Got a great website or blog that you want to launch? Or is it already launched? The site looks and feels good but have you cross checked these essential points ?
- Titles and Meta
The first and the foremost, the TITLE and the META DATA is the most important element for SEO. Keep the titles and description on each page unique. This is what Google Indexes from your website. - Sitemap
A sitemap is a great thing to have both in the aspect of SEO and better User Interactivity. Adding sitemap.xml to your root directory helps search engines locate and index each page from your website that is not already linked. - Proper Functionality
Does each of your pages work properly. The contact us page, the archives, the search functions and shopping baskets? - Cross Browser Rendering
The most important part for the designer, does you website looks the same in all the major browsers? I try to optimize my website for Firefox 3, Internet Explorer 7, Opera 9, Safari and Google Chrome. - Unbroken Links
Trust me at times they dont work. I sometimes forget to add the http:// and sometimes forget to update the links. Another good practise is to use “title” attribute. - Proper navigation
Are all of your website’s pages linked to each other internally ? Does the user finds it easier to get to any page of your website he wants ? Things like search box and breadcrumbs properly placed can help us a lot - RSS
The old days of bookmarking are gone. Users now stay updated with RSS Feeds. You can use PHP Scripts or third party apps to create RSS Feeds of your content on the fly. - Analytics
Analytics is important tool for analyzing your traffic, where do they come from, what page do they see, where do they go, what browser do they use are some simple questions that can easily be answered using analytics. I recommend Google Analytics - Optimization
Last but not the least, website optimization is the most important factor to make users stay on your website. People dont like slow websites. So I say use less graphics and better stratagies like css sprites etc. I urge you to have a look at Yahoo’s Best Practices for Speeding Up Your Web Site
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