Search Engine Optimization in Code
The html code behind the Web page must also be optimized for search engine visibility. This is done by careful
attention to various metatags and attributes in the code. If you are unfamiliar with html code you can see what we are
talking about just by clicking View > Source in the menu of your Web browser for any Web page. That shows you the source
code of the page.
The Header area and SEO
The first part of every Web page contains a "Header" section, which should contain these tags and little else:
The "header" is the part of the Web page code between
<HEAD>
and
</HEAD>
It should look like this for keyword "widgets" and the tags must be in the order shown with nothing before the
title if possible.
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Widgets</TITLE>
<META name="Description" content="Widgets - the perfect sexy product for your household, satisfaction guaranteed.">
<META name="keywords" content="Widgets, household gadgets, Wigdets, Security and health products, computer
accessories, information technology, history of widgets">
<META name="robots" content="index,follow">
</HEAD>
The text in the <Title> tag is probably the single most important optimization factor in the Web page. If it is
neglected, search engines lose their most important clue about what your page contains. The Description tag is important
too. Google and some other search engines use this text for their description of the page. If it is blank or
inappropriate, potential visitors may click another link. Search engines probably give the words in the Description tag
more weight than words in the text. The keywords tag is less important. Google seems to ignore it. Apparently, it was
found that too many pages were just copied from other pages and the keywords left unchanged.
Some optimization "experts" claim that metatags are unimportant. They are wrong.
Body code and SEO
Three important types of attributes in the body of the code:
alt - these text tags are used to identify images. Originally they were evidently intended for browsers that
didn't show images, to show text in place of the image. Search engines use them to determine what is in the image and
use that information as a clue as to what is in the Web pages. If your page is about widgets, you should have pictures
of widgets, and alt tags with text that describes the Big Widget, little Widget, green widget etc.
An alt tag in image code looks like this:
<img alt = "industrial widget" src = "http://widgets.com/industrial_widget.jpg">
Graphics are important sources of traffic in their own right, as will be discussed below.
title - This attibute is not the same as the title tag in the header. A title is used to display text in the status area
of the browser when a visitor's cursor hovers over a link. It is very important in little text menus where there may not
be room to give the entire title of the page in the anchor text (hypertext). For example for History of Widgets, the
menu item might say "History" and the rest of the information must be given in the title, like so:
<a title = "history of widgets" href= "http://widgets.com/widget_history.htm">History</a>
<H1>.. <H....> - Heading tags - It is not certain that these tags are needed for search engine optimization. If
you do use them, you need to be consistent. That is, the most important <H1> Heading should consist of 100% keyword,
while each succeeding level should have text with progressively less key word content.
For example:
<H1>Widgets</H1>
<H2>Industrial Widgets</H2>
<H3>Applications of Industrial Widgets</H3>
Bad Code
Internet search engine spiders are simple machines. They can get stuck if a page contains some code they cannot
parse, and ignore the rest of the page. Bad code can be created in various ways. Because parts of pages are often
copied, it can be distributed over many pages in a site. Use a search engine spider simulation
tool to make sure search engines can read the entire page.
Notice: Copyright
All materials are copyright 2008 by Ami Isseroff. All rights reserved. These pages may not be reproduced in any
form in electronic or printed media without express written permission from the author.
