Some thoughts on SEO Basics

**sarahk** · 04-24-2005, 02:54 PM

Originally Posted by HMiller

Hmmmmm

Sorry if I offended you Henry... your site is far from crappy but it does look real. It looks like there is a hard working real person behind it. I like that.

Some of the realtor sites I get look very dodgy, they are so groomed and so plastic. As a house buyer I'd worry that the realtor was all tricks and image, no substance. I guess that attitude carries over to my SEO life too.

Sarah

**HMiller** · 04-24-2005, 04:44 PM

LOL Sarah, no offense was taken. When I posted the "Hmmmmmm" line I was referring to this quote from one of your posts.

Originally Posted by sarahkI prefer the really crappy looking agents.

I was joking that you preferred crappy looking agents, while I know you meant that you preferred the crappy looking agent sites.

**sarahk** · 05-04-2005, 05:29 PM

Originally Posted by sward

Hi Gang, Just one comment on this, Although I agree with you that CSS cut down on coding, I don't agree that they always get higher ranking, after all lot's of sites have CSS but poor internal linking, and optimization. ...etc.

You're 100% right on that

CSS doesn't directly help with ranking

Indirectly it helps by making it easier for a search engine spider to identify content. They are smart enough to cope with complicated html and javascript - but if you can avoid it then why not.

Humans will thank you too as your pages will load faster

Sarah

**frobn** · 05-05-2005, 07:05 AM

Originally Posted by sward

Hi Gang, Just one comment on this, Although I agree with you that CSS cut down on coding, I don't agree that they always get higher ranking, after all lot's of sites have CSS but poor internal linking, and optimization. ...etc.

The reason I know this is my sites are still basic HTML, unfortunately for me when I built the sites 5 years ago CSS was just breaking ground and I missed the learning curve... I know any new sites I do will need to use the newer language and I may even have to change my old sites.... I'm dreading the switch.. but for now I don't have to as I still blow my competition out of the water..... Just thought I ought to put my two cents in ...still good advice but not completely true

CSS alone will not give you a higher SE rating. It is one aspect of css along with correct semantic markup will provide advantages over non-css/xhtml sites.

SEs have no problem reading html, but when the html is convoluted within tables and nested tables SEs can not make sense of it. Probably the same with java script. Css/xthml with correct semantic markup allows you to code in a logical manner giving you the optimun placement of key elements and content.

If the content of your web site is properly coded switching it to a css/xhtml sturcture should not be difficult. Recoding tables to css can be a bit daunting though.

**sarahk** · 05-05-2005, 02:03 PM

Originally Posted by sward

as my sites are both about 550 pages each, not done on templates but usually I'd just take a page and rename it, change out text and pics, optimize etc.... so do you still think it would be simple?

It would be simple, just time consuming to do something x 550

However maybe it's better to bite the bullet and get a modular design in place before your site is x650?

Sarah

**HomeSurfer** · 05-05-2005, 06:41 PM

I once had 550 pages.

I moved away from tables as much as possible when creating new pages, though the site is too big and I never get around to simplifying everything. I stopped doing imbedded tables almost completely. We took out all the programming language and javascript.

I like things simple, so do search engines, and so do web visitors. It still has to look inviting, though.

**Realestateguy** · 07-24-2006, 10:46 PM

lol that is alot to chew on

**Miami Homes** · 10-22-2006, 06:02 PM

not sure if someone mentioned this already, but bloggin also creates some search engine exposure. Just make sure that you use as much keywords as possible in your blog.

**spanishproperty** · 01-16-2007, 02:42 AM

Because SEO is so fierce in competition with other companies on the web I think that you must do it properly or not at all.

Firstly if you mess about and dont really know what you are doing, it is a waste of time and recources so you may as well pass it on to a professional company with the know how and the proof of results.

Otherwise, building and maintaining a site if you know what you are doing - you must start and continue in a certain fashion. Its not meta tags, keywords, links, etc, etc - its a balance of hard work and good information, producing a small bit of work to the site every day or every week.

A clean and tidy site - files, internal links, general scrpit and structure.

Meta tags, links, keywords, etc are quick fix solutions that arrive just at the start of your websites journey.

**ericbramlett** · 02-10-2007, 08:39 AM

I was just reading through here & noticed the "text to code" comments....everything I've read (especially from Matt Cutts) indicates that this is a completely bogus ratio that the SERP's don't even look at. While CSS driven pages are much cleaner, Cutts has indicated that G doesn't care how bogged down or clean a site is.