Zendesk (http://www.zendesk.com/) is a great example of an SEO friendly website, the design is very simple, the text screams “READ ME” to search engines, the title is a perfect example of a great SEO title reading “Help Desk Software by Zendesk - Customer Support Software and Support Ticket System.” Now that’s some good Google Juice.

Developing an SEO friendly web template or theme isn’t difficult. At the same time, it isn’t something a lot of designers practice, either from lack of knowledge or because they are simply too lazy to do it. An SEO template that is also clean and organized will be the foundation for any successful SEO campaign, and it should already be implemented into your business code.

There are so many different steps for creating an SEO friendly template. Unfortunately a good SEO theme will not be flashy, extravagant, or annoying in anyway. You know those sites that you visit, that happen to have weird little graphics and constant flash elements going? Those sites are not SEO friendly. While they do look nice, search engines hate them. You should avoid using flash, frames, and javascript. If you have to use them, then use them sparingly and make sure the code is nicely arranged.

If you feel that flash is absolutely necessary, avoid creating the entire website around flash elements. These do not get indexed and end up being absolutely useless for your site. If you are like 95% of the population that owns a website, you will not be successful just because your site is “pretty.”

Drop down navigation is likely the simplest method for using navigation. Other systems for navigation don’t cut it and will not be easily indexed. See rule number one if you have doubts.

Bad internal linking is also dangerous and another useless attempt to make the design SEO friendly. If you want your internal pages to rank for search terms, then you must good anchor text and coding is an absolute must for the theme. If the template doesn’t do this, or if your designer doesn’t offer this, then look elsewhere.

Over optimization is equally as bad as under-optimizing. The keyword stuffing is heavily frowned upon by all search engines, not just Google. Your pages and headers should be clean and organized. Keywords should be kept to a minimum to boost SERPS but also to appeal to readers and those that are looking for a quality website. Proper use of the most important keywords should be adhered to, not tossed all over the place.

Inconsistent themes and coding is also something that should be avoided at all costs. Keep your coding consistent so that it is easily read and understood. This is also helpful for anyone that may need to tweak the coding a little bit. If you have any doubts, try to find a professional that can offer advice for cleaning up the theme and making it more consistent with your goal and ideas.

Balance and focus are the final most important parts of designing SEO friendly themes. Balancing everything to be easily readable (by humans and search engines) is key to a successful business and money making campaign that lasts for years, not just months.