This article is the second in our new series “HTML Search Engine Optimization“. Over the next few weeks we’ll be explaining more about how to better optimize your web sites HTML code and how it can help your ranking in major search engines. In this series we will cover such topics as content, code, links, competitor research, website submission, and pay per click.

Optimizing Web Site Code

Once you have optimized your web site content, the next item to look at is your code. To help your web site’s search engine optimization (SEO), you have to make sure that search engines can properly read the content on your pages. When your content is organized in a clean and efficient way you are helping to make any site additions easier while future-proofing your web site at the same time. Below you can find important aspects of your code that should not be looked over.

If you’re thinking about hiring an SEO, the earlier the better. A great time to hire is when you’re considering a site redesign, or planning to launch a new site. That way, you and your SEO can ensure that your site is designed to be search engine-friendly from the bottom up. However, a good SEO can also help improve an existing site. -Google SEO

Organized Code

Having clean and organized code architecture is key to making sure your web site is search engine friendly. When you have a clean site structure you are laying down the red carpet for search engines and in-turn making the search engine indexing process smooth. It is best to only use one header (H1) tag per page and list the other header tags in logical order.

<h1>Keyword Rich Page Header</h1>

<p>Some descriptive body text.</p>

<h2>Second Level Keyword Rich Page Header</h2>

<p>Some more descriptive body text.</p>

<h3>Third Level Keyword Rich Page Header</h3>

<p>Additional descriptive body text.</p>

The six heading elements, H1 through H6, denote section headings… documents should not skip levels (for example, from H1 to H3)…- World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Standards

Simplified Code

Keep text styling out of your page and organize it within a well formed Cascading style sheet (CSS) instead. When using a content management system (CMS) make sure that you are not adding excess code by coping and pasting text from word documents. It has been shown through various testing that Google prefers CSS and that web browsers will be able to load your web site much faster. Search engine spiders want to comb through every piece of your website as fast as possible and because of that using well formed CSS is not something to ignore.

Image Names and Tags

Create descriptive, accurate, relevant file names and tags for images, so search engines can recognize images as content & even index them in image searches. The file name and alt attribute will let search engines an idea of what the image is. Because search engines do not have time to go image by image, their web crawlers rely on these attributes for indexing purposes. Google recommends pairing your file name and alt tag together for best results. Find the examples below.

Not so good:

<img src="puppy.jpg" alt="puppy"/>

Better:

<img src="puppy.jpg" alt="puppy"/>

Best:

<img src="puppy.jpg" alt="Dalmatian puppy playing fetch"> 

To be avoided

<img src="puppy.jpg" alt="puppy dog baby  dog pup pups puppies doggies pups litter puppies dog retriever labrador wolfhound setter pointer puppy jack russell terrier puppies dog food cheap dogfood puppy food"/>

Filling alt attributes with keywords (“keyword stuffing”) results in a negative user experience, and may cause your site to be perceived as spam. Instead, focus on creating useful, information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and in context. – Google Images

Flash Image Tags

Due to the expandable possibilities that Adobe Flash has brought to the web, the text content alone is easily seen by search engines. Crawlers and spiders don’t recognize flash as content without help. You can however enjoy many of the benefits that flash brings without the heartache. When creating flash slide shows, animations, banners and web sites there are various things that can be done to help search engines recognize content. Using flash elements within an HTML web page by pasting the element code within a DIV and adding a splash of CSS is an easy task that will help your site agree with search engine spiders. In addition, making sure that you properly identify your text and image content within the flash will help you tremendously.

Google can now discover and index text content in SWF files of all kinds, including self-contained Flash websites and Flash gadgets such as buttons or menus. This includes all textual content visible to the user. -Google Flash

Error and Redirect Pages

No one likes to visit a web site with broken links and that includes search engine crawlers and spiders. In order to prevent frustrating visitors and deterring search engines you should have a informational 404 page created. This page will help users search for the missing content or refer them to other pages instead of landing on an empty non-existent page. See the 404 page that we use on our company web design blog, that redirects visitors to article archives by month or subject.

If you have permanently moved content from one URL to another you can prevent users from landing on a 404 page by doing something called a 301 redirect. You can tell your server that the old URL has been moved to a new location. This will not only help users find the new page but transfer the pages ranking. If you do not use this method search engines will think that a new page has been created.

Does your company need a better Search Engine ranking and increased traffic? For a customized Search Engine Optimization program, Contact Taylor Digital Today.

Related posts:

1. Search Engine Optimization
2. HTML Search Engine Optimization: Competitor Research
3. HTML Search Engine Optimization: Website Submission
4. HTML Search Engine Optimization: Links
5. HTML Search Engine Optimization: Content