Pandia SEM 101: Search engine friendly HTML code

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PART 3

How to write search engine friendly HTML code

Search engine marketing is in no way an exact science, and there is no such thing as a perfectly optimized HTML webpage code. The ranking algorithms of the search engines are well kept secrets, and they change often.

Next week your pride and joy – the number one listing in Google – may have dropped to number 65, and you will have to start fine-tuning your page once again.

However, most webmasters do nothing in order to improve their rankings. This is why even a modest attempt at search engine optimization may help a lot – especially outside the most competitive phrases.

Doorway Pages

In order to achieve good results for many keyword phrases, you should optimize individual pages for different phrases. If you have written an article on a specific topic, divide it into several pages covering various subtopics. Optimize these pages for queries covering these subtopics. The more pages you have, the greater the chances that someone will find your site.

Many professional search engine optimization experts make use of so-called "doorway pages" (also called "bridge," "gateway," or "entry" pages). They design additional pages covering specific keyword phrases especially for the search engines.

This is especially important if their client will not allow them to optimize the text of the regular pages. Unfortunately, many webmasters have used doorway pages to "spam" the search engines, partly by optimizing for keyword phrases that are of no relevance to the content of the site and partly by making too many of them.

Doorway pages like these often contain nothing but the same keyword phrase repeated over and over again, accompanied by a meta tag or javascript tag that automatically forwards the visitor to another page. The search engines hate pages like these, and may remove the whole site if they find them.

Instead of mass-producing doorway pages of this kind, we recommend that you make content rich and above all useful pages targeting a particular keyword phrase.

Make sure you include the keyword phrase in the first regular paragraph of text.

From the Lost Apocrypha of Search Engine Marketing:

"Doctor, I am not feeling to well. I am dizzy, and I only rank as number 765 in Google. I think there something wrong with my metatags."

"I see. Well, open your mouth and say Aaaah!

"Hm. Your metatags are certainly a bit swollen. There are too many repeating keywords, I'm afraid.

"However, that's not what's causing your low rankings. It seems to me that your title tag is looking a bit pale.

"I suggest that you add one or two targeted keyword phrases to your title tag and call me in the morning!"

PANDIA SEARCH CENTRAL

Metatags and other elements

The <title> tag

The <title> tag is the text shown in the windows-bar of the browser window, is the most important element of the webpage. You must include your most important keyword phrase(s) in this spot.

However, make sure that you write a phrase that makes sense. Many search engines may use this line in their result listings, and you want people to click on that link.

Do not put the name of the site first, unless the name contains the essential keyword phrase.

Instead of

<title>Alfred's Reading
Emporium</title>

go for

<title>Used books, magazines,
periodicals, posters and postcards from Alfred's
Reading Emporium in Boulder, Colorado</title>.>

Some SEO-experts would even argue that you should drop "Alfred" altogether. The only drawback with this is that the browsers use this text when generating bookmarks/favorites.

Please note the inclusion of the geographical location. If your business or activity is limited to one district, say so. Searchers are prone to include geographic names in their queries.

Some suggest that it helps to use multiple <title> tags. Maybe it does in some search engines. Still, it tastes of spam (cheating), and the risk of getting banned by the search engine does not make it worthwhile.

The <meta> tags

Meta tags are text written into the HTML code that describes your webpage to the search engines, but which is not visible in a browser window. They are placed after the </title> tag, but before the <body> tag.

There are only three meta tags of importance for search engine optimization. All others can (and should) be left out. Here are examples of the three:

The NAME part of the tag, tells the search engine what kind of meta tag this is.

The keywords metatag

In the KEYWORDS meta tag you may enter keywords and key phrases of relevance to the content of the page. Please note the double quotation marks. Many choose to separate the keyword phrases with commas.

We normally do not include commas, partly because they take up space, and partly because leaving them out makes it possible to include more combinations of keywords. "web search tutorial" will give you no less than three queries: "web search tutorial," "web search," and "search tutorial" in addition to the three individual words.

Do not repeat the same keyword more than two or three times. However, if you must repeat it, keep the occurrences apart.

Do not enter keyword phrases that are of no relevance to the content of the page.

Some SEO experts argue that you should not include any keyword phrases that are not present in the visible text on the webpage, as some search engines may interpret this as spam.

We have not found proof of this (unless you enter phrases of an "adult" nature to your page on home knitting).You may also enter misspellings, and variations of the same word (capitalized/non-capitalized, plural/singular). However, do not go overboard on this.

You should note, however, that there are very few search engines that take the keyword metatag into consideration these days. Yahoo! and Ask apparently do take it into considerations, which is why you probably should include one -- just to be sure.

The description metatag

The DESCRIPTION meta tag is important as some search engines use this text for the description given in the search result listings.

