There are many Web Design mistakes that can damage your website’s rank on search engines. Website design companies and search engine marketing experts use a number of techniques to influence a websites rank on search engines like Google and Yahoo. Web design companies use a combination of these factors during the design phase to help a website get indexed by search engines. On the contrary there are some common mistakes that can have a negative impact on the website’s chances of ranking high. A professional web design company will in most cases address these concerns during the design and the website is search engine friendly.

All in all search engines like Google consider more than a thousand different factors in order to determine a website’s position on search engine results. Some are easily evident to a website owner whereas others may present difficulties to exercise a control over. Just like how some factors can have a positive impact, there are some common mistakes that can negatively impact its chances. The top 5 factors that can damage your websites rank on search engines are discussed below:

Little or No Content

The text or content on a website is one of the most important things that affect its rank on search engines. A website with little or no content is very difficult to rank high. Each page on a website is indexed individually by search engines. A page that has sufficient content has a higher chances of ranking than a page with little or no content.

It is generally advised to have a minimum of 250 to 300 words on each page of the website. Whilst it is possible for pages with less content to rank high, it makes it more difficult to achieve. The quality of the content is equally important and is discussed later in this article.

Poor menu and Navigation

The menu on the website should be simple and clear. The different pages of the website should be interlinked properly among each other. It should be possible to reach each page of the website with ease. This is important not only for users but also for search engines which navigate and scan the website and its pages using navigation and links present on the website.

The number of links on a page should be balanced. Too many links can cause as much problems as having too few. In general internal linking between pages of the website should be free used whilst outgoing links to other websites should be limited to a few per page.

In additional to the menu, a website should also consist of a sitemap page. A sitemap is a page on the website that lists all pages as links. This is helpful for the user as well as for search engine. Using a sitemap a search engine is able to easily index all pages independently.

Flash Sites

Search engines have evolved with time and have become more intelligent. Flash sides could not be indexed at all by search engines a few years ago whereas no w search engines like Google are able to index flash websites with ease. Nevertheless it is not advised to have an entire website designed in flash. It is OK tio use some components or graphics designed in Flash but having an entire website in flash can reduce the chances of high rank on search engines in general.

Poor quality of content

Search engines prefer websites with original content that is updated frequently. It is also important for the content to be rich in keywords that your website is targeting. The content on a website has increase manifold in recent years. Search engines treat the quality of content as one of the main factors in determining a website’s rank on search results.

Duplicate content is one of the key issues concerning poor quality content. Search engines like Google are known to penalise websites for displaying duplicate or copied content that appears on other pages. Having duplicate content on more than one page of the same website is equally frowned upon. It is thus important to display content that is well researched and original. Above all it should be related to your website and keywords.

Not Optimised for Search Engines

A professional web design company will in most cases design a website with search engines in mind. As discussed earlier in this article, there are a number of techniques that can be used in the design of the website that will promote better ranking on search engines. If your web design company has not addressed these factors during the design of the website, then this will reduce the chances of the website ranking favourably.

In order to be indexed by search engines each page of the website should have the appropriate Meta tags that are used by search engines to find out information about a web page. The different Meta tags such as Title, description and keywords should be included on each page of the website. Title tags in particular are considered to be the most important factor in ranking. Your web design company can assist with researching the right keywords for your website. These should then be included in the appropriate Meta tags and also within the content of the website.

If your web design company has not already eliminated the key mistakes discussed above during the design phase then customising them now can be a significant help to the optimisation process.
The internet is full of websites that have not yet addressed the 5 common problems discussed above. This can kill the chances of the website ranking high on search engines. Addressing then even now can provide a significant boost the optimization process.

Eliminating the 5 common search engine ranking mistakes is a good starting point in a long term strategy to market your website on search engines.