Website Directory Structure and Directory Hierarchy
Directory paths and files names with keywords are an important part of search engine optimization (SEO)
Dead Links Stink
Scam & Spam Integrity Alert
We will not SEO any website that uses black hat SEO tactics, link farms, that contains material intended to harm, degrade, mislead, or scam or spam people (or robots).
Two more key keyword strategies to keep robots traveling free and easy on your websites' information highway
We specialize in optimizing your entire website. We are not just another pretty metadata face SEO company.
Before we will SEO your website with metadata it needs to have solid content, good infrastructure, and be relatively problem-free.
We will analyze your website for potential problems but if we find serious issues, you will need to fix them, have us fix them, or have someone else fix them before we will fatten up your website with robot keyword fodder. That is the only way we can give you a money-back guarantee for our work.
Getting robots to index your site is not that hard - getting your website to come up in top positions in search engines is hard.
To be competitive against the 9 billion (according to Google) other websites out there in Cyberspace your content; how your site is laid out and works all have a lot to do with SEO.
We have to be as picky as you are. You want the best from your site - and from us. But driving traffic to a broken-down site is not the way to go and not how we do business.
Optimization Strategies That Work
SEO Strategy #1: Infrastructure
The most important thing (because it is the hardest thing to fix if you do it poorly) for ensuring a fully optimized website is to start with solid infrastructure.
What is website infrastructure?
Website infrastructure are the programs, applications, files, directories, and layout of your web pages. Anything that a robot (or human) uses to locate and navigate your site (including hyperlinks and site maps) are part of your website's infrastructure.
Be thoroughly modern, Millie. Use the most current versions of software applications. If yours is out of date update it. This absolutely critical if you use any applications on your site or public domain or open source products which are more vulnerable to hacks.
If you do not stay current on software updates it is only a matter of time before your site gets hacked!
Keep the welcome mat dust-free. Have a great index page (also called home, landing, or front page) with site-related content - not just a page full of links into the site. Update this page at least weekly (more often may even be better) to keep the welcome mat "dust-free" and inviting.
Niecy Nash. Clean House. Courtesy MyStyle.com
Organization is next to godliness. Call Niecy Nash from Clean House if you must, but get and keep your website's structure organized:
Organize sections of your website into subdirectories.
Name subdirectories with keywords and "plain english" words.
Rarely, if ever use sub-subdirectories. Try to keep all your files organized in directories that are only one level deep off your root directory.
Separate images you use to generate your website into one directory and any images you want Google images to capture into another.
Name files with keywords and words that make sense. Remember, your file names show up in your URL.
Hyperlinks and navigation tools like icons, buttons, and your site map are all part of the information highway within your website. Keep them up to date and make sure to fix broken links immediately.
Your robots.txt file (this is not an option for a serious website owner) should always be named plural (robotS), end in .txt and be placed in your root directory.
Be sure to use the robots.txt file to "forbid" robots from exploring nonessential stuff like modules, applications, scripts, and CSS files. If you have anything of a sensitive nature be sure to tell robots "crawls off" those areas as well!
Have two separate site map files for robots but call them both "sitemap" (one word). One sitemap should be a plain text file ending in .txt and the other should be an xml file (ending, of course, in .xml). Some search engines are now getting picky about file extensions so offer them both.
Really, really, reeeeally important SEO Tip:
- Map out your website in an outline before you create it.
- Decide what sections you want to create and what you will name them.
Moving pages around later is time consuming and you will confuse your visitors (and robots) with page redirects.
Map it twice, create it once. Anyone who builds stuff or sews knows exactly what we are talking about!
Two other important SEO strategies to get search engines to visit, index, and love your website:
- #1 The content. In real estate it's "location, location, location." In SEO performance it's "content, content, content." >>SEO Content Writing Tips
- #2 SEO completes robots. This is where what most people think of as SEO comes into play. Page titles, metadata, and playing tag >>SEO the Little Things