Common Coding Errors that are Bad for SEO

Sparky — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 06:54:36 +0000

According to Bing Webmaster Center’s Rick DeJarnette some of the most common errors that can tank a site include:

An invalid mark-up code – To make sure that your mark-up code is valid use a validator such as the W3C Markup Validation Service. Of course when validating you should know which errors to look out for by asking the following questions:

* Does your file contain a document type declaration (DTD) statement?
* Are all of your tags closed properly?
* Are your tags written in lower case letters?
* Are all of the tag attribute values, even numerals, as in

, enclosed in quotes?
* Are the tag attributes used in your code valid?
* Are you using deprecated tags?
* Are your tags positioned in the right place in your code?
* Are your tags nested correctly?
* Are you using the escape special character & for the ampersand character in your href attribute URL values?

After validation you should still test your pages on different browsers to see how well they fare and make adjustments accordingly.

Bad links – Bad links include mistyped and expired URLs as well as structural and site design problems that compromises your site’s SEO. Link checkers are available online to help you check your links. Some of the more common link problems also include:
* File Not Found 404 errors
* Missing page elements
* Mixed canonicalized links
* Navigation blockages

Other coding errors that can kill your site include:

* Missing, empty, or duplicate title tag
* Missing, empty, or duplicate meta description tag
* Missing, empty, or duplicate h1 tag

For a detailed discussion on each common mistake you can read Rick DeJarnette post here.

White Hat SEO

Sparky — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 01:44:16 +0000

There is a saying that goes ?The good guys always finish last.? Perhaps that is why there are people who resort to black hat methods to get their page rankings up. Yet there is such a thing as ethical SEO, as featured in a previous post. Ethical SEO does not mean you will not get your site high up in search directories nor will it take you forever. In fact, it guarantees lasting results.

Just as there are black hat methods, at the other end of the spectrum we have white had methods. These are the recommended SEO techniques that will help you get where you want go ? in the acceptable way.

There are quite a few white hat practices that you can employ to make your page ranking improve dramatically. Here are some of the most common, but sometimes overlooked ones:

? Writing informational articles under a Creative Commons or another open source license. Your stipulation for the use of your article would be to link to your site.
? Get rid of session IDs ? this will allow spiders to navigate your pages without having to login
? Use anchor tag hyperlinks
? Utilise metadata and make sure they?re accurate
? Provide a unique and relevant name to each page in your site
? Employ specific wording instead of vague and ambiguous statements

You may employ all the white hat techniques in the world but the concept basically boils down to one thing ? content. Make high quality content your basic goal and the rest will follow.

How Far Will SEO Take You?

Sparky — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 04:23:30 +0000

Last post I said that I’ll be discussing some ways wherein you can SEO for directories. However, I decided to put that off till next time and tackle the important subject on SEO and your expectations and its limitations.

It is true that SEO plays a vital role in web design and that if you do hope to get to be on the first page of SERPs you’d better employ good SEO techniques. But just how far can SEO really take you? We know that with SEO you website has a greater chance of being indexed faster by search engines. SEO also helps a lot in page rank ensuring better positioning in SERPs and thus giving you more visibility. SEO is thus responsible for introducing you to users and getting them to pay attention and try you out. However, that is just how far SEO can take you. SEO is like the friend that sets you up for a blind date. It boosts your reputation and sends your blind date to meet you but after that it’s up to you to make a good impression.

Your website content, layout, and overall design will determine whether you keep the interest of visitors referred to you by search engines. Despite good meta tags, keyword density, and other SEO methods, visitors will automatically hit the back button if your website looks hideous or is apparantly lacking substance. And once the back button is hit you can be assured that that visitor won’t ever come back.

Remember SEO will get search engines to notice you but your website needs to be real, substantial, and relevant for the real traffic to stay.

Meta Tags Are Dead

Sparky — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 13:18:01 +0000

Traffick.com‘s Andrew Goodman wrote recently in an essay about meta tags:

“If somebody would just declare the end of the metatag era, full stop, it would make it easier on everyone.”

I’m happy to oblige, at least in the case of the meta keywords tag. Now supported by only one major crawler-based search engine- Inktomi - the value of adding meta keywords tags to pages seems little worth the time. In my opinion, the meta keywords tag is dead, dead, dead. And like Andrew, good riddance, I say!

Welcome To The SEO Blog!

Sparky — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 18:34:29 +0000

The blog on everything SEO

SEO Blogging » Meta Tags

Common Coding Errors that are Bad for SEO

White Hat SEO

How Far Will SEO Take You?

Meta Tags Are Dead

Welcome To The SEO Blog!