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HTML Code Search Engine Optimisation is the subject of this part of our SEO
tutorial on this page. Web site design should not only look at the appearance of
a web site but other, more technical aspects as well. In this tutorial we are
looking at what can be done within the HTML code to optimise a web page in a way
that gets a search engine ranking. Hopefully the ranking achieved is high enough
to make a difference.
It should be noted that there is no sure way of generating a high rank within a
search engine short of paying the search engine to list a web site in position one.
It will take patience to achieve a high rank and constant and consistent tweaking
of the code and other aspects of the web site.
The DOCTYPE declaration appears to be somewhat overlooked in HTML coding
The DOCTYPE declaration is of upmost importance as it determines not only which version
of HTML is being used but also which additional features may be used embedded in the
code without compromising browser compatibility or conflicts and possible crashes of
the web site.
The user of this page should now start to create a HTML document that may later be used
as a template for all future HTML documents. This is possible as in this tutorial we
only discuss the HTML structural tags and tags that should be included into a HTML
document to comply with the W3C standards and to serve as a basis for a web site.
Students should note that the DOCTYPE tag does not have a closing tag. The case, upper or lower, of the DOCTYPE tag should also be identical to the example above. The type of mark-up language and version need to be matched to the mark up language and features other then mark up language used. The document type definition or DTD should be specified to allow correct interpretation of the code.
The HTML is important as it will prime the browser as to what type of code is going to follow. To do this will eliminate misinterpretation of the code. It should be noted that most browsers will attempt to display faulty code correctly. However, this cannot be guaranteed. It is therefore important to code correctly as per the rules and specifications published. The html tag is required by the W3C.
The HTML tag is mostly used without attributes. This is OK for HTML but not for XHTML. XHTML requires the ”xmlns” attribute. Thus a web designer will have to include it. The ”lang” and the ”xml:lang” attributes are important to identify the language used within the document.
The HEAD tag is required by the W3C and must be included in the code. While a web designer cannot use the tag it self to help search engine ranking it should be included to allow search engine robots to clearly identify the area of the web page code that contains a lot of information that assists the ranking of a web page. When a web page is accessed the HTTP protocol allows for the content of the head tag to be downloaded and looked at in isolation. This allows search engines to visit a lot of web sites without downloading the content users see in the browser window"
The TITLE tag is used for displaying information in the title bar of the browser window.
The main use of the title tag to the web designer is SEO. This tag should NOT contain the
company name or a lengthy description. This tag should contain the most common keyword(s) that
users of the site may use to find the service. Having a long title will hurt SEO as the search
will be diluted. The title tag should be repeated exactly in the content of the page. The
title tag is required by the W3C.
Every page should have an individual title to describe the use of individual pages.
As well as being required by the W3C the title tag is very important for SEO. Getting the content of this tag right may mean the difference between being listed on the first page of a search engine or being listed on other pages that are rarely looked at by the user. Great care should be taken to describe what users may be interested in using commonly used search phrases. Using something obscure or something that is too unique is not a good strategy. Care needs to be taken not to put content into a title tag that has little or nothing to do with the content of the web page. Using this strategy may result in disqualification of the listing within major search engines.
The BODY tag is the last of the required tags discussed here. Just like the head tag this tag alone is not useable for search engine optimisation. It may be used in conjunction with java scripting or other features to have some advertising function. Again it will assist search engine robots to have this tag included as it will clearly identify the area that holds everything that is displayed in the browser window.
All but the content-type version of the META tags are optional but some optional meta tags
should be included for SEO. It should be noted that search engines place only some
importance on these tags and they are only part of SEO. However search engine robots look
at these tags to determine part of the rank.
There are 2 types of meta tags available.
In this example the proper tag type has been used. Using the "http-equiv" version where the
"name" version should be used may be regarded as spamming and result in loss of listing rank.
The meta tag has many forms. The two groups of meta tags have just been explained. We will
now look at the different http-equiv and name attribute values and how they can be useful for
enhancing a page rank within a search engine.
Search Engine Optimisation cont . . .
