SEO Friendly HTML & CSS Structure & Importance of On-Site Optimization for Fast Google Ranking
Whether you’ve hired a Web designer to build your Website, or you’re doing it on your own, it’s important that you have a clear understanding of what the best practices are when it comes to optimized HTML & CSS coding for search engines. Of course, if you’re utilizing a Wordpress system, this will not be as important, but it’s still good to have a foundational understanding of the code. While a complete review of HTML & CSS is beyond the scope of this book, I will highlight some of the important elements of HTML & CSS as they pertain to On-Site SEO.
If you’re not comfortable writing code or modifying existing code, then you should either hire a developer that you can work with on an ongoing basis from a site like Elance.com or Guru.com, or utilize Wordpress and get yourself a good theme you can you use and make modifications to through the administration panel.
HTML & CSS have come a long way since the early days of Website development. In fact, early on developers didn’t adopt CSS at all, and it really took time for the programming language to take footing in the industry. Additionally, in the past, it was not possible to completely design a site without the use of traditional tables, columns and rows, which created the foundational basis for early Website development coding.
CSS has enhanced the capability of designers and programmers to separate the Website layout code from the rest of the site, making it easier on search engines like Google to spider the Web and determine SEO related data much quicker.
HTML & CSS Setup
Today, when laying out a site, the HTML & CSS setup is very important to search engine spiders, as they place heavy weight on where certain elements in your page’s architecture appear. There’s also heavy weight placed on an element’s location to the Website’s fold (where the Web page gets cut off by the standard browser and is forced to scroll down).
You want to ensure that your important keyword headings are placed above the fold if you are building the Website without the use of Wordpress. This would include the <H1> and <H2> tag for optimal On-Site SEO.
When working with HTML & CSS there are several practices that you (or your Web developer) should institute in order to successfully optimize your page for search engines to the greatest extent possible. Search engines really don’t like to see a lot of code mixed in with text these days, which is why CSS is so important for separating your coding structure from the site text & content. Search engines expect a clean site with the proper elements addressed when it comes to On-Site SEO in order for you to compete at any level.
JavaScript should be avoided whenever possible within your page’s HTML code unless absolutely necessary. A lot of what you can achieve with JavaScript can now be accomplished with HTML 5 & CSS so if you’ve hired a Web developer to assist you with your site, make sure that he or she is aware of this.
Keeping your Website’s imagery to a minimum is also important. While we all want Websites that dazzle and look amazing, it’s important to ensure that your site is using as much text within the design as possible. If you’re utilizing a Wordpress theme, this is something that you usually don’t have to worry about.
If you have a custom Website being designed for you, or you’re having a theme modified, ensure that as many of the elements as possible utilize text as opposed to imagery. Years ago this wasn’t as possible to make cross- browser and platform Website appearances look as similar as it is today.
The advancement of browser technologies, Website coding, and operating system fonts allow CSS coding to manipulate designs to look very similar across all browsers and platforms. You can virtually design an entire Website in CSS including gradations and other effects you could only achieve with imagery just a few short years ago.
Kamran Khursheed, Founder and Author of GoogleWebTech, He specializes in on-page, off-page SEO, inbound marketing and link-based content marketing with a five-year track record of driving qualified leads and traffic to websites. Now he is a full-time blogger who loves to explore blogging. He has a passion for helping newcomer bloggers make their blog noticeable and money making.
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