What makes your portfolio website search engine friendly?

October 4, 2010

If you want to get your site higher on a search engine’s list (and we all do), you might be scratching your head on how to do it. Maybe you’ve tried some things and you can’t break past 47th. Maybe you’re considering invoking the SEO gods to grant favour on your site and bump you up a few spots.

The truth is it doesn’t take magic to help a search engine find your site, it just takes good code and hard work.

What does good code look like?

Believe it or not there are standards set for code. Some code can be messy, and it makes it harder for search engines to comb through the content to find things that tell the search engine what’s there.

Other sites are clean, but they are built with flash. This may not look like a problem for someone viewing your site because they are drawn in with all the cool swoops and swirls of a flash site. The problem is that search engines can’t see content on flash websites. The Flash text doesn’t show up in the code that the search engine sees, so it could be passing by your site without seeing your content.

What kind of work does it take to get my site seen?

Search engines love two things: good content and lots of links back to your site. When you write content, make sure that it is on topic and well-written. Write as often as you can (using a blog helps).

Also make sure to write other places on the web and link back. Comment on other people’s blogs, make links in your facebook status. Use twitter and draw people back to your site. The more links that refer to your site on the web, the more a search engine is going to recognize your website as a valid and trusted source of information.

Just make sure you aren’t making any enemies out there on the web. No one likes off topic comments or tweets that look more like spam.

If you need to know more about Search Engine Optimization check out our article in the knowledge base.