At Acronym Media, we like to hold up our own actions as proof that we practice what we preach. Our latest website design is an excellent example, demonstrating how we bridge the gap between SEO best practices and staying true to our brand.
Hey, Isn’t That Flash?
Yes it is! But it’s also search engine optimized. How is this possible? Well, techniques have emerged that make Flash content visible to search engines while still giving site owners complete control over how that content is displayed. For example, Scalable Inman Flash Replacement (sIFR) allows us to display headings using creative, eye-catching fonts our users may not otherwise have access to, all while making the underlying text available to search engines for full ranking benefit. This fairly simple technique (to implement) can be used to marry brand and SEO, although it should be done so strategically and in moderation; too much flash can still be detrimental to organic visibility.
So Clean You Could Eat Off Of It
Our HTML code is clean. It’s free of blocks of JavaScript and inline CSS, both of which add unnecessary source code that can negatively impact search spider accessibility. Instead, JavaScript and CSS are relegated to external files and referenced as needed. The decreased source code limits the likelihood of crawler barriers and even makes the site load faster. Moreover, a completely table-less design creates a more fluid architecture, improving SEO opportunities and ensuring compatibility with a wide array of web browsing devices.
It’s Just Semantics
There are a few HTML tags that are worth taking advantage of when it comes to SEO. In particular, the heading tags (h1, h2, etc.) provide semantic value to search engines determining relevance. For instance, a keyword in a heading tag contributes more than that same keyword elsewhere on the page. And since much of SEO is a numbers game, we’ll happily take any boost we can get, as long as it’s not deceptive to search engines.
Crawler-Friendly Navigation
We want to make sure search engines can access all of our content – not just from our recent redesign, but also as we add more and more pages in the coming months. The most effective way to ensure such access – for both human visitors and search engine crawlers – is through the main site navigation. Using CSS-based, JavaScript-free navigation ensures maximum usability while achieving full search engine indexing. As such, we’ve structured all of our links just the way search engines like them: in standard HTML, supported by HTML anchor text.
Internal Linking
Keyword-rich links between pages of a site, especially those from the body of a page, remain a powerful influencer of search engine rankings. They’re also an excellent way to give users what they need, when they need it. You’ll find these links all throughout the new Acronym Media website.
Keyword-Driven
We certainly want the Acronym Media brand to be a prominent feature of the site. But we also want to make sure we can reach future customers by targeting the keywords they use. That’s where our KDM™ methodology comes into play, helping us properly target web pages to keywords that deliver the right visitors 24/7. And to make the most out of organic search visitors, we always include an obvious Call-To-Action.
SEO Meets Usability
SEO and usability go hand-in-hand when naming conventions. Giving URLs keyword-rich names helps with ranking efforts, while also giving users important clues about what they’re about to view. We’ve even named our PDFs and other downloads using this keyword approach so that visitors end up with meaningful document names on their desktops.
You Can’t See It, But It’s Still There
We’ve got a few behind-the-scenes activities in play too. An XML sitemap gives search engines a heads up about new content, while associated webmaster tools accounts alert us to potential URL migration issues (despite our very thorough redirect efforts). Also, we’re not thrilled with our DMOZ description, so we’ve instructed search engines to ignore it and use our meta description instead. Speaking of which, every page has a specific meta description, increasing the likelihood that optimal messages appear in the SERPs.
