Why would you build a website that can’t be seen by the search engines? Why would you pay for a website that can’t be found in the search engines?

The web designer’s answer would go something like this “I’m here to design, you want optimization you goto an SEO Company”. The client will only trigger when the promised leads or sales from the new website never come-to-pass. Things are changing however, more and more designers are switching on to offering their paying clients search engine friendly websites. So, we’re making a little headway. We now have designers that actually want to give their sites a helping hand when they release them into the World Wide Web.

But here’s the rub. Most designers have read a few pages from a few websites and suddenly they know everything about Search Engine Optimization. In fact they know so much that they’ll even promote the service on their websites and suddenly we’re back to the bad old days again. So tell me, I hear you ask, what can I expect from a “Search Engine Friendly Website”? Read on and I’ll tell you what you should – at the very least – expect and look for when buying this service from a web design company.

Validation: The first check is to make sure the website validates under any of the W3C Validation certificates. This check makes sure that the HTML written to design your site is valid and any visiting search engine bot or spider can cleanly access all the content and links contained within.

Title Tags: Your designer should make sure that all title tags are themselves unique. Whether your site is static or dynamic, it is of the utmost importance to have unique title tags for each page. Sites that have similar title tags will find search engines like Google placing their pages in their Supplemental Index (not a good place to be). Another hint with title tags is don’t place your company name at the beginning. Importance of this position belongs to the most prominent keyword phrase of your page not your company’s brand name.

Semantic Markup: All main headings should use the Heading1 tag and sub-headings the Heading2. These can be styled using CSS .

Images, Flash, Frames, Counters and Animated Gifs: A brief description on the alt tag to describe an image is best for those that use screen-readers. Never design 100% Flash based sites – your textual content won’t be found and neither will you. If your a paying client and your designer is using frames, counters and animated gifs on your site then stop the payment now and get a new designer. If your a designer using frames, counters and animated gifs on a site – ahem, where you been buddy?

Javascript: Make sure all Javascript is called from its own file – if it is on-page or in-line Javascript make sure the page validates. Spiders have a tendency to get caught in Javascript and will eventually give up trying to crawl your site.

Site Maps: Site maps are a great way to get all your pages indexed with the search engines. A site map can be designed in various forms: it can be HTML based and a page in your website; can be created in Notepad by placing each URL of your site into a new line and submitted to the search engines; can be quickly created in XML from numerous sites on the web and for free – just type “XML Site Map” into Google.

Content: Content is still King. However, make sure all spelling is correct and grammar as well. Never trust a firm that wants to use your keyword any more than is naturally normal on a site – this is known as Spamming and will do you more harm than good. If your web company tries to use hidden content in your site by whatever means: text colour the same as the background; using CSS to not render text to the screen; stuffing keywords into the noscript tags then ask for your money back – this is illegal and will get you blacklisted from the search engines.

So my advice is research those web design companies that offer “SEO Services”. Ask them questions relating to the advice above – if they falter on any then move on as they spell professional with two f’s.