HTML Tags in Search Engine Optimization

HTML tags, apart from keywords and site design, play an important role in search engine optimization (SEO), never mind that they're also the cornerstone upon which all web sites are built.

But not all tags are created equal, at least, as far as search engines are concerned. The following is a list those relevant to your SEO efforts.

Head Title Tag - make words appear in the top bar of your browser which describes the page's content
Why Optimize:

* words within this tag are what appear in the clickable link on the search engine results page (SERP) to help users determine whether they should visit your site
* most engines & directories place a high level of importance on keywords found here

Syntax:
<head>
< text >
</head>
* generally followed by your Meta description and Meta keywords tags
Tips:

* stay within a 7-10 word frame (60 to 115 characters)
* include as much relevant information and descriptions about your site as possible - company name + main products and services (since most people don't know your company name when searching) + geographical location (if you intend to target a specific market) + descriptive eye-catching keywords (to grab audience attention)
ex. Quest Outdoor Learning: Philippine's Affordable Package Tours Provider
* though not case-sensitive, initial caps look cleanest (ALL CAPS doesn't look good in the SERP)
* if you have to repeat words, don't put them right next to each other v* choose the most relevant, most important keywords or keyword phrases from your copy to help you write a compelling title tag
* don't use words like "Home, Default or Index" as they're search engine stoppers

Meta Tags
*are discussed in detail here

Heading Tags - specify a certain string of text on the page
Syntax:
<Hx> text </Hx> where x = 1 ~ 6 (variations)
Why Optimize:

* can be used to make a certain word stand out more than others to search engines

Tips:

* keep headers as short as possible
* place your targeted search terms within them

Comment Tag - placed within the text so that web masters know where something begins and ends within the HTML coding
Syntax:
<! -- comments please -->
Why Optimize:

* can help boost your keyword density, although hardly any of the major search engines index comment tags
No Script Tag - used in conjunction with SCRIPT element; indicates content/HTML markup that will only appear if the browser does not support the SCRIPT syntax; contents will be ignored by browsers that support the SCRIPT element
Syntax:
<no script></no script>
*place this tag after starts
Why Optimize:

* some search engines use this like the first text from your web site
* important if your text starts very low in your HTML document

Tips:

* include text like a second description
* may be considered spamming (as content falls under hidden or invisible text)

Hidden Value Tags - part of the

tag that lets you add information to your forms that is hidden from your visitors
Syntax:
<INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="xxxx" VALUE="xxxx">
*name can be any name and value can be anything
Tips:

* use as little "hidden" data as possible
* never ever use "invisible text" (text that your visitors can't see but the SEs can)
* not only is it considered spam by major search engines (which could get you penalized), it also leaves an unsightly gap at the top of the page where the hidden text appears

Style Tags - defines a style in a document
Syntax:
<head>
<style type="xxx" title="yyy" > </style>
</head>
Tips:

* very few search engines index the content of style tags so don't bother putting your keywords in the title attribute
* may be considered spamming (as content falls under hidden or invisible text)

Image ALT Tag - an attribute of the (Image) tag that displays alternative text to make the site navigable to people who are surfing the internet with images turned off (and when image doesn't download) or for users who cannot read images (such as Search Engines)
Syntax:
<IMG SRC="URL" ALT="Alternative Text Goes Here">
*URL is a standard web address to an image
Why Optimize:

* some search engines use the ALT tags in their algorithms for inclusion
* beneficial with search engines that index full text, because you are providing them a textual representation of your graphics so they can index more content about your website

Tips:

* add keywords, and a short description that search engines can use for their database
* add BORDER="0" if it's an HREF (to avoid an unsightly border surrounding everything inside the anchor tag)
* consider naming your gifs and jpegs to increase the validity of your page (as textual words recur)

Anchor Text Tag - actual text of a hyperlink and lies between the anchor tags
Syntax:
<A HREF="yourwebsite.htm" >yourwebsite - description</A>
Why Optimize:

* enhances the relevance of the target page
* keywords found here weighs significantly for SEs (consider the 'allinanchor:keyword' operator that Google uses to pick up text from within the anchor text of indexed pages)

Tips:

* locate important keywords/phrases in your page's content and link it to relevant pages within your site (structure sentences so keywords fall naturally within the anchor text)
* have the phrase in the anchor text of incoming links (this includes links from pages on the same site/domain)

Table Summary tag - an attribute of the table tag used to describe the table within the HTML coding; invisible to human site visitors, but is readable by SE robots
Syntax:
<table summary="place text here" > </table>
Why Optimize:

* can be used to boost a web site's keyword density and for spider-food

Noframes Tag -coded after the frameset to present regular text and HTML for people who are not using frames
Syntax:
<NOFRAMES>text</NOFRAMES>
Why Optimize:

* many search engines don't support frames which could keep them from spidering your site

Tips:
* don't use the generic "This page does not support frames" crap inside these tags. Why? Type in "does not support frames" on Google. Enough said.
* copy and paste the entire html code of your main (read: content filled) page inside these tags

Finally, you must remember that there are just two elements in your web page that every search engine spider or robot can read and understand:

* your HTML markup code, and
* the ASCII text within these codes

You should therefore keep the following in mind:

* the ASCII text should outweigh the page's HTML coding
* keep elements that SE spiders look for as close to the top of the page as possible
* validate your HTML codes (not only do search engines look for correct HTML format and tags, a clean coding also ensures maximum site usability and correct browser rendering).

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