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Search Engine Code Optimization
Most web developers do nothing in order to improve website rankings. Typically, a modest attempt at search engine optimization helps improve search engine rankings tremendously.
Basic Search Engine Code Optimization
Basic code optimization like title tags are simple to implement and have a huge impact on search engine rankings.
Document Title Tag
The title tag is the most important tag on a web page. Search engines place a tremendous amount of importance on this tag. The title tag needs to be keyword rich and the main keyword needs to be toward the beginning of the title.
Meta Tags
Description - The description tag is used for result summaries. Keep the description interesting and place important keywords toward the beginning.
Keyword - The keyword tag has been abused in the past. Because of this many search engines place little importance on it. Place at most 4 relevant keywords in this tag.
Heading Tags
The use of HTML headings indicates the significance of key terms on your page. Using h1, h2, etc. show the search engine spiders that the words are important.
Image ALT Tags
Alt image attributes gives you another opportunity to use keywords. Meaningful and significant descriptions of the images on your Web pages will not only help your search engine ranking, but will help visitors who browse with image loading switched off and those using screen readers. ALT tags are required for the code to be W3C compliant.
Link Title Tags
Use the title attribute to describe links. Many search engine ranking algorithms read the text in title attributes as regular page content so this helps with keyword density.
Advanced Search Engine Code Optimization
W3C ComplianceThe W3C, also known as the World Wide Web Consortium, provides guidelines regarding how web pages should be structured and created. Although it hasn't been proven that W3C validation gives you better search engine rankings, errors in your code can cause big problems.
W3C compliance provides several advantages:
- Accessibility - Your website will be more easily accessed by people with disabilities and the user experience will be improved
- Code to Content Ratio - W3C validation helps you reduce the amount of coding on your pages thus emphasizing the importance of content. Your site will have the chance to get indexed and as a result get higher rankings in the most important search engines, since spiders are known to crawl websites with relevant content
- Device Compatibility - Your website can be easily accessed from different devices – PCs, laptops, PDAs, cellular phones, etc.
Browser Compatibility
Just because your site is W3C compliant doesn't mean it will work in all browsers. Older versions of Internet Explorer do not follow the W3C standards. Internet Explorer 6 and IE7 are widely in use and while the latter is better at following the standards it still has issues. CWDA can test your website to make sure it displays the same in IE6, IE7, IE8, and Firefox. If we find browser compatibility issues we can fix it.
XHTML
XHTML is the latest standard for the language used by web documents. It is a combination of classic HTML and advanced XML. Converting your HTML web pages to XHTML will definitely help your website in the future. The easiest way of creating XHTML pages is to start a new project but redesigning and updating old pages is also a viable solution. Converting your website to XHTML will help you reach more customers, as your site will be compatible with more browsers and non-traditional devices.
SEO Code of Ethics
CWDA uses strictly 'white hat' strategies to insure that your site's HTML code is highly accessible. Our organic search engine optimization practices lead to a site that's accessible to search engines. We don't try to fool the engines by using questionable tactics.
Want to learn more about our Internet marketing or print marketing services? Answer a few questions and you'll receive a free quote. It's easy. Simply call us at 404-759-0350 or fill out our online form and we can answer your questions, determine your needs, and start designing a plan to meet your objectives and budget.