SEO - website content and code optimization

We continue the series of texts devoted to search engine optimization - SEO. In the previous parts of the cycle, we explained what the specificity of search engine marketing is, how the algorithms responsible for creating order in search results work and what are the phases of SEO optimization activities.

W3C, CSS - code creation standards, mobile-friendly websites

As in almost any field of web development, there are certain rules. It is worth knowing them if you want your work to be fully effective and bring measurable benefits. For website development, the standards are set by the W3C, the World Wide Web Consortium. It is a consortium founded in 1994 by Tim Berners Lee, developer of web browsers. It currently consists of over 400 organizations operating in the IT industry, including such giants as Microsoft, Google, Adobe, Hewlett-Packard and IBM. W3C develops standards for creating websites, thus ensuring the proper and proper development of the Internet network. However, you can still meet website developers, especially those who run wild and are at odds with the knowledge of W3C standards.

Why is it worth knowing them? First of all, because websites created in accordance with the guidelines presented by the consortium will easily open in all available browsers, as well as on various types of media - including mobile devices. In addition to creating standards for writing pages, W3C has also developed standards for, inter alia, graphics posted on the web, video and audio materials or adapting websites to devices other than computers. However, let's look in particular at the guidelines that apply to building websites. For this purpose, the W3C recommends the use of two most important technologies - HTML and CSS.

HTML

HTML is the language that is responsible for creating the structure of the website and it also needs to be SEO friendly. It is based on tags and allows you to publish documents with headings, text, tables, lists, photos on the web, add hyperlinks, spreadsheets, audio and video files to them, create forms that allow you to perform actions, e.g. search for information, order products etc. There is also XHTML language which uses XML syntax. It is an increasingly recommended variant due to its greater functionality compared to traditional HTML.

CSS

CSS is the language that is responsible for the presentation of the website in the browser - i.e. its layout, fonts used, colors, etc. Thanks to CSS, a specific website can adapt to different devices on which it will be viewed - regardless of whether they will be computers, tablets or smartphones. CSS is HTML independent and can interact with other languages ​​that use XML syntax. Thanks to the style sheets, CSS makes it easier to determine the appearance of the page and the arrangement of specific elements on it. Using CSS, you can change the appearance of pages without interfering with their structure expressed by HTML.

Mobile friendly websites have an impact on SEO

In 2015, Google confirmed that adapting a website to mobile devices will have an impact on SEO, and thus positioning in mobile searches. Therefore, it is worth making your website responsive. What does it mean? That it should adapt to different types of devices on which it will be displayed. This is better than a dedicated mobile website with a separate URL for mobile devices and a separate URL for computers. In the case of the responsive side, the address is one. The fact that your website is adapted to be viewed on mobile devices should be marked in the meta viewport tag. In the code of your website you need to put the following line:

Tag "width = device-width, initial-scale = 1"Indicates that the page will fit the width of the device. You can achieve such an effect thanks to Media Queries operating in CSS. You set the device types, as well as the minimum or maximum screen sizes at which you will be able to view your website (at which a specific CSS code will be loaded).

Adaptation of the website to W3C standards can be checked thanks to the validator. This will allow you to catch any errors in the structure of the portal. The friendliness of the website for mobile devices can be verified primarily using the Google webmaster tool. All you need to do is put your website address there and press the Analyze button.

Content Marketing and SEO

Content marketing is all marketing activities that are based on providing a specific target group with interesting content and establishing a long-term relationship with them. Contrary to classic marketing activities, content marketing does not look for customers but allows them to find you. How? Generally speaking - by providing answers to the issues bothering them. Web users often type questions into the search engine, and your job is to come up with the best, most complete answer - of course, as long as the question is relevant to your industry.

Content marketing is primarily the distribution of valuable content. What do you mean by valuable content? All kinds of expert entries, advice, reviews - the form can be any - valuable will be not only text, but also infographics, video materials, etc. Many companies, assuming the intensification of content marketing activities, set up thematic expert blogs, vortals, organize webinars, provide interesting and already mentioned infographics, e-books or videos on your social media pages.

Content marketing focuses primarily on gaining the interest of the Internet user and establishing a dialogue with him. High-quality content and its usefulness allow you to build trust in your company and positively influence its perception as an expert in your industry. Efficient content marketing will allow you to associate your company with high quality. From there it is a straightforward way to sell - associations with expert knowledge will positively affect the purchasing decisions of network users.

The goal of content marketing is also to generate engagement - let internet users share your articles. You will gain publicity, and users - the necessary knowledge. That is why it is so important that you place valuable content on your pages, in accordance with the topic you set. For content marketing, in-depth knowledge on one topic is better than brief in many areas. Your website should not be a copy of texts or infographics that exist on the web. Create them yourself or commission copywriters and content designers to create them.

Meta tags and attributes in HTML and SEO

Now we will look at some elements of the page's source code. Some tags and attributes strictly related to HTML are important when indexing pages by search engine robots. What is indexing? It is the registration of new pages appearing on the web and their thematic cataloging. Thanks to such activities, registers (indexes) are created, constituting a set of information about content available on the web. At the time of a search, a robot called the searcher searches the index and "throws" the results most relevant to the searched phrase.

