Search Engine Optimization

[CrankyFranky]

Maybe I am wrong, BUT
I would like to see some more "help" in XARA WEB DESIGNER on how to get better traction on Search Engine Optimization.
Let's face it, Xara is quite cheap, for what one is getting (which is in my case only used to make 1-2 web sites), but the SEO is a pain in the proverbial and google
makes it more and more expensive with their various SEO options. (ppc, for instance).
My clientele come generally from the recommendations that are left on "Wiki-Camps" by previous clients of mine, but I would still like some SEO (done by myself) without all the BS and cost, that goes with it.
I know that google rules the roost, but maybe someone here knows a work-around?
Any info great fully accepted.
Cheers
CrankyFranky

[CrankyFranky]

great fully = gratefully :-)

[Egg Bramhill]

Have you looked at this Cranky

https://www.sculptex.co.uk/optimizin...gle-pagespeed/

[Rob-Xar]

This is a topic we're looking at currently for future versions of Xara, adding more SEO options and other improvements.

[Egg Bramhill]

That's great to hear Rob, even if it just includes SEO images for a start and possibly combining css

[Cloud]

Follow basic guidelines and you'll be ok.

1. Images must have the keyword in file name, title and alt tag
2. Content must be original
3. No point in using the keywords field
4. DO NOT spam, keywords should make up less than 2% of the total word count
5. Use LSI keywords within the content
6. One H1 tag per page
7. As many H2 or H3 tags you need
8. Fast loading website
9. Fast hosting
10. Use a Content Delivery Network
11. Don't target high competition keywords
12. Text must make up the vast majority of the page (minimum 400 words per page but go for around 800)
13. No duplicate keywords
14. No duplicate content on other pages
15. Internal linking only to highly ranked pages (look at your analytics)
16. At least one outgoing link to a high PR page
17. Get an SSL certificate

If you want to rank locally then you are ok with this. I've had xara created websites rank #1 for low to medium competition keywords just by following these simple rules. BTW when it comes to speed, a static website like the ones xara creates will always be faster than a CMS as there is no dynamic content to load.

[Egg Bramhill]

1. Images must have the keyword in file name, title and alt tag

And there's the first problem Cloud.

Whilst it's possible to give images File names using "Filename=meaningful-name" it's useless if you're using variants.

Xara only allows the addition of a title on Highslide Pop-ups.

The only option that does work is the Alt Text name.

[CrankyFranky]

Thanks to all, in particular Egg and Cloud
Good news from Rob, looking forward to it. Any idea WHEN it will be available? Maybe it can be put up as a beta-plug-in?
Probably most us us using Xara do NOT use it "professionally" making websites for clients, but just use it to make their own site for their own small business, so anything that helps keeping us in business is good news. Most of us probably don't have the time to read and learn all the ins/outs of a changing SEO landscape , so anything that keeps our website in front of our clients is a good thing.
Cheers
CrankyFranky

[Rob-Xar]

Unfortunately not, it's still very much on the drawing board in the stages of deciding what needs changing within the program and the exported websites.

Image names is something I believe on there (that it keeps the imported name or there is a field to set what it will be called on export) but also a lot of optimisations would need to be done beforehand as there is a lot of duplication going on with images.

We'll need to get a few websites and also pass them through the Google page insights and gather feedback from there.

Finally, whilst we will do our best to make sure there's nothing in Xara holding users back from having optimised websites, as Cloud said, a lot of it is down to your content too. We'll make sure we have appropriate articles too that highlight this.

Thanks
Rob

[forresthowie]

Hi all
May I ask something about the variant duplication issue - every seo test that's been done on my site mentions that my H1 tags are duplicated (because they are used in both variants). I went through my mobile version and changed the H1 tags to 'no style' - this now shows in reports as all being fine and dandy. My question is this, will this somehow penalise my mobile site in terms of search engine ranking? Is that even possible to do, to penalise one variant ?
Thanks for any help anyone can give me (and apologies for already asking another question earlier).
Thanks