HTML and CSS

3 Simple Rules for JavaScript and SEO

We all want our websites to be fun and exciting and do all the greatest things that technology allows, but if you are trying to get people to find your website on all the search engines, you might want to resist some of the bells and whistles and stick with straight HTML, because tools like JavaScript and SEO just don’t mix.

If you are thinking about using JavaScript and SEO is important to you (which it should be), then you need to follow these simple rules about usage and placement of JavaScript within your site:

1. Keep your JavaScript in files outside of your primary pages. Your HTML pages can link to them, but you don’t want them hidden within your HTML. They will prevent the search engines from crawling your web site further.

2. If you have to use JavaScript, keep it short and simple. Don’t use it for navigation, or the search engines will not be able to get to all of your pages. Of course, you should have a “sitemap” file on your server, so that it can be fully crawled, just in case.

3. Do not use JavaScript to rotate your content. The search engines need to see static content in its normal state or it won’t read it. If your content is brought into your site through JavaScript, there is a chance it won’t be read at all.

JavaScript and SEO, or Flash technology and SEO for that matter, are not good mixes. You can use JavaScript, but it should be supplemental to a basic site and not part of the core structure or navigation. Search engines, in general, have a hard time navigating through JavaScript and you may find that your site is never listed because the search engines just spit it out every time they come across your code.

Do HTML Tables Hurt Your Chances to be Ranked High?

In today’s complicated online world, there are many things you need to worry about. You have hundreds, if not thousands, of other websites just like yours, to compete with. You also have to compete against people who are paying for their rankings in the search engines. If you are hoping to be ranked high without paying for it, or just don’t have the big budget that other companies do, you have to know all the tricks of what will work to get you to the top of the search engines, and what will hurt your chances.

One thing that can really hurt your chances of being ranked high is the excessive use of HTML tables on your pages. These tables were originally designed as a way to arrange content on a site, especially into columns. By using tables, you are able to create more than just one long column of text.

Much of what HTML tables was used for, has now been replaced by either Flash or simple CSS coding, but there are many websites that use tables as a means to place text. There are two main problems with this – the search engines can’t read them and neither can readers for the visually impaired.

When a search engine crawls your site, it goes through the code, looking for information on what your site is about, where the content is, what the audience and keywords are, and where it should be placed in their listings. If you confuse it with a lot of table cells, it will bypass your content altogether.

In the case of electronic readers for the visually impaired, they are unable to follow the flow from left to right, through the cells. HTML tables confuse these readers and make your website inaccessible to the visually impaired as well.

So….bottom line? You guessed it, get rid of your HTML tables.

3 Reasons Why HTML and CSS Validation Are Important

Back in the day when web designers built their website by hand, it was very easy to make a mistake in the coding. However, now web designers are lucky to have the many tools that they have that no longer makes HTML and CSS validation such an issue that it used to be.

If you don’t know what HTML and CSS validation is, you have probably noticed it when it didn’t take place. If you have been to a website that looks odd, where items are falling off the side of the page, strange coding appears, or there are missing graphics, that is probably because no one took the time to validate their code.

When you build a website, you need to use HTML and CSS validation for the following reasons:

1. Not everyone uses Internet Explorer. Some people are still using old versions of Netscape and AOL, while others are using Firefox or Safari. You need to build your website so that it appears properly on all of these browsers.

2. Not everyone is on a PC! Some people are viewing your website from an Apple, others from their phone or even their television. Your website needs to appear properly there, too.

3. You may find that you need your website to be ADA-compliant. This means that readers for the visually-impaired will be reading the text. So, if you are going to utilize a lot of graphics, there needs to be “alt” tags in place so that the reader can “read” them, too.

By using a quality HTML or CSS validation program, many of which are found online for free, you can make sure that your website is fully accessible to everyone, no matter what kind of computer they are using, or even whether they can actually see the screen or not.

Why is Valid HTML Important for SEO?

HTML Validation is important because of how search engines treat a website on a programmatic level. Search Engines discover your website and all of the site pages using a program called a search engine spider, bot, or crawler. These names are all essentially synonymous. The key takeaway is that because these programs are the method search engines use to discover your site, you have to provide your site to them in a logical, structured, and non-broken format.

Invalid HTML is a website that is broken from a programming standpoint. While the site may look just great to you and I when you surf onto it in your browser, you have to realize that browsers have built-in forgiveness with how they render your website. This means that the browser may compensate and try to make your site appear not broken. Sometimes the HTML that is invalid does not effect the layout or the appearance of the site, but rather the behavior or logic of the site.

Imagine calling a taxi and telling them directions to your house. You start to provide those directions, but midway through you start speaking in nonsense and gibberish. The taxi wouldn't have much luck in finding your house. The same is true for websites that are syntactically broken and have invalid HTML.

Get step-by-step instructions on how to optimize your website with a custom SEO Checklist.

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Do Meta Keywords Still Matter?

Do Meta Keywords still matter for good search engine rankings? The answer is YES. Even though Google does not use meta keywords - they do use them indirectly. The benefit from using meta keywords is indirect. Though Google does not use meta keywords to increase or decide the rank of your website, Google does use the keywords for a different purpose.

Google highlights meta keywords, keywords in your title, and keywords in your meta description and provides searchers with visual cues about how your website relates to their search query.

These visual cues are bold keywords that will motivate the users to click on your website. This is called a click-through. Increased click-throughs prove to Google and other search engines how relevant your website is for that search query. The more relevant your site is on a given topic - the more likely the search engines will reward the site with higher rankings.

Get the specifics of how to push your site to the top of Google's rankings with an SEO Checklist

Thu, 2010-01-07 09:39

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