31 No SEO Wand

I think many people who have replied here seem under the impression there is some kind of magic to SEO. I know people like Ammon have spent many years learning about Search Engines and various marketting techniques to really know them in great detail and be able to get as much out of them as possible. But the basic of SEO have been the same for a few years, good content with unfussy, well marked up code.

The fact is many people don’t go along with web standards and don’t think to make the best of their text. The article is perfectly acceptable as it is, it is about how XHTML can help you with search engines, not specific tricks to get ahead of everyone else, its tricks that people like Google don’t like and why things like hiding H1 is a dodgy tactic. I contacted Doug Bowman about what I felt was a risky technique for search engines as far as the FIR trick was concerned for the simple fact that they don’t like hidden text!

Yes following web standards can help with SEO, if your already following web standards then of course there wasn’t going to be anything new in the article, thats what it was all about! However, people who want to know more, or need convincing of the pros of using valid markup are more the kind of target audience of the article.

For most of you who are well versed in CSS/XHTML already a simple line to say ‘Using XHTML in accordance with the W3C standards can help in getting a better rank in Search Engines’, but that wouldn’t really of made much of an article at all and wouldn’t have helped the people who needed the ‘how will it help’ type info. Its one thing doing it, its another to understand why you do it. Something I think the likes of Zeldman and Meyer generally do very well in looking at the ‘bigger picture’.

posted at 01:39 pm on August 5, 2003 by Adrian

32 It works

When I converted my personal site over to Movable Type earlier this year I made a concerted attempt at setting everything in xhtml and css. I used many all of the techniques Brandon mentions in his article and my site’s Google click through rate has gone up at an unbelievable rate. Mind you one of the most popular searches is “Tights Gallery” – I have some pictures in my gallery of a Tie and Tights party we had – all very innocent but I suspect the visitors to those pages are somewhat disappointed!

I have to agree that structural mark up is paramount and I still can’t believe how many sites ignore this!

posted at 05:26 am on August 6, 2003 by Simon Cox

33 Take Your Own Advice

Brandon mentions the importance of having the title in the text, not just an image. However, having the author’s name in text is important as well. His only appears in the image. Nowhere in text searchable by a spider. He is invisible to the Web search engines.

posted at 07:59 am on August 6, 2003 by David bigwood

34 What A Shame

I really don’t know why you bothered. Not wishing to be egotistical but you really have a lot to learn about CSS. What you did using JavaScript can also be done using CSS and HTML.

And I know you were merely explaning how to optimize a web page for the purpose of Search Engine Indexing, but come on, is it really necessary to waste time using JavaScript when a little experimentation with CSS and HTML will also do the trick? Articles like this are most often misleading and a complete waste of time for those in the know. If you wish to show us something, at least take the time to do it properly.

posted at 08:32 am on August 6, 2003 by DudeMan

35 Use Correct CSS

If you are going to tout using CSS then please use correct CSS in your one and only bit of code. The correct property is FONT-SIZE not SIZE. The SIZE property controls the size and oreintation of a page (for printing). See http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/page.html#propdef-size

posted at 08:46 am on August 6, 2003 by

36 There must be more...

… to say about SEO?!

posted at 02:53 am on August 7, 2003 by

37 re: Use Correct CSS

And that was constructive HOW? If you’re gonna complain then at least keep it relevant…one could say “make the most of your text” in that regard.

posted at 06:49 am on August 7, 2003 by LePhuronn

38 hiding h1

Ammon: thanks for your tips. But what do you think of my hidden logo and title in the http://www.via-israel.com ? I coded this since the logo is already embeded in the background image and I am lazy to positionate some transparant PNG logo with a javascript/activeX hack… Anyway the logo and title are hidden but not for pda/smartphones/lynx-like/NS4…

posted at 04:25 pm on August 7, 2003 by Jerome

39 Information?

Very little information. But maybe that’s all the information there is on this topic. If so, fair enough.

I feel sorry for his Grandmother.

posted at 02:05 am on August 8, 2003 by Pierce Gleeson

40 Way too light on content!

This was way below the standard I’ve come to expect and enjoy from ALA stories in the past. ALA’s strapline is “for people who make websites”, right? Nothing covered in this article was in any way ‘extended technique’ for anyone who’s ever read an ALA story before.

I don’t expect one of the three (?) main points of an ALA story to be ‘use heading tags’.

posted at 06:20 am on August 8, 2003 by Corelli