Silktide is a tool which is used to work out a rating for your website. There are many different factors that Silktide look for on your website in order to work out your overall score. Silktide also gives your website scores for 5 different areas which are Marketing, Design, Accessibility, Experience and Visitor Rating. Marketing
Marketing is the hardest of all scores to get. It is the also the score which will take the longest to improve. Ranking in Google
To improve this score you need to be easily found in Google with your main keywords. These normally include your websites name, which should always be in the top 10 in Google when it is searched for at least. Number of Links
Silktide also takes into account the number of websites that link to you and the number of these, which are quality links. There are various ways to improve the number of websites, which link to you. Popularity ranking
This is basically your traffic ranking in Alexa. This is determined by the number of visitors you receive who have the Alexa toolbar installed. It is well worth installing the Alexa toolbar yourself, as your own visits will be counted. Design Number of Images
The number of images per page is also important. About 10 images per page is a good average number for Silktide. Make sure you also have a good number of unique images per page too. Amount of Text
All pages must contain a good amount of text. Any pages that have no text will lower your score on Silktide. Table-based layout
It is a very bad idea to use a table-based layout on your website. It is best to use CSS coding to layout your website instead. Use of Frames
By no means must your website use frames. Silktide hates these more than table-based layouts and you will not score very well at all. Use of Page Titles and Headings
All of your web pages must have a page title and these should be relevant to the information on each page. Silktide do not like a lot of web pages with the same page titles so avoid these. It is best to use as many tags as possible as this will increase your Google ranking and also your Silktide score. Accessibility Size of Pages and Speed of Website Your website needs to be able to load up quickly. In order to do this the size of your web pages need to be small and not contain too many images that may cause it to take longer to load. British legal requirements and Use of style-sheets
The code of your website is also very important. Silktide will improve your score if you use the latest XHTML code and design your website with CSS. Make sure all your code is validated. Number of Links
Silktide will also give you points for having a good number of links on your pages, whether they are external or internal. About 15 –25 is a good number on average. Flash Animations
Flash animations and flash buttons should also be avoided, as Silktide will lower your score if you use too much flash. Experience Features
Silktide looks for a number of features on your website. Here is an example of a few: Login facility, Search facility, Discussion forums, about this website section, Privacy policy, News, Downloads. Use of Interactive Elements
Your website must not include any advertising keywords in your source files so your website can display correctly to users with an advertising blocker enabled. Use of Forms
A web form or two will boost your experience ranking. This is because it adds connectivity between your website and your customers.
By Craig Randall. The owner of WebGrafix and Bitzbox
