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Using Standards for better SEO

Search Engine Optimization is not rocket science. However being as it may, it’s still a science and very easy to learn and master. I’m telling you this from the perspective of ranking high in almost anything I write about. When I realized what I was already doing was the way to do things, I decided I was an expert. Although, I can’t get too ahead of myself, I am no guru when it comes to marketing. You just tell me what you want to sell, and I’ll sell it. In other words, I have no freakin’ idea what qualifies as a healthy keyword versus a bad one. Keep that in mind as I delve into telling talking about basic S.E.O. – I am not the brain behind the people, I am more or less going to share some tips on how to implement what you think people are thinking, and how I can help you make what you think you think are what they’re thinking. So I hope you have your thinking caps on!

Think Simple

Most likely, if you’re a regular to my blog, then you most likely know about standards schmandards. And, if you know what I’m talking about, you probably know how to use them. Basically, it all comes down to writing good HTML. Writing HTML is not hard. It’s easier than any foreign language anyone can ever learn. And too be quite frank, it’s eeeeeeeeeasy schmeeeeeeeezy. My first tip to you is this very command. Write good HTML. That’s it! Tutorial is over. Ok almost but not quite. What I’m trying to get at is that if you write good semantic markup, chances are you’re already ahead of the rest of the world.

What’s Semantic Markup?

Oh boy. Let me take one big deep breath…and of course, crack my knuckles because this is going to be the longest run-on sentence in the history of brewed beer from Holland. (I just downed a Heineken) Semantic markup is writing HTML just like XML – since that’s what it is – you need to define the text that lies within the tags you’re defining them with with the right tag so that it conveys proper meaning and so once you get the right meaning for the content you’re trying to convey you’ll be right on your way to kickin’ the hay and writing semantic markup which is what web standards is all about which there’s so many great books about that you can read and so many blogs that have long exhausted the subject but I’m still here writing about it for you so that you can benefit from the all the benefits that using web standards gives which, I might add, are great because it makes writing HTML so much easier which is what I was trying to say earlier but got off track because I needed a segway into why we all need to learn semantics which, by the way, is just like writing XML which uses tags to define the content that lie within each tag like if you had… Exhale…inhale… three donkeys and a big farm and you decided you wanted to put your donkeys on the internet and glorify each and all of them displaying their name, weight, and favorite horse food then you’d want to make a separate page for each one of them and on each one of them you’d want to lay it out just like an outline – and an outline is just like one of those documents you used to have to put together in high school for something like a book report or just a report in general which usually has a header and then sub-headers and then paragraphs outlining each detail of each point you wanted to make and in the end your Teacher gave you a C minus because she was such a wench – but that’s besides the point – but back to the headers, sub-headers and subpoints and paragraphs – that’s basically what you want your page about donkeys to look like so that – with high hopes – you’d be able to sell off these donkeys and make a million bucks and live happily ever after. Holy Schmaza that made no sense. I can only hope you caught my drift.

HTML is not a layout language

If it was, they would call it HTLL. HTLL on the other hand has been upgraded to the term otherwise known as CSS. If you’re one of those people that really don’t think a site can be laid out entirely without tables, or if your layout is so complicated that there’s just no way…well…um…you’re wrong. Nanny nanny boo boo. I’m only saying that to you because you need to try harder. The argument for standards and CSS layouts is long over exhausted and I’m not going to start throwing swings left and right on the reasons why. Just know that it’s all possible – more or less.

Web Developers make SEO happen

Keep in mind that your job as a developer is most crucial to the optimization process. If you don’t implement correctly what those darn marketers are telling you to optimize; then they’re just going to remain barking at you “why isn’t our product selling?” Aside from it all, it all comes down to this simple bullet list – as most things comes down to on my website.

• Use semantic markup
• Write Good titles – and put them in your title tag
• make an HTML wireframe for your website

Yep. Just those three things. That's how easy it really is.