SEO Blog

Content to Code Ratio - Through the eyes of SEO - November 13th, 2008

Many a time, I’ve been asked how the actual HTML code of a website affects the site’s SEO.

Can code affect rankings?

This in itself is a very large topic but I plan to mention some of the basics here today. I’ll separate this post into separate sections.

• <div>s & CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
  Thousands of websites across the internet (especially those by beginners in the field) are coded using the old-school HTML tags: <table>, <td>, <tr>, <font> etc. This will result in a lot more code for your site than you need. Using CSS and <div>s in the right way can reduce the amount of code to a minimum. This said, what’s the point? There are a few reasons really…
  1. Page Size
     By reducing the size of the page, this will allow your site to load faster and thus enable search spiders to run through and index your code quicker. An equally important advantage is shown by looking at this from a usability point of view. Research shows that users don’t like to wait too long for a site to load and so, by reducing the size of a page to a minimum, users will be able to view your site more quickly, thus reducing the chances of the user leaving.
  2. Content to Code Ratio
     The major search engines are becoming smarter by the day. It has been noticed by top SEOs that search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN love a higher content to code ratio. What does this mean? Minimum code. They like to see most code away from the site in external files, leaving the site simple and clean to both users and search spiders.
• Website Accessibility
  Another advantage of minimising code usage is accessibility. In the past, this was limited to those users who used to use screen readers but now, it’s different.

  Technology is advancing exponentially and thus, more and more people are using hand help devices to browse the web. This was mostly limited to those devices which run Windows Mobile but we now have the popular iPhone and the newly released G1 - a phone from Google.

  By using CSS, you can make it so that users coming to your site via a hand held device will see your website in a friendlier manner - as will those using a computer or notebook.

  Although this point doesn’t have a major affect on SEO at the moment, you can be sure that it will in the future…

• Cross Browser Compatibility
  Again, not directly related to SEO. If you ask any half-professional web designer and developer where he/she spends most of their time designing a site - I can almost guarantee that it’s in making the site friendly across all browsers.

  The simplest way to ensure that your site will be compatible across all major browsers is to code in CSS and <div>s. It has literally become a must now, due to the number of browsers appearing (like the recent Google Chrome)

• Code Validation
  Using the methods outlined above, you can be sure that you will be left with no or at least minimal validation errors and although validating your code does not have a major impact on SEO, it adds to it. By taking care of the pennies, you can be sure your pounds will stay safe.

There is a lot more I can mention but due to the limitation of time, I will stop here. Feel free to add to this in the comments.

Ahmed Bhula
SEO Programmer

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Keyword Phrases Have Importance. - November 12th, 2008

Effective SEO (Search Engine Optimization) begins with choosing the right Keyword Phrases to attract targeted customers and clients.

One thing to remember about SEO is that your keywords must be relevant to your website. It would be like having a website on cakes and having keywords such as vans, cars & buses; a bit farfetched as an example I know but you can see that these have no relevance to the website.

The visitors who have found your site through search engines are looking for something in particular and you don’t want to disappoint or give them the wrong information, otherwise you will end up quickly losing them.

Another thing to think about is choosing a keyword phrase that gets a good number of searches each month, but not a phrase with too much competition.

Many people’s goal is to get their website on the first page of the search results with a key phrase that a number of people are searching for. But if that phrase is too popular with other Internet Marketers in your industry, your chances of making the first page become reduced.

We understand that it can be a difficult act to find the right keyword phrase, but tools and resources can be found to help the process.

Kenneth Berkley

SEO Programmer

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