Chapter 4. The Basic Search Engine Friendly Design And Development

Chapter 4 The Basic Search Engine Friendly Design And Development

Search engines are limited in how they crawl the web and interpret content. A webpage doesn't always look the same to you and me as it looks to a search engine. In this section, we'll focus on specific technical aspects of building (or modifying) web pages so they are structured for both search engines and human visitors alike. Share this part of the guide with your programmers, information architects, and designers, so that all parties involved in a site's construction are on the same page.

Indexable Content

To perform better in search engine listings, your most important content should be in HTML text format. Images, Flash files, Java applets, and other non-text content are often ignored or devalued by search engine crawlers, despite advances in crawling technology . The easiest way to ensure that the words and phrases you display to your visitors are visible to search engines is to place them in the HTML text on the page. However, more advanced methods are available for those who demand greater formatting or visual display styles:

Provide all text for images ( Assign images in gif, jpg, or png format "alt attributes" in HTML to give search engines a text description of the visual content.)
Supplement search boxes with navigation and crawl-able links.
Supplement Flash or Java Plug-ins with text on the page
Provide a transcript for a video or audio

Seeing your site as the search engines do

Many websites have significant problems with indexable content, so double-checking is worthwhile. By using tools like Google's cache, SEO-browser.com , and you can see what elements of your content are visible and indexable to the engines. Take a look at Google's text cache of this page you are reading now. See how different it looks?

Whoa! That's what we look like?

Using the Google cache feature, we can see that to a search engine, JugglingPandas.com's homepage doesn't contain all the rich information that we see. This makes it difficult for search engines to interpret relevancy.

Hey, where did the fun go?

Uh oh ... via Google cache, we can see that the page is a barren wasteland. There's not even text telling us that the page contains the Axe Battling Monkeys. The site is built entirely in Flash, but sadly, this means that search engines cannot index any of the text content, or even the links to the individual games. Without any HTML text, this page would have a very hard time ranking in search results.

It's wise to not only check for text content but to also use SEO tools to double-check that the pages you're building are visible to the engines. This applies to your images, and as we see below, to your links as well.

Crawlable Link Structures

Just as search engines need to see content in order to list pages in their massive keyword-based indexes, they also need to see links in order to find the content in the first place. A crawlable link structure—one that lets the crawlers browse the pathways of a website—is vital to them finding all of the pages on a website. Hundreds of thousands of sites make the critical mistake of structuring their navigation in ways that search engines cannot access, hindering their ability to get pages listed in the search engines' indexes.

Below, we've illustrated how this problem can happen:

In the example above, Google's crawler has reached page A and sees links to pages B and E. However, even though C and D might be important pages on the site, the crawler has no way to reach them (or even know they exist). This is because no direct, crawlable links point pages C and D. As far as Google can see, they don't exist! Great content, good keyword targeting, and smart marketing won't make any difference if the crawlers can't reach your pages in the first place.

a<href="http://earnwithehtisham.com">Beginner Guide TO SEO</a>

Link tags can contain images, text, or other objects, all of which provide a clickable area on the page that users can engage to move to another page. These links are the original navigational elements of the Internet – known as hyperlinks. In the above illustration, the "<a" tag indicates the start of a link. The link referral location tells the browser (and the search engines) where the link points. In this example, the URL http://www.earnwithehtisham.com is referenced. Next, the visible portion of the link for visitors, called anchor text in the SEO world, describes the page the link points to. The linked-to page is about custom belts made by Ehtisham, thus the anchor text "Ehtisham Custom Designed Belts." The "</a>" tag closes the link to constrain the linked text between the tags and prevent the link from encompassing other elements on the page.

This is the most basic format of a link, and it is eminently understandable to the search engines. The crawlers know that they should add this link to the engines' link graph of the web, use it to calculate query-independent variables (like Google's Page Rank), and follow it to index the contents of the referenced page.

Submission-required forms

If you require users to complete an online form before accessing certain content, chances are search engines will never see those protected pages. Forms can include a password-protected login or a full-blown survey. In either case, search crawlers generally will not attempt to submit forms, so any content or links that would be accessible via a form are invisible to the engines.

Links in unparseable JavaScript

If you use JavaScript for links, you may find that search engines either do not crawl or give very little weight to the links embedded within. Standard HTML links should replace JavaScript (or accompany it) on any page you'd like crawlers to crawl.

