Search Engine Optimization pt. 3 - SEO Code
November 2, 2008 by Zach Katkin
Filed under Internet Marketing, Marketing
This is part 3 of a 6 part series.
It’s all about the code. This is the first article in this series on search engines where we will really dive deep into how to get to #1. Again, we’re trying to come up as high as possible in the search engines when our target markets are searching for products or services we have to offer. Why is this? Well let’s say you provide health benefits to a local audience. Doesn’t it make sense to have your website to appear when someone searches for “health benefits fort myers?” How valuable is that to you? No matter what your business, it can benefit from this kind of exposure. But, besides this generalization I have some more search engine optimization peddling to do:
- It flips conventional marketing on its head - People are searching for WHAT YOU HAVE! Not, remembering a creative ad you forced in front of them in a publication. Your visitors, potential customers, and sales are seeking you out. Crazy, I know!
- It is very targeted - Again, people are searching for what you have. Search engine optimization works by taking your visitors in a side door to the products or services they need to get to quickest. If your site is well optimized and you’ve gone through all of the motions, you can deliver a page dedicated to the specific needs of searches right away.
- It is timely - Your site and the opportunity to get a client or make a sale is delivered at precisely the moment they are in need - and searching - for what you have to offer.
- You have instant “street-cred” - By having a good ranking visitors assume you are credible “Google, recognizes this company enough to show their page #1, surely they are good and reputable.” Although this isn’t always the case (the results may not actually be credible, or they might not be a great company), the association is definitely implied and recognized by potential customers.
Now on to the nuts and the bolts. This article will discuss in detail the first step in making sure your site comes up, how your site is built.
In order to rank well you or your web developer or development company need to make sure your site is built with the goal of marketing in mind. Specifically these things should be addressed:
XHTML & CSS - (I know it’s technical gobbley gook, but just hear me out.) This is the standard of code used for your site. XHTML is the language used to present your content on the web, and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is how that content is styled (the design). By sticking to the latest XHTML & CSS standards, it means your website will be smaller in size, quicker to download, and easier to read by search engines. Although there is a debate as to whether XHTML vs. Tables (old style web design) will have an impact on search engine results for your sites, our own tests have seen large increases in ranking and performance by simply updating this.
Additionally, proper coding of XHTML, what’s called “Semantic Coding“, or using tags as they were meant to be used to present the content will help the search engines and other automated tools read your content and assign value. For example there are tags that carry more weight then others, by coding correctly, this can be communicated, and you can rank well or better, then if your website was not coded to these standards.
Unique Title Tags - The title tag is a tag on every web page. The text within this tag is displayed at the top left corner of your browser, and is also often used for the title of search engine results. Making sure this title is specific to each page, and relevant to your overall goals will help tremendously. Just changing the order of certain words in your title tags can have a significant impact on search engine results.
Unique META Tags - META tags are tags on a page that provide additional information on the page below. Again, much like title tags, they should be unique for each page (a real pain in the ass for sites with lots of pages). META information is not as important as it once was, but is still measured and used by search engines.
Alt & Title Tags - If your website is coded using XHTML/Semantic coding, this will already be factored in. Alt tags are used so that users who can’t see images on your site, understand the images on your site. For example, a picture of an elephant would have the alt tag say “elephant” that way if the user has poor vision, or is surfing without images turned on they will be able to know what is going on. LIkewise the title tag, can be used to provide more information to your users. Implementing these two tags and making sure to stick to updating them will help inform your visitors and search engines about your content.
File Structure - How you organize your content is also very important. On a smaller, simpler brochure site, this might not be as important, but even the smallest sites can see search engine benefits by appropriately naming pages and folders. For example, lets say you have a services page on your website. You should name it “example.com/services.html.” If you have a larger site with a number of services, say for example, lawn mower repair you should follow a similar structure: “example.com/services/lawn-mower-repair.html.” It’s that simple! Structuring your site in this manner helps inform users of the content on the page, in that section, and also helps search engines understand the format of your site.
Sitemap - A sitemap, both one your users can read and understand (example: Bonita Business Sitemap), as well as an XML sitemap that is used by search engines (example: Bonita Business XML sitemap) should also be generated for your site. These two files tell visitors and search engines, exactly what is available on your site and where every file is. It will help speed up the process of being included, or help improve your rankings on the search engines. If your site is built on a content management system the creation of a sitemap may be simple. If it wasn’t, or the process isn’t simple, you can always use available free online tools to generate your sitemap.
Post-Launch Steps - After your site has all of the above complete, it’s been structured properly from a coding and file perspective, it is helpful to submit it to the various search engines but not by any conventional search engine submission sense! Use the following services to verify that you are the owner of your site which will also include it in the search engine’s:
These tools also allow you to verify ownership of your website, learn more about them over time (like what people are searching for when your site comes up and how many links your website has - more to come), and they also allow you to submit your sitemap, speeding up the process of getting in the search engines.
Sidenote: Hosting - Hosting can have a significant impact on your search engine rankings. If your website is hosted by a server or company that is unreliable, whose computers or network is constantly down and thus inaccessible by search engines or visitors, you will not rank as high.
