Sadly, unlike the rather futuristic images conjured up by their name, search robots are nothing more than pieces of software. Thinking about the humanoid robots seen in science fiction films, one would expect them to be able to look at web pages in a way similar to humans, and it is tempting to imagine that contemporary search robots can too. SEO company professionals know the truth is much more mundane, for the moment at least.

Search robots, also known as bots, crawlers and spiders, are limited in what they can ’see’ on a website. This means it makes sense for SEO to tailor web pages carefully to suit the robots’ needs. As they can generally only read ordinary text contained within the HTML of a page, any important content should be written in this form. JavaScript and Flash are fairly incomprehensible for search robots as are images, video and audio, so presenting words in any of these formats only makes sense for optional add-ons, rather than important content.

Another consideration is that anything search robots cannot see, people relying on screen reading software will also miss, and even now there are some web surfers without broadband who may leave images turned off for speedier browsing. In order to convey some information about images to cover all these scenarios, the use of the ‘alt’ attribute, a place in the HTML code where a text description can be inserted, is the solution.

It is possible to see just what is visible to search robots by opening a web page inside a browser window and selecting ‘view source’ from the menu of browser options. This will call up the HTML code corresponding to that web page, and it is this which bots are able to crawl.

The most important item on the page for search engine optimization is the title, which is the text contained within the title tags of the HTML. This title text is what is seen in the title bar right at the top of the browser window, when viewing a web page normally. It is given a lot of weight by search engines, and usually the same words are taken and used as the heading of the search listing belonging to that page. It makes sense to think carefully about page titles and place strong keywords within them, as search engines will give emphasis to these when indexing pages and drawing up search results.

A section of the HTML known as the ‘meta description’ is also quite critical, as what is written here can be used by search engines as the content shown in search results. Thus it makes sense to create a thoughtful piece of writing, summing up the main aspects of a web page, which, if this is a company home page, might include all the salient points about one’s business that a customer would want to know, such as the type of services or products offered, the location and other relevant details.

At SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk we make sure all our web pages are friendly to search robots.

Although one’s preferred option may not always be available, picking a suitable domain name is critical for search engine optimization. The name is the first thing people will recognise about a website, whether they see it on a business card or in a list of search results, and even during that initial glance, opinions about what it signifies will already be forming.

The best domain names sum up what a website is about, clearly and concisely. Short, memorable options are the ones to go for, as they are more likely to lead to potential visitors actually typing the right words into a search engine. Names which include peculiar mis-spellings may not be wise choices, in spite of some famous exceptions to the rule. This is because of the possible loss of visitor traffic created by large numbers of people failing to get the name exactly right, and ending up somewhere else entirely after typing the wrong version of the URL into a search engine.

A domain name itself is not case-sensitive but, if the URL for a web page contains capital letters anywhere downstream of the domain name, in a folder name for example, these may be mistakenly written as lower-case on occasion, and some Web servers would interpret this as a completely different URL. Thus, capitalisation is better avoided.

It is extremely helpful for SEO if a domain name includes keywords relevant to one’s website, although going overboard and trying to incorporate too many keywords inside a long, hyphenated name might lead to being seen as a possible spam site by the search engines. Using hyphens or numbers is not usually recommended anyway, as both of these tend to make domain names more difficult to remember.

An obvious point, which could be overlooked, is to make sure that any chosen name is not already registered as a trademark by another company. Problems can arise if the other company decides to go to court in order to take possession of the domain name. This should only happen if there is any indication that the new website might be set up in competition, or might be confused with the business or products of the other company, but some large corporations have been known to bully smaller companies in order to force the sale of a domain name. Unfortunately money often wins in such cases, and businesses with domain names having only a passing resemblance to the trademarks of corporate giants have been forced to hand them over.

Engaging the services of an SEO company from the start can be beneficial when setting up a website. Professionals will be able to advise on matters such as branding, and the right domain name could be an important part of creating a brand. A unique name, which evokes particular emotions in people when they hear it, or read it online, provides a great head start in building a memorable and successful web business.

At SearchEngineOptimization.co.uk we can help you find the perfect domain name for your website.