Links pointing to pages blocked by the Meta Robots tag or robots.txt

The Meta Robots tag and the robots.txt file both allow a site owner to restrict crawler access to a page. Just be warned that many a webmaster has unintentionally used these directives as an attempt to block access by rogue bots, only to discover that search engines cease their crawl.

Frames or iframes

Technically, links in both frames and iframes are crawlable, but both present structural issues for the engines in terms of organization and following. Unless you're an advanced user with a good technical understanding of how search engines index and follow links in frames, it's best to stay away from them.

Robots don't use search forms

Although this relates directly to the above warning on forms, it's such a common problem that it bears mentioning. Some webmasters believe if they place a search box on their site, then engines will be able to find everything that visitors search for. Unfortunately, crawlers don't perform searches to find content, leaving millions of pages inaccessible and doomed to anonymity until a crawled page links to them.

Links in Flash, Java, and other plug-ins

The links embedded inside the Juggling Panda site (from our above example) are perfect illustrations of this phenomenon. Although dozens of pandas are listed and linked to on the page, no crawler can reach them through the site's link structure, rendering them invisible to the engines and hidden from users' search queries.

Links on pages with many hundreds or thousands of links

Search engines will only crawl so many links on a given page. This restriction is necessary to cut down on spam and conserve rankings. Pages with hundreds of links on them are at risk of not getting all of those links crawled and indexed.

Rel="nofollow" can be used with the following syntax:

<a href="https://earnwithehtisham.com" rel="nofollow">Lousy Punks!</a>

Links can have lots of attributes. The engines ignore nearly all of them, with the important exception of the rel="nofollow" attribute. In the example above, adding the rel="nofollow" attribute to the link tag tells the search engines that the site owners do not want this link to be interpreted as an endorsement of the target page.

Nofollow, taken literally, instructs search engines to not follow a link (although some do). The nofollow tag came about as a method to help stop automated blog comment, guest book, and link injection spam, but has morphed over time into a way of telling the engines to discount any link value that would ordinarily be passed. Links tagged with nofollow are interpreted slightly differently by each of the engines, but it is clear they do not pass as much weight as normal links.

Are no follow links bad?

Although they don't pass as much value as their followed cousins, nofollowed links are a natural part of a diverse link profile. A website with lots of inbound links will accumulate many nofollowed links, and this isn't a bad thing. In fact, Earn with Ehtisham Ranking Factors showed that high ranking sites tended to have a higher percentage of inbound nofollow links than lower-ranking sites.

Keyword Usage and Targeting

Keywords are fundamental to the search process. They are the building blocks of language and of search. In fact, the entire science of information retrieval (including web-based search engines like Google) is based on keywords. As the engines crawl and index the contents of pages around the web, they keep track of those pages in keyword-based indexes rather than storing 25 billion web pages all in one database. Millions and millions of smaller databases, each centered on a particular keyword term or phrase, allow the engines to retrieve the data they need in a mere fraction of a second.

Obviously, if you want your page to have a chance of ranking in the search results for "dog," it's wise to make sure the word "dog" is part of the crawlable content of your document.

Keyword Domination

There over one billion searches performed on Google every day with organic searches delivering higher click-through rates than paid searches. The path to clearer insight into organic search efforts, results, and ROI is to also know that those are some of the same challenges faced by Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The challenge to overcome is that it is hard, if not impossible to predict the time and money required to improve keyword search positioning, and sustain it short or long term.

Ultimately, in order to be found in organic search by visitors you first need to determine the resources required to improve your web presence and SEO rankings. Then understand that the contributing influencers that affect the possible SEO outcomes are all external factors that your marketing team has no control over. These include: Competitors, Search Engines, Customers, Alternatives, and Keyword Rivalry. Having a clear understanding of these influencers can help effectively shape an SEO strategy and provide predictable ROI.

Let’s examine those influences :

COMPETITORS – Any unbranded SEO keywords you use are under constant jeopardy from new competitors wanting to rank for the same keyword phrases… making ongoing keyword research and competitive intelligence vitally important to your SEO strategy. Competition can come from; a new competitor that is placing a priority on SEO, an existing competitor that may not currently be investing in SEO starts an active organic search and content marketing campaign, or an existing competitor that has been investing in SEO suddenly increases their budget and effort with content marketing, SEO and social media.

