Hypertext Markup Language, or HTML tells web browsers what should be
displayed on a page or site. This computer programming language is not
visible to web users, but it is an essential part of any web site
construction. HTML coding can be viewed by users on most web browsers if
they so desire, but it is not apparent to the casual viewer. HTML has
various elements which are enclosed inside of angle brackets.
HTML is an essential part of web design as well as SEO campaigns. But it’s not a magic potion that will immediately put your site(s) at the top of the SERPs. There was recently a move from HTML 4 to HTML 5 and many of the changes are very beneficial to an SEO campaign. Basically, the latest changes allow for more description in the markup tags like the article, footer and navigation. The changes also introduced a new element “Canvas” which can be used to render images or graphs dynamically without making browser plugins necessary. It also has a new and improved video element which now allows embedding of videos without needing a third-part plugin like Adobe Flash. HTML 5 reduces the amount of required coding needed to render a web page which means the page will load much faster which can actually have some minor input on the page’s rank.
There are some aspects of HTML tags that will affect SEO experts. Search engines are trying to look at websites more from a human-like perspective so that the rankings are more what would be expected if a human were able to index millions of sites. To the SEO specialist this means making a site easily indexed by search engines and appealing to both search engines and human visitors. HTML brings sort of a balance into the ranking spectrum.
The Head tag will include title tags, a Meta description and the rel= or canonical tag. These will be housed between the <head> and </head> tags. The title tag will be just inside <head> tags and it will be used by search engines to determine the basic topic of the page. It is important to not try to stuff a lot of keywords in the title tag. Simply reflect the content of the page. The title tag is also important to users as its contents are usually seen as a clickable headline when displayed in the SERPs.
The Meta tag is retrieved by search engines and will display the site’s basic description in the SERPs. These should not be longer than 160 characters. Google will not use the Meta tag’s content to determine a site’s ranking, but usable keywords can attract more traffic because it is seen by users. Just be descriptive as well as honest when writing the Meta description.
HTML is an essential part of web design as well as SEO campaigns. But it’s not a magic potion that will immediately put your site(s) at the top of the SERPs. There was recently a move from HTML 4 to HTML 5 and many of the changes are very beneficial to an SEO campaign. Basically, the latest changes allow for more description in the markup tags like the article, footer and navigation. The changes also introduced a new element “Canvas” which can be used to render images or graphs dynamically without making browser plugins necessary. It also has a new and improved video element which now allows embedding of videos without needing a third-part plugin like Adobe Flash. HTML 5 reduces the amount of required coding needed to render a web page which means the page will load much faster which can actually have some minor input on the page’s rank.
There are some aspects of HTML tags that will affect SEO experts. Search engines are trying to look at websites more from a human-like perspective so that the rankings are more what would be expected if a human were able to index millions of sites. To the SEO specialist this means making a site easily indexed by search engines and appealing to both search engines and human visitors. HTML brings sort of a balance into the ranking spectrum.
The Head tag will include title tags, a Meta description and the rel= or canonical tag. These will be housed between the <head> and </head> tags. The title tag will be just inside <head> tags and it will be used by search engines to determine the basic topic of the page. It is important to not try to stuff a lot of keywords in the title tag. Simply reflect the content of the page. The title tag is also important to users as its contents are usually seen as a clickable headline when displayed in the SERPs.
The Meta tag is retrieved by search engines and will display the site’s basic description in the SERPs. These should not be longer than 160 characters. Google will not use the Meta tag’s content to determine a site’s ranking, but usable keywords can attract more traffic because it is seen by users. Just be descriptive as well as honest when writing the Meta description.
