HTML Tags in SEO

HTML tag abuse caused search engines to discount this section of the hidden document. Some SEO organizations do not recommend that tags are irrelevant.  Our research shows that a properly crafted HTML or META tag is beneficial.  Like other aspects of SEO, this field is changing and evolving to improve the performance of search engines for users.  As the use of HTML tags has declined and search engine algorithms have improved to detect abuses, the weight given these sections is increasing.  It appears that some major engines (MSN) are increasing the weight given to the tags.

Furthermore, the <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW"> HTML tag can be extremely important if you do not want a page to be indexed. Content of a web page may penalize your entire site.  If your site has content that you want to publish, but do not want to negatively affect the rest of your site, This HTML tag will help.
Usually, search engines display the META Description tag when showing your page link.  A well-crafted META Description tag will give the reader an immediate first impression of your site.  If the impression is good, then they are likely to click on the link and visit your site.  Also, a descriptive META Description tag will help filter out traffic that is not interested in your site contents, services or products.

The <TITLE> tag may be the most important HTML tag on your website.  Adding a <TITLE> that utilizes targeted keywords from your keyword research is necessary for any webpage.

ALT tags for IMG files benefit from creatively using keywords. Running further down a typical HTML page, the <H#> tag help the spiders index your page and understand the content flow of your page. Using <H1> tag for broad topics and <H2> tag for sub topics not only helps the readability of your content, but helps with indexing as well.
One area overlooked when it comes to code and tags is not ‘what tags work’ but what ‘code is unnecessary’. FLASH movies and their respective code are not easy for spiders to read. FRAMES also challenge spiders. Usually the spider indexes the main frame and discards all of the other content. If you are unsure if your page uses frames, check for the <FRAMES> HTML tag.

Load time impacts ranking. The faster your page loads, the better chance you have of ranking higher over a slower loading site. To help improve load times, try and minimize your flash movies (indicated by the <FLASH> HTML Tag) and strip your code to the basics.  Removing ‘cruft’ – excess superfluous or unnecessary code usually left behind by web authoring tools also helps improve load times and spider reading – and consequently indexing and ranking.

At Alfa SEO Solutions, we can help you convert, clean and optimize your website’s code. If you have questions about your project, feel free to contact us by clicking here.