Mon, 18 Jun 2007 16:20:02 by Pete Handley
Now, while I am sure that most of you have read the other parts of this series, for those that haven't, go check out part 1 DOCTYPE and <head>, part 2 DIV's and CSS and the most recent blog part 3 Navigation.
Right, now that you are up to date with this series, I will begin looking at some of the most important factors for a well optimised website and what you can change to rank well for particular keywords, which are the document Title tag and on-page headings.
Now, the title tag is what appears in the blue bar at the top of a web page, and is controlled in the <head> section of the behind the scenes HTML.
This is one of the single most important factors that is used in determining a page's relevance to a particular query. It is undoubtably one of the most important on-page factors that can affect a websites ranking for a particular phrase.
This title tag needs to use the keyword we are targeting to this page as early as possible, but it is also important to realise that this title needs to act as an effective marketing headline that will encourage a potential user to click this particular link ahead of any of the others that display on the SERPs.
Another vital piece of information about the use of the title tag across a website is that it very important that every page of your website has a unique title, that no other page on the website is using. Some larger sites often populate this data from pages that are higher up the directory structure, but the better ones are those that take some important area of the particular page and use that as a title rather than inheriting the same data as the other pages above it in the directory structure.
It is also important the the keyword in use in the <title> of the web page is supported by also appearing in the main text of the website. All the good optimisation in the world is unlikely to yield the expected results if a page is being optimised for terms that do not appear in the main body of the text.
Headings are also another big factor that can be modified to affect a websites ranking. There are a number of levels of headings from <h1> to <h6>. Each of these has default size styling and most sites only use one or two levels of these headings, but these can all be modified in the CSS or with styling elements to fit in with the keeping of the rest of the site.
One of the most important of these factors is the <h1>. This tag should appear as high up the page code as possible and should be one of the first bits of content on the page.
Also, there should only ever be one instance of <h1> on any page, as this is telling the browser/search engine/user the overall "document" title. Any more than one of these <h1> tags does not sit correctly with the search engines, as it can be seen as spammy or trying to "game" the system.
However, I have read in some locations that the <h2> can be more important than an <h1>, although I have not seen the research that led that particular marketer to that conclusion. One advantage of <h2> or any of them except <h1>, is that you can use these multiple times in a web page without incurring the same penalties as multiple uses of <h1> can.
If you think about a web page in terms of a document, it makes sense that there is only 1 overall <title> or a page, which is supported by the top heading (<h1>). However there will often be many levels of sub headings, each of which may be at different levels, hence the need for 1-6 <h> tags. So using, or attempting to use more than 1 title or top level heading is going to look odd.
I have also read in many locations that using the same <title> and <h1> is bad for SEO and can incur penalties. Now from my document explanation, this perhaps doesnt make sense in the same way, but I would always ensure that an <h1> tag supports a <title> of the page, but is at least subtly different just to prevent being penalised for doing this
As I have already said, it is important that the content of the page is relevant to these headings and titles, in terms of supporting the targeted keyword for that page. Good content and optimisation in tandem is much more likely to yield the results a client expects than poor irrelevant or duplicated content.
Thats it for todays blog, but keep alert for the next installment coming soon....
Pete Handley
Campaign Delivery Manager |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
