by: Lee Mayfield
President, Presentek, Inc.
Over the years I've been asked about search engine traffic about as much as any other subject. Forgive me if you've heard this from me before -- but doing well with Search Engines has a lot more to do with boring tedious fundamentals applied over time, than with the allure of decoding a secret cipher that instantly unlocks the keys to untold easy-to-convert customers. Essentially search engines like Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and others want their customers (searchers) to get what they want so they keep coming back to that search engine. They are not terribly concerned with displaying your site just because you want them to. Search engines reward sites with high rankings that are actually about the subject the person is searching on. Search engines are not people. They don't read sites and make a reasoned judgment about the information as a person would. They do however have software that "crawls" or combs through a site and uses sophisticated algorithms to assign relevance to a site's information. Search Engines reward sites that make it easy for them to crawl (or index) a web site as they regularly update their massive keyword databases.
Because of this, CODING WITH WEB STANDARDS CAN PROVIDE YOU A SECRET WEAPON IN YOUR SEARCH MARKETING...
as well as other benefits.
Coding with Web Standards means creating web pages using standards-compliant XHTML and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and following guidelines set forth by the W3C. The reasons are to ensure consistent presentation of content across different platforms, browsers and Internet devices (including handheld wireless devices). Considered an industry Best Practice, coding with Web Standards allows for the creation of faster loading web sites, sites that are easier to update AND...sites that are indexed quite nicely by Search Engines. Another important aspect of the movement to Web Standards is Section 508 compliance, which ensures equal access to a web site's content by persons with disabilities. For example -- a person who is blind could use a screen reader to reliably access the content on your site, but ONLY if it was developed to be Section 508 compliant. In the years ahead, more and more companies will choose to (or be required to) make their content more broadly accessible than it is now.
Wondering if your site is developed with Web Standards?
Unless your site was redesigned or developed in the past few years and the developer was mindful of this trend and practice, it probably isn't. If you want us to verify it, just email us with your name, email, company and url. One of our staff members will be happy to take a look and let you know (at no charge).
Have any questions about how this applies to you and your site?
Please feel free to contact us.