Top 10 SEO Tips and Tricks | Site Architecture Tip 5
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Tip 5 of my Top 10 Tips and Tricks for building a search engine optimized (SEO) website from the ground up is Site Architecture.
Site Architecture is not only the way the site is presented but the underlying code structure that allows the website to be navigated, read, searched, and viewed. In this tip we will concentrate on the underlying code (HTML xhtml …).
Now you have done your Keyword Research, Keyword Selection, Theme Selection, and URL Selection. This research and selection will be used later on during the Text Structure Tip 6. We will start at the bottom level and focus on the code that makes your website work on the World Wide Web. (consider this the frame work of your website house)
The way in which your code is written will determine how your site is displayed to both your human visitors as well as the search engine spiders or bots. For this tip we will focus on the search engine spiders and bots. This brings up a chicken of egg comparison. If your site is written just for your visitors, how will they find you? If your site is written just for the search engines, what good is bringing people to your site and have them leave immediately?
Your site should be written for your customers or clients with the search engines in mind.
Now on to the CODE. The site’s code should be structured so that the main focus of each page is actually at the top of the code. This is called the linear view of your website. When a search engine visits your site they will read your site’s code from the top to the bottom. They figure the most important information is on the top of the page.
If your navigation is listed in the code before the main section of the page it will get more value than the topic of the page. As the search engine views more pages and this structure is persistent through out the site they will figure the pages are very similar and you will not get much value for the subjects of each of the pages. [see image on the right] This image is what the search engines see on this particular site before they even get to the main product on each page.
If you are using table less structure you can lay out the visual elements of the site with CSS placement. If you are using tables you can force proper linear alignment by adding a blank cell above the navigation. Either one of these solutions are acceptable to the search engines. You are not trying to put any thing over on the search engines just creating the proper liner alignment for the subject of each page.
Now that you have the subject value of your web pages taken care of you will need the help of the W3C. Matt Cutts even gives us a hint to the value of the value of valid code in his video Optimize for Search Engines. He slips it in towards the end of the video so if you watch it pay close attention. The argument for validation is, since the spiders and bots built by the search engines use the W3C rules as their foundation, it is easier for them to search your site if your code validates. If it is easier for them the will most likely reward you in some small way. My thoughts on the subject are if everything else is equal the site with the valid code will get the nod in the rankings.
The W3C will also help you check your code validation. Using the “show source” and “verbose output” together the W3C will walk you through your code errors and give you information valuable for fixing them. I would not recommend the use of the “clean up markup with HTML Tidy” option. The object of valid code isn’t just validation but valid clean code.
Now that you have an understanding of Site Code Architecture we can move on to the next in the series, the Text Structure and how it relates to the Site Architecture.
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gary pool
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[...] Now that you have chosen your URL or URLs you can set this all aside and get ready for one of the most over looked parts of SEO Tip 5 Site Architecture. [...]
[...] Site Architecture [...]
[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerptThe way in which your code is written will determine how your site is displayed to both your human visitors as well as the search engine spiders or bots. For this tip we will focus on the search engine spiders and bots. … [...]
[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerptEither one of these solutions are acceptable to the search engines. You are not trying to put any thing over on the search engines just creating the proper liner alignment for the subject of each page. … [...]
[...] Top 10 SEO Tips and Tricks ¦ Site Architecture Tip 5By garyThe argument for validation is, since the spiders and bots built by the search engines use the W3C rules as their foundation, it is easier for them to search your site if your code validates. If it is easier for them the will most …Gary Pool SEO - http://www.whiteroseproductions.com/blog [...]
[...] Gary Pool has 5 posts so far in a series called top 10 seo tips and tricks [...]
[...] Site Architecture [...]