Web Design Tips for Optimizing Code Order for SEO

admin    Web Design     Code, design, Optimizing, order, Tips

Web Design Tips for Optimizing Code Order for SEO

When working with web design and search engine optimization (SEO) , order matters. What your visitors see on the web page and what is going on behind the scenes in the source code, matter to search engines and can affect your web page’s ranking.

The main body content is the place where you’ll usually have the most important keywords and anchor text links. It’s there that it’s easiest to creatively and seamlessly target your site around specific keywords and phrases as part of an overall, comprehensive, Internet marketing strategy.

Consider these two basic rules when dealing with web design and SEO:

In the source code the content that you want Google to notice is better off higher on the page. Search engines will digest what is put in front of them first. If you have a bunch of JavaScript navigation code or CSS code on the page (which should be avoided for SEO anyway) before your content the search engines may just get bored and move along to the next site.
If a web page has two separate links to the same page, only the anchor text (the clickable-text part of the link) of the first, or in other words, highest in the source code link, will be counted.

So, let’s say you run a catering service in Dallas. After careful keyword research you select “Dallas Catering Service” as one of your top keywords. In your site’s body content, you put in an anchor text link for “Dallas Catering Service” which, when clicked, takes the visitor to your “services” page. It fits your content, and it’s more specific than a search term like “services,” but since there’s already a link in your navigation bar which is higher up in the code to your “services” page, the “Dallas Catering Services” link won’t likely be counted by Google. That high volume researched keyword phrase doesn’t help your SEO efforts as much as it could.

Typical code order for a basic four-section page goes like this:

Top bar – logo & main navigation
Side bar – sub- navigation
Main body content – keyword rich content including anchor text links
Footer – more navigation, sitemap, copyright

In theory, if you flip the main body content (3) and the top bar (1), you avoid these link conflicts. Google will index your more descriptive, well researched links from the body content. It sounds simple and can make a big difference, but it can amount to a fairly significant renovation of your site’s code. The best time to do it is during a major website redesign, or during the initial development of your website.

If you enjoyed this article please consider sharing it!