What should I avoid when designing a website to rank well in the search engines?

It is important to remember that a "search engines spider" must be able to read your content in order to index it. Stay away from Flash only websites, websites designed in frames, websites with image maps or Java Script as the only form of navigation.

Flash only websites

Flash is very effective in its place but web pages designed totally in flash are not very well read by search engines. Now I’m not saying avoid flash with your life, but place it sparingly on your web site and keep all of your main content in regular HTML on the page.

Avoid frames with your life!

I cannot see any reason to use frames whatsoever. Many search engines simply do not index them and those that do, do not do it well. Let me ask you a question. When was the last time you saw a frames page in any search you have done? I’m guessing not often, maybe even never (certainly not for a competitive search). Even the most optimised of frames sites do not rank well in Google so forget them!

Avoid websites with image maps or Java Script as the only form of navigation.

Search engines find it difficult to read image maps and impossible to read Java Script. However both of these features can have a place in your website. Java Script often adds to the sites functionality while image maps are optem more pleaseing to the eye.

REMEMBER: make sure that the primary navigation for the site is simple(HTML) and easy to find by the search engines and you wont go far wrong.

Avoid dynamic URL's

Most database driven websites produce their pages with search engine unfriendly URL's that appear in the address bar like the example below.

http://www.babyjacks.co.uk/index.php?main_page=indexcPath=126

Instaling a mod rewrite module to your website will re write the urls on the fly displaying a search engine friendly url.

Feel free to visit virtuawebtech for more useful seo tips