Meta tags, also known as meta tags, are of great importance for the indexing of pages. They are located in the header section of the page - in the source code, they should therefore be searched for under the tag. The task of meta tags is to describe the page, indicate its title, keywords, etc. Which of them are particularly important for indexing robots.

Meta title tag

The meta title tag is probably the most important meta tag. It defines the title of the page and is important for both search engine robots and web users. The content of the title tag is displayed very often as the title of the page in the search results and on the so-called title bar. It is important that it is unique, original, but related to the topic of the page. It is a good idea to include keywords describing your site, but in 50-60 characters, otherwise it may be partially dotted in search results. Remember to give each page on your website a separate title.

Meta tag description

Like the meta title tag, description is seen by both search engine robots and users. The content of this tag is the description of the page in the search results. Therefore, it is worth trying to create an interesting and eye-catching description - it will certainly have a better impact on the Internet user than a few dry words placed under the title. When creating a description, it is worth considering who will be looking for a page like yours - in the meta description tag you must put text that will convince the user that this is where he will find the answer to the issue of interest.

So what should be in the description tag? First of all, a description of the content of the website and its subject.As we have already mentioned, it should be persuasive - its purpose is to convince the user to enter your portal. It should also arouse the interest of the reader and arouse in him a desire to obtain more information. Use keywords - they will be graphically highlighted in the search results. However, remember that this should not adversely affect the legibility of the description. The description is limited in length - descriptions no longer than 155 characters are preferred.

Meta tag keywords

Until a few years ago, this tag was of great importance in determining the position of the page in search results. Unfortunately, due to bad practices of placing keywords inadequate to the subject of the page, but only popular at a given time, the significance of the keywords tag has decreased significantly. This tag is visible only to search engine robots and with its help they define the subject of a given page. Therefore, it is not worth ignoring it - describing the page with appropriate keywords related to its subject and content allows for its more precise categorization. If the keywords do not match the subject of the page, it may be treated as spam.

Other elements of the website important in terms of SEO

Indexing robots also pay attention to other elements of the page's code. First of all, they take into account the content marked with and - it is important that words or phrases strongly related to the topic of the page are highlighted in this way. It should be similar with the headers -. They should describe what is in a specific section of the page, they have an important task to organize the content. The robots also pay attention to anchors - anchor texts - that is, the parts of outgoing links on websites seen by users. The crawler checks if the anchor specifies what is on the linked page.

Structured data

Structured data are elements that are of increasing importance in the work of search engine robots. This is additional information that allows you to specify the content of the page. In the search results, you can see them as so-called extended fragments. Depending on the website, these can be, for example, product descriptions, product reviews, price information, average ratings. breadcrumbs, i.e. marking the location of a given page on the website, or search box - i.e. an additional search field that allows you to reach various pages / categories on the website directly from the SERP. Structured data can be successfully implemented with the Google Data Markup Assistant.

Graphic elements important for SEO

Graphic elements on a website have two meanings for positioning. The first is the impact of the graphics on the page loading speed, the second - the appropriate description of the graphics in the source code of the page. Let's look at the first point. Too long loading of the website does not have a positive effect on its position in the search results, but it can also be discouraging for the users who decide to visit it. The cause of too long loading may be too many uncompressed images and graphics. You can check via PageSpeed ​​Insights whether the speed of loading of your website is influenced by the graphics placed there.

If so, please compress it. Remember to try to use .jpg, .png or .gif formats. The easiest way is to compress a graphic file with Photoshop - then you just need to save it "for the Internet and devices" in the save options. He will surely lose weight then. Kraken, Optimizilla or Compressnow are among the tools available online, thanks to which you can easily compress graphics. If you have already reduced the weight of the graphics on the website, check the loading speed again.

What should you know about the tags and about the images on the page? is an alternate description of the image. It appears on the website when the image cannot be loaded. It is important to define what is in the image - above all, it is beneficial for the viewers of the page, as well as for search engine robots, which, thanks to an alternative description, read the subject of the image, and thus - also the page. is an auxiliary text. In practice, it is a balloon with a description that appears when you hover the cursor over an image or link in the page content. It is important that it contains relevant information about what it is describing.

Hidden semantic indexing - how does it affect SEO?

Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) with the use of a system of mathematical equations allows to determine the semantic relationships of keywords appearing in the content of the page. Thanks to this, the search engine can use keywords to determine which topic is specifically related to a given page. For example, the algorithm creates one pseudo-word from several keywords, using the semantic relationships between the keywords. Pseudo-words define the semantic content of a given page. LSI allows, thanks to the context in which the keywords are located, to define the subject of the page. In this way, you can avoid problems resulting from the homonymy of words that are keywords (eg "castle" - in the company of words such as "Lower Silesia" or "tourism" is associated with a different subject than next to "repair" and "replacement"). Thanks to LSI, search engine hints are also created.

You learned in this part of our series on how to optimize your page's source code to be SEO friendly. You know what the basic web development languages ​​are, how to use meta tags and how to adapt graphics to a website. In the next part of the cycle, we will introduce you to the importance of URL structure in SEO - we will describe the anchors mentioned here and introduce you to the specifics of 301 redirects and canonical URLs.