This text should be a normal sentence that gives the searcher exact information on what you have to offer. Do include the main keyword phrase(s). Note that no search engine displays more than 250 characters (spaces, commas and periods included), and often less. This is why you should enter the most important part of your description first.

The robots tag

The listed version of the ROBOTS- tag (ALL) tells the search engine to index the page. However, the CONTENT="ALL" alternative is actually superfluous. Search engines will also index pages without this tag.

indicates that a robot should neither index a document, nor analyze it for links.

means that a robot should not index this document, but that it should index the pages it is pointing to.

Note though, that if you need to limit the search engines access to your site, it is better to put a robots.txt file in the root directory of your site (provided that you have your own domain). Read our article on the robots.txt file and search engine optimization.

<body> text

We encourage you to include at least four or five paragraphs of informative text on every page (preferably more than 250 words, absolute minimum: 100). Include the selected keyword phrase several times throughout the text, as some search engines reward some repetition.

Again, do not go overboard on this. The language must seem natural and search engines will punish too many repetitions. We have also reason to believe that Google will become suspicious if you include only one form of the term, hence see to it that you include at least two variations of the keyword (e.g. "search engine" and "search engines").

Also remember that people are going to read this. Good copy sells.

Make sure you include the keyword phrase in the first paragraph of text. By the first paragraph we mean a block of text delineated by a <p> and a</p> tag, consisting of at least two full sentences. Some search engine optimization experts even argue that it helps to start this very first sentence with the relevant keywords.

The search engines are looking for natural language, and give standard text a higher reward than, let’s say, a one-word menu choice.

Sometimes it helps to include the phrase in the last paragraph of a page as well.

Bold text and large sized fonts may help in some search engines. Again: Don't overdo it.

Keyword spam

Previously webmasters would include so-called "hidden keywords" in order to boost ranking. A popular alternative was to include phrases in comment links, like this: <!— search engine keywords -->. This no longer works.

Others would use a non-functioning form tag:

<INPUT type="hidden"
name="butterfly"
value="mountain ringlet">.

Don’t do it! The way the search engines feel about spam ("cheating") right now, they may soon decide to ban sites for doing this.

Keyword density

Search engine marketing experts often try to calculate the keyword density of each search engine and tailor pages for each and every one of them. The keyword density is the relationship between the total number of words on a page and how many times the keyword phrase is included.

To calculate the density, paste the viewable text of the webpage into Word or another word processor or editor and let the program count the total number of words. Then use the search (or find/replace) function to count the keyword phrase. Divide the occurrence of the keyword phrase with the total number of words to find the keyword density.

The optimal keyword density varies from search engine to search engine and over time. Normally it is somewhere between 2 and 5 percent.

However, do not get obsessed with this. Nowadays search engines consider so many factors that the density alone will neither win or lose the race for you.

The Pandia Search Engine Optimization Gateway includes a list of tools you may use when analyzing your use of keywords.

Headline Tags

Do include the keyword phrases in headlines. If possible, use the standard headline tags (<h1>, <h2> etc.)

We know that some Web designers avoid these in order to gain control over the visible presentation of the webpage.

However, by using cascading style sheets in combination with the headline tags, you will get even better control of the layout. Put your keyword phrase in the first top-level headline (whether this is <h1> or <h2>).

Other elements

Many search engines will register the image ALT tags, which you can use to describe pictures to people who are using non-graphic browsers (such as Lynx or browsers for the visually impaired) or surfers that have images turned off in order to gain download speed.

Obviously these tags should include a description of the graphic element. Still, the fact that most Web designers include logos and image-based headlines gives you ample opportunity to include keyword phrases.

You can also make use of the link TITLE-tag (not to be confused with the <title>-tag at the top of the HTML-file). This is an addition to the link-tag (or any tag) that that lets you describe the link more thoroughly. The text pops up when someone is moving his or her mouse pointer over the link:

<A HREF="french-cars/renault.html" TITLE="Renault car models of 2001">more about Renault</A>.

Keywords in links and URLs

You should also include keyword phrases in links. Not only do these links improve the ranking of this page; it may also boost the relevancy of the page the link is pointing to. Hence <A HREF="file.html">Click here!</a> is a wasted opportunity.

By the way, you could also name files after the keyword phrase, as well as directories, as some engines take the URL into consideration when calculating the ranking. This is why so many optimization experts argue that you should get a domain name that includes your main keyword.

Given that all the good names are taken, this is easier said than done, but you can at least include the keywords in directory and file names, like this: <A HREF="butterfly/african-butterfly.html">on African butterflies</a>.

(By the way, Pandia believes that the need for branding and an easy to remember URL is more important than keywords in domain names-- hence the address pandia.com.)

GO TO THE NEXT PAGE: On search engine friendly Web design >>>

1 Search Engine Marketing 101
2 Selecting Search Keywords
3 Search Engine Friendly Code
4 Search Engine Friendly Web design
5 Link Popularity
6 Search Engine Submissions