Tuesday Tip of the Week – SEO
One of the first steps in search engine optimization (SEO) is to crawl your site for 404 errors and broken links, both internal and external. If your site delivers error pages or links to non-existent pages, then your site may be considered incomplete by search engines. In turn, crawlers may fly right by your content because your site is not functioning correctly.
One of the keys to SEO is to make your site easily detectable by the crawlers. Great content and well-optimized pages come second to functionality. One of the best tools to detect broken links and error pages is Google Webmaster Tools. Keep in mind this is not a one-time process. As you add new content, links and pages can be compromised. Scan your site regularly to detect any negative errors that may affect your rankings.
~Crystal
on March 17th, 2009 at 9:43 am
Great tips Crystal. Online shopping sites need to be especially aware of their site’s functionality, and need to make sure their product pages are all up, functioning correctly, and optimized so the search engines can crawl them.
Even if your site will require 404 or error pages for a time, keep in mind that those pages themselves can even be customized and optimized for a site
on March 18th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Another good thing to do once the 404 error pages are located is to make sure that any external links pointing to those pages are updated to a relevant and functional page.
on March 18th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
@Kris – Excellent point. Commerce sites and online shopping sites need to be on top of this. I can see these sites losing potential business when customers just leave because of a lack of functionality.
@Tarla – Another excellent point. Not only do you need to check your internal structure, you should make sure those relevant backlinks are still in tack.
Thank you both for adding to this weeks tip!
on March 19th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Ok this may not be useful per se, but SEO can be fun too right? Came across this funny blog post highlighting clever 404 pages that will almost guarantee a return visit if you haven’t quite scrubbed as well as you should have.
Funny 404 Pages
on March 20th, 2009 at 7:41 am
@Lindsey – Thanks for showing us the link to the 404 pages. I enjoy the creativity these guys put into their site. It just reiterates what Kris mentioned about customizing those error pages. If you have a creative 404 page, then I think visitors are most likely to remain on your site, rather than leaving.