There is basically one thing graphics intensive sites can do to optimize their website… increase their textual content so that the search engines will know what their site is about. This doesn’t automatically mean adding really long narratives though. Such sites can opt to add textual content using 3 ways.

1. Use ALT tags – Since the site is graphics intensive makes sure that each image makes use of the ALT attribute so that the search engine will know what the image actually contains.

2. Use captions – This works not only for the search engine but is also customer friendly. Use descriptive captions using keywords or phrases.

3. Use alternative content – Aside from the caption you can add a short paragraph under or beside each image or even just an opening sentence that links to a longer description. For example if your site sells exotic coffee beans then you will do well to not only provide the name of each coffee bean but also a short background. You can also add alternative content by adding sections to your website related with content related to the stuff being sold. For example as part of your coffee site you can add a recipe page where visitors can find some interesting recipes that actual chefs use to concoct dishes with coffee as one of the ingredients.

Many website owners unknowingly sabotage their page rank by commiting some of the most common SEO blunders listed below. To make sure that your SEO efforts aren’t put to waste read on and correct any of your mistakes if you see some listed below.

1. Not having a solid marketing plan. Although your website might be be SEO optimized and you get a high page rank your business still won’t benefit from it if you don’t have a good marketing plan. You need to know your market and be able to sell your product or service effectively. SEO exists to help you get noticed but are you worth getting noticed? Remember it is a mistake to focus to much on SEO since it is only a tool and not the goal.

2. Thinking your SEO efforts will please ALL search engines. Each search engine has its own algorithm so that your SEO efforts might be more effective for one search engine but not the other. If you aim to rank well for ALL search engines then you’re in for a challenge. If you decide to choose a search engine to rank well in though I would say Google would of course be the obvious choice to aim for.

3. Using too much flash and animations. Yes they look good and catchy but did you know that web crawlers cannot read or interpret the content of images. Employing to much visual content and too little textual content will therefore influence the page rank adversely since the search engine will see your site as having little relevant or useful information.

4. Not using ALT tags on your images. When you do use images make sure you place ALT tags or ALT texts to at least give the search engine an idea of what the image is about. Make sure your ALT tag is precise but descriptive.

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