Forming obstacles for these competitors is a good way to fend them off. Deliberately making it difficult for competitors to outrank you for your unbranded keywords is a way to battle them… but it takes commitment and consistency. Everbearing has found these actions to be effective:

Develop and engage a content-driven marketing plan
Differentiate your company by targeting unique, long-tail keywords which define you
Focus on keywords that drive traffic and conversions
Use those keywords throughout your web presence – website, social media, etc.

SEARCH ENGINES – Keyword positions are constantly revaluated by the search engines’ ever-changing algorithms. Ones web presence can be negatively affected by the algorithm updates, but your competitors’ may not have been, so they may have started outranking you for your previously top ranking keywords. With new search engines entering the SEO landscape, pure search engines and social search engines both, you may find your competitors outranking you on Facebook and Google+.

CUSTOMERS – The potential impact of customers on industry keywords can affect your keyword ranking. Their social signals (Facebook Likes and Shares; Twitter activity such as number of Followers, Tweets, reTweets; and now Google+), social engagements, and reviews are contributing factors. In fact, social signals currently account for 8 to 10% of both Google and Bing’s search algorithms.

These signals give visitors the ability to engage with and produce social signals from your blogs, press releases, web pages and social networks… positively impacting your organic rankings. Likewise, if your competitors are currently out social signaling you, you will have to increase the ability for your visitors and customers to generate social signals from your web presence.

With the increasing importance of local search, think about how your competitors may be out-reviewing you. Also, within customer reviews, the actual keywords used in the review can impact organic rank.

ALTERNATIVES – The threat of competitor’s alternative actions to your SEO strategy is about them finding a more productive ways to be found by visitors and generate a higher ROI compared to the ROI of your SEO strategy. In this context, think about alternative marketing tactics such as paid search, search retargeting, tradeshows, email marketing, etc.

While you likely want to dominate in Google for the keywords your visitors are using to try to find your products and services, it is never wise to put all your eggs in one basket. Your marketing strategy should support your visitors throughout their entire buying process. Meaning you need to:

Understand how to engage them in the buying process
Communicate with them throughout the process
Help them complete their research through alternative solutions
Provide the content and resources to make a final decision

KEYWORD RIVALRY – The competitive rivalry for a keyword will constantly change and impact (positively or negatively) your SEO strategy, outcomes, and ROI. You can count on rivalry arising on certain keyword phrases you’ve been dominating. When you focus on unique, long-tail, conversion driving keyword phrases and you are committed to producing fresh, relevant content, your competitors will have to increase their investment to outrank and out-dominate you on page one of organic search engine results.

Hopefully by realizing and grasping the above SEO influencers your company will think differently about:

The constantly evolving outside forces and factors affecting keywords
Having more realistic expectations about resources required to improve organic rank
Understanding the likelihood of maintaining that rank in the long term

This process is a constant battle but by staying on top of it and ahead of the curve you can enjoy success in the form of improved ranking and keyword domination… and then increased conversions.

On-Page Optimization

Keyword usage and targeting are still a part of the search engines' ranking algorithms, and we can apply some effective techniques for keyword usage to help create pages that are well-optimized. Here at earn with ehtisham, we engage in a lot of testing and get to see a huge number of search results and shifts based on keyword usage tactics. When working with one of your own sites, this is the process we recommend. Use the keyword phrase:

In the title tag at least once. Try to keep the keyword phrase as close to the beginning of the title tag as possible. More detail on title tags follows later in this section.
Once prominently near the top of the page.
At least two or three times, including variations, in the body copy on the page. Perhaps a few more times if there's a lot of text content. You may find additional value in using the keyword or variations more than this, but in our experience adding more instances of a term or phrase tends to have little or no impact on rankings.
At least once in the alt attribute of an image on the page. This not only helps with web search, but also image search, which can occasionally bring valuable traffic.
Once in the URL. Additional rules for URLs and keywords are discussed later on in this section.
At least once in the meta description tag. Note that the meta description tag does not get used by the engines for rankings, but rather helps to attract clicks by searchers reading the results page, as the meta description becomes the snippet of text used by the search engines.

And you should generally not use keywords in link anchor text pointing to other pages on your site; this is known as Keyword Cannibalization