SEO - Search Engine Optimization Basics Part 2

Elements That Can Affect Compatibility

In a previous hub, we discussed some common web design elements that can impact your web site's search engine compatibility.

The elements that we covered were the Title Element, META Description tag and Page text with keywords. Some additional elements that can impact your web site's search engine compatibility include your:

Robots META tag
Text links
ALT IMG attributes

These are some of the elements you should review when you are optimizing your website. You can make the necessary changes yourself, to help increase your website traffic and search engine compatibility.

Your Robots META Tag

Your Robots META Tag is HTML code instructing search engine robots to index a page (or not). Some pages, such as your order form, don't need indexing, while most other pages do.

Your Robots META Tag is in the HTML code between the <head> tags. If you want to view your HTML code, simply open your page in your web browser and right click. Select View Source. Your HTML code will be visible in a new window.

Your Robots META Tag will look similiar to the following: <meta name= "robots" content= "index, follow"> This code is simply telling the search engine robot to "Index this page and follow the links".

If you have a page you don't want indexed, such as your order form, change the code to: "no index, follow" which means "Do not index this page but please follow the links". If you don't want the links followed either, your code would read: "no index, no follow".

Your Web Page Text Links

Link popularity is a very important aspect for search engine compatibility. Link popularity is the number of relevant sites linking to your site. When keywords are part of the link text, they become even more relevant.

Let's use our fictional Au Jewelers as an example. One of the keywords we used was Italian Gold Chain. Au Jewelers would rank higher in search engine results if multiple sites linked to them with link text that reads: Click here for Italian Gold Chain. Au Jewelers could also add relevancy to their site by using text links on their own site. An example would be: Order your Italian Gold Chain.

"If you want to add relevancy and rank, you should incorporate your targeted keywords into your Text Links".

Your ALT IMG Attribute

ALT IMG attributes are text descriptions of images on your pages. They are visible when you "mouse over" an image. Most search engines have difficulty indexing images but they can index the ALT IMG attribute because it is text.

The HTML code would look something like this: <IMG SRC= "chain.photo.jpg" alt= "Italian Gold Chain" width= "149" height= "67">. This code is simply saying, "Instead of tagging this image chain.photo.jpg, please tag it Italian Gold Chain.