SEO and W3C Compliance

How to comply with W3C Compliance and SEO?

The W3C is the World Wide Web Consortium and since 1994 the W3C has provided the guidelines by which websites and web pages should be structured and created. The rules they outline are based on the best practices and while websites don't have to comply to be viewed correctly in Internet Explorer, Firefox and other popular browsers that cater to incorrect design practices. There are a number of compelling reasons to ensure that you or your designer ensure that the W3C guidelines are followed and that your site is brought into compliance.

A number of less SEO-related though very compelling arguments for W3C-complaince. Some non-SEO reasons to take on this important step in the lifecycle of your site are:

• Compliance help ensure accessibility for the disabled.


• Compliance helps ensure that your website is accessible from a number of devices, from different browsers to the growing number of surfers using PDAs and cellular phones.


• Compliance will also help ensure that regardless of the browser, resolution, device, etc. that your website will look and function in the same or at least a very similar fashion.

Proper use of standards and bleeding edge best practices makes sure that not only is the copy marked up in a semantic fashion which search engines can interpret and weigh without confusion, it also skews the content-to-code ratio in the direction where it needs to be while forcing all of the information in the page to be made accessible, thus favoring the content.

To comply with the W3C Compliance and SEO, reduce the amount of code on your page and the content takes a higher priority. Additionally compliance will, by necessity, make your site easily spidered and additionally allow you greater control over which portions of your content are given more weight by the search engines.

SEO Copywriting

To hold the attention of intelligent people, you must require them to fill in the blanks of your narrative.

The same thing goes for SEO Copywriting.

Well almost.

The tricky part about SEO Copywriting is combining creativity and technicality at the same time.

Creativity in the sense of appealing to your readers.

While Technicality in the part of appealing to the Search Engines.

This is what clients need to be informed about.

It is not enough that we write for them.

We have to use the necessary tools to be able to interest the readers while also practicing restraint in utilizing the target keywords the Search Engines allow. (‘Lest we want to be blacklisted from the SE’s permanently!)

The term is strategically placing the Keywords in parts of the content that will be crawled by the SE spiders.

SEO Copywriting requires the skillful mesh of the following:

1. Creativity

(angle, who your readers are, excellent and fresh content, etc.)

2. Adhering to Standard Copywriting Rules

(editorial guidelines, spelling, grammar, etc.)

3. SEO Compliant

(SPECIFIC and TARGET keywords, keywords, keywords)

4. Following Search Engine Guidelines

(Understanding White Hat and Black hat methodologies in Search Engines)

5. Doing an SEO audit

(Performing a technical and semantic audit of your content & website per page)

The Guidelines in Writing Copy for SEO are summarized in the following points:

SEO Copywriting Tips

• Use standard document format;
  
  
  
  • Heading 1
  
  
  • Paragraph 1
  
  
  • Heading 2
  
  
  • Paragraph 2
  
  
  • Heading 3
  
  
  • Paragraph 3
    

• Include the target primary keyword in the Heading 1.


• Include the target secondary keyword in Heading 2.


• Mention at least 1 keyword being targeted in the first and last sentence of the first paragraph.


• