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SEO - The Good, the Bad & the Ugly Inspired by a recent article blogged out by Mike Davidson we felt compelled to try and enlighten as many as you as we possible can by giving you some handy dandy tips on the wonders of SEO (search engine optimization) and how to get right to the tip of the top of Google ranking wonders. ………….Of course that’s why you pay us the big bucks right? Well….yes you are right, but we wanted to let you know in a little more detail what can get you a #1 ranking and what will get you a ranking on page 4098 (that’s a lot of hitting the *next* link on the bottom of the Google search page…..
Mike Davidson did a simple SEO test by making up a made up word (and a rather cool one I might add) *lodefizzle* and promptly dispersed it throughout his site in particular ways. Here is an example of the different things he looked at while testing his page to see what works and what really doesn’t work!!! - H1 Tag -The HTML element
Causes the text to be displayed as a level 1 heading. This is boldest, largest heading form available. The text may be centered with one or two lines of clear space after the text. When printed this will appear at the start of a page. Tables & Nested Tables Table - (Example Below)
The Bradys | | Marcia | Carol | Greg | | Jan | Alice | Peter | | Cindy | Mike | Bobby | | | | | Nested Table - A nested table is a table stored within the structure of another table - Invalid Code
Bad code that has been overlooked by the webmaster/designers (yes we too make mistakes) thus the end result? Being overlooked by Google or other Search Engines. Here are the top five (and very common mistakes) made by us wonderful people with the job title of *insert booming voice* WEBMASTER…… - No Document Type Definition (DTD) declaration
- Missing required attribute
- Non-standard attribute
- Omitted end tag
- End tag not open
It doesn’t matter if we completely lost you on those five points; just know it’s really, really bad if they are made!!!! - Semantics and the Advantage of Clean Semantics HTML Code
Wow….big title, but an important point? So what does this mean? Good HTML structure is based on logic, order, and using semantically correct markup. If you have a heading use the heading element, beginning with the H1 element. If you have a paragraph, use a paragraph element. If you have a list, use a list item element. If you’re quoting a few lines, use a block quote element. Those elements provide meaning to the content, making them semantically correct, in addition to being solid HTML structure. Want to Know What We Are Getting At? Mike Davidson came up with these results. - Do H1 Tags used correctly boost ratings with Google? Apparently it does! The H1 tag does indeed assert some dominance and we can assume you are better off using proper headings in your HTML documents.
- Pros and cons of using tables and nested tables? The mere appearance of many nested tables in your code does not have a strong enough negative effect to be considered a drag on search engine ranking with Google, but extra instances of particular keywords amongst the code can negatively affect you also. He did not because of the extra code inserted with tables/nested tables etc that there was keep code on the page for Google to wade through thus coming to the outstanding conclusion to keep your code on the page neat, small and tidy!!! Something we always strive to do.
- Invalid code does penalize search result ranking. Google apparently grades pages on how they are rendered as well as how they are coded. It’s not clear that validity helps search engine ranking, but it’s definitely true that certain errors in your code can get you completely removed from indexes.
- Are semantics powerful enough to override a simple shift in placement of the keyword? The semantic effect of hierarchical HTML headings is a stronger factor in search rankings than more rudimentary measures such as physical keyword placement. Good semantics are somewhat valuable in optimization, simple things like proper titles, descriptive filenames, and incoming links are dramatically more important.
So in Final Conclusion…… Developers should write clean, semantic code as a matter of professionalism rather than search engine optimization. For good SEO, making your site sticky enough to attract quality incoming links is by far and away the thing to concentrate on. Here at VirtuAllin we try to do our best with all of your sites, picking up on these points going over code and making sure we can get you page rank in the lofty cloudy heights that all real estate agents dream about it (oh come on now….you know you do) Some of the challenges we encounter with our quest and one of the major obstacles which leads to much hair pulling and sleepless nights is web hosts and template designs that do not let you see past the first page (commonly known as the index page) The most dastardly offenders (which will be openly named in this savvy little newsletter) are….. - Advanced Access
- Z57
- Homes.com
These hosts, though I am sure they are lovely people really do not know how to benefit their customers. When Google can get to your keywords because they are not on the main page or tucked away in a sub-directory 5013 folders down your ranking will not be high. Yes we could add all your keywords to the main page, but do you know how ugly that would look *shudders* and couple that with the fact many of these hosts will only let you have a particular number of pages and you either have the choice of piling all your links onto one page……yes all 700 of them (which I would like to add is a huge no no) or you have to only pick the nice fluffy ones and sadly bid farewell to the others (saying goodbye is hard sometimes) This is where we like to puff out our chests and look smug (something we don’t always get to do) We have a little thing called Joomla……basically a customizable website thingy that makes everything look yummy and feeds Google what it wants!! Just imagine a world where all of your gazillion (and very important links) could live harmoniously on your site, not in big huge scroll heavy page, but on 5 or 7 or 8. It’s much better for you to have at the max around 40 links, anything over than this is just plain silly!! One more thing to keep in mind with so many hookups going on swapping link partners etc are the people you are linking to linking to nice sites themselves. Think about, if these people are associated (via links) with a poker site or a site of adult flavour…..how does that make you look? Less links sometimes can be better for everyone. Another problem with the above hosts is that you can sometimes only have keywords on your page, not in the address. Keywords in your address (you know the http://www.virtuallin.............) can be very helpful and very important, with Joomla we can do this for you and drive more traffic to your site resulting in more hits and get you better ranking with search engines. Google thinks Joomla sites rock!!! It can read all pages cleverly gobbling up those ever important keywords and BOOM just like that you are in the one digit page ranking glory….just like you have always dreamed of. The other cool thing about a Joomla site is that it can be customized to how you want it and you can even add to it yourself! Want a blog? Sure we can do that. Want a list of your favourite books? Not a problem. Want to add a Forum to your page? You guessed it we can do it. Want to post those photos of your latest vacation? (….well not all the photos…) Yes it’s our pleasure or maybe you would like to know how to do it yourself? You can do all of the above and much more with a super doper thing we love to hug and kiss quite frequently called Joomla…..could I mention it again you are asking……I could, but I won’t *smiles* Just take this above paragraph as a lesson in KEYWORDS!!! The great thing about Joomla is that it makes deliciously yummy sites for example. http://www.debbieferrari.com – and Advance Access Site. …(and no offense to Debbie and her wonderful work in real estate) Yes, a little plain and well lets just say lackluster. Information scattered all over the page, nothing seems to be easily found and boy how does your old hand feel scrolling down that far? Just between you and me I lost a good 3 hours of my life. Let’s just say it could use some work and a new image of Debbie that isn’t quite so pixilated! http://www.doyleteam.net – a Joomla built site (and one of our lovely clients) Now that’s a site!!! A little flash here and there, easy on the eye and inviting…..something that people look for when arriving at a site. 99% of customers when going to a real estate agents or agency site are looking for home listings. You can find them easily on this site. Everything is easy to find…..yes I know that seems like common sense, but just visit Debbie’s little corner of the world wide web…..it’s a little daunting with some sites some days. Other Sites Made With Joomla Other Links That We Used to Help With This Newsletter This little newsletter was proudly written by the amazing and extremely adorable Australian that works for Cheryl. Some of you may have heard her dulcet tones on your answering machines last week and though she is a little kooky sometimes she is one of the most wonderful, highly talented people you could ever meet. .......Yes I did write that myself. It was my one chance and damn it I took it! Seriously though we hope you enjoyed this information about what makes for good page ranking, plentiful hits and pretty darn good looking websites. If you have any further questions feel free to email or call us at VirtuAllin. We do like hearing from you and we do want to get you where you need to be. Have a great week!
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