The Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) versus Design trade-off
One phase of a Search Engine Optimisation project involves a review of design elements that may prevent search engine spiders to efficiently read the text on a website.
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“Search engines spiders are getting more advanced all the time – the level of intelligence of their robots is increasing – but it’s very unlikely they’ll be able to convert graphics into text any time in the near future. Search robots are mechanical, not human; they’re not perceptive and they cannot ‘see’ designs, they see text and code only. Consequently, for efficient SEO, be ready to strip away obstructive design elements on your website.”
Luke Farley, Founder, LCubed.
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This SEO vs. design trade off can be confusing for humans looking at a web page. Often it is not obvious what is an image and what is text. This is because many textual elements are converted from plain text into images to improve the look of a web page (for example to allow the safe display of exotic fonts). An example is provided below. The text to the left is plain text which can be read and processed by search engines. The text on the right is in fact an image:
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EXAMPLE TEXT
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Text
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Image
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Try left clicking and dragging your mouse over each example. Notice how the text highlights letter by letter whilst the image on the right highlights in a single block.
SEO calls for the careful use of images and animations. Sophisticated imagery such as animation and graphics – especially when used as navigation elements like menus – are the natural enemies of search engine spiders.
It is important to clearly brief website designers on SEO requirements. Designers may put up stiff resistance to recommendations for SEO-friendly website design. SEO requirements can interfere with the designer's vision. After all plain text is not exactly pretty, and designers will rightly talk about human interface considerations.
Search engine-friendly, yet visually appealing websites require a balance between SEO requirements on the one hand, and design or human interface considerations on the other. It is possible to create great looking search engine-friendly websites, as long as the whole team understands the web from a search engine perspective.
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