You might be wondering what KISS has to do with Search Engine Optimization or for that matter, Web Development?
The KISS we are discussing today is an acronym for = Keep It Simple Stupid!
Yes that’s right, you can boost your sites search engine rankings, just by keeping it simple i.e. by not using fancy flash animations, java script or frames.
A search engine spider can only sort through the text that is presented to it by a site; it can not read what your flash laden site is saying or what an image is about.
Let’s take the example of the official website of Motul, when you go to Motul.com, you are presented with a beautiful flash animation and the entire site is based on flash. It looks great; however it is in complete contradiction to the KISS principle.
The end result?
When you search for phrase Engine oils in Google, it is nowhere to be found. In fact there are only three pages listed in Google for Motul.com and they too do not contain any content!
While this might be alright for a big corporation like Motul, which has billions of dollars of marketing budget, unfortunately not every one has such deep pockets and such a recognizable brand name.
Now let’s take the example of the top result you are likely to see in Google for the phrase engine oils, CarBibles.com.
On first looks it doesn’t looks as impressive as the Motul website, neither does it have that big a brand name, what it does have is the CONTENT and that too, lots and lots of it.
This website is a perfect example of the KISS principle, while the looks of the site are minimalistic and use of graphics is only on as need be basis, it has over 16000 words of content and that too unique and relevant information that the searcher was probably looking for when he/she typed engine oils in Google. Even the images present on that web page have alt tag, which describes to the search engine robots, what that particular image is about. This is one of the primary reason why this site is ranked as number one for the phrase engine oils.
Another website presenting good implementation of KISS principle is OBD2 Adapters, which is why; it too ranks well in Google.
While I am not implying that you should go out and remove all the graphics from your site and leave only the text, using the KISS principle while designing would save you a lot of headache.
Only use graphics and animations for headers or to present some thing that you are talking about, i.e. image of a bottle of engine oil when you are discussing about engine oils, even in this case don’t forget to use relevant alt tag to describe the image. This way you will not only be able to captivate your audience, you will also be able to ensure that your website is search engine friendly and ranks well.
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