it is a human edited web directory, all submissions are reviewed within 48 hours after payment is verified. The directory offers 3 different submission packages:

  • Standard Listing $29.95 (annual recurring)
  • Deluxe Listing $49.95 (one-time fee)
  • Sponsored Listing $99.95 per year

Payment accepted via Paypal or Credit Card.

Please make sure you follow the submission guidelines when submitting your website in order to get listed in the directory. You can do this by choosing the most appropriate category or sub-category for your listing and then clicking on the “ADD URL” link near the top of the page. You will then see a link submission form which just takes minutes to fill out and submit.

Site Sift Scripts

Site Sift also provides a Free Directory Script at Site Sift Listings. The web directory script is easy to download and install. The script makes it easy for webmasters to set up a Search Engine Friendly web directory easily, with a customized look and feel.

Site Sift Forums

The support forums at Site Sift make it easy for you to get online support regarding any problem related to the Free Directory Script. At Site Sift Webmaster Forums, you can also discuss topics like Search Engine Optimization, web design, programming, web hosting, web directories, online marketing and any other webmaster related topics.

Submit your Web Directory

I want to make a list of Search Engine Directories, and I want it to be the biggest list 😀

You will be able to see the complete list of directories on the Search Engine Friendly Directories page.

Please feel free to submit your directories for addition to the list. Both Free and Paid directories are accepted. You will have to submit the following information to get your directory listed:

  • Name Short name of the directory
  • Directory URL This should be the exact URL of the directory
  • Brief Description One to two sentences about your directory, sort of like a link description
  • Submit Link If your directory has a link submission page, please give its URL, else leave this field blank
  • Type Free, Paid, Register, Reciprocal
  • Theme General, Niche. If it is a niche directory, please specify the niche

You can submit your directory as a comment to this post, or send me an email at webmaster@seo-reloaded.com