Web pages that are free of problems have a better chance of a higher ranking on search engines than web pages that contain problems. This is because search engine spiders may get confused and may not read a web page's content correctly if it contains certain problems, especially significant structural errors.
Primary Tips
CSE HTML Validator can help you fix issues that can affect search engine rankings. Below are some tips:
| • | At a minimum, use CSE HTML Validator to check for major structural issues. Using the "Errors only" validation mode will help keep focus on only the most important issues. |
| • | Make sure configuration flags that show search engine messages and tips are on/enabled (such as flag 107 and flag 113). By default, all flags are on so these flags should already be on unless you or someone else has turned them off. |
| • | If there is time, address other issues such as warning messages. It's always best for pages to have as few issues and problems as possible. |
More Tips
These tips and others like them may be displayed if the flag to display a random search engine tip is on/enabled.
| • | Do not use hidden text or keywords, small text, comments, popular but unrelated words, etc. to try to 'cheat' to gain better search engine rankings. This is dishonest and considered to be a type of search engine spamming. Many search engines penalize sites for spamming as soon as it is detected. |
| • | It's a good idea to repeat this document's title, keywords, and search terms in header tags (like "h1", "h2", etc.) and throughout the page. Use CSS to make the headers look good. However, be sure not to change the meaning of the header tags, like making a header look like regular text because that can be considered cheating and may result in your site being penalized. |
| • | Use keywords and search terms throughout the page, including in regular text, but don't overdo it. The site should be easy to read and not cluttered with keywords. |
| • | Get sites that are popular and relevant to your own site to link to your site. The anchor text that is used to link to your site is also important and should contain your site's keywords and search terms. Building incoming links gradually instead of all at once may also be better. Avoid link farms that are designed to deceive the search engines. Using link farms may result in a site being penalized. |
| • | Use meta description and keywords tags in the head section. While some search engines may not use these tags, some do. |
| • | NEVER do anything for the purpose of trying to trick a search engine. Tricks can often be detected or be reported to the search engine by a competitor. |
| • | Each page on a site should have its own unique title. Every title should contain appropriate keywords and search terms that are relevant to the page. |
| • | Using the "alt" attribute for images is not just good for accessibility, it's good for search engines too. Use the "alt" attribute to describe images but use relevant keywords and search terms in the description when appropriate, but don't overdo it by cramming in too many keywords. |
| • | Consider including common misspellings of popular keywords in the keywords meta tag. Also, avoid including keywords that don't also appear elsewhere in the page. |
| • | The actual copy of a page (the text that a visitor sees) is very important. Make sure the copy is high-quality, information-rich content that visitors will want to read and others will want to link to. Include keywords and search terms throughout the copy when appropriate. For best results, try to include at least 200 words of copy in each page. |
| • | Avoid using JavaScript to insert tags and content into web pages. Don't use JavaScript to link to other documents. Search Engines don't run JavaScript. It's also a bad idea because it should not be assumed that JavaScript is available (and turned on) in the user's browser. |
| • | Many elements support the "title" attribute that is used for annotation (do not confuse the "title" element with the "title" attribute). Consider annotating tags like "a" with something like title="Read about <keywords>". Annotate with keywords and search terms. Some browsers, like Firefox, will also display the value of the "title" attribute when the user hovers the mouse over content with a "title" attribute. |
| • | Register your domain name for at least three years. A longer registration time means a more credible site (it's less likely to be considered a spam site by search engines). |
| • | Provide fresh content on your site from time to time to keep it from "decaying". Provide quality content. The more quality content on your site, the better. |
| • | Following accessibility standards may improve search engine rankings. Use "alt", "title", and table "summary" attributes whenever relevant and possible. Use keywords and search terms in them but keep them accurate. Using this program's accessibility checking can help. |
| • | Don't use "id=" as a parameter in URLs as some search engines like Google won't include these URLs in their listings. |
| • | Consider linking to one or more high ranking sites that are related to the site you're promoting. Use your site's keywords in the link text if you can. |
| • | Look at your site's referral logs to see what keywords people are using to find your site. Use this information to improve your site. For example, you may want to add content related to keywords that have been overlooked. |
| • | Don't cloak. Cloaking is delivering search engine optimized content to search engine spiders while delivering different content to actual human visitors. Many search engines can detect this type of spam and may even completely ban a site if cloaking is detected. |
| • | Don't use keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing is inserting blocks of keywords to try to increase a page's rankings by increasing its keyword density. This is considered spamming and can easily be detected. Example: keyword1 keyword1 keyword1 keyword2 keyword2 keyword2 keyword3 keyword3 keyword3, etc. |
| • | Be aware that using Flash causes issues for search engine spiders because they are unlikely to be able to see and index the text content in a Flash object. Use alternate ways of making Flash content available to search engines, such as including links to alternate pages that do not use Flash objects. This will also be helpful for visitors who are unable to view Flash content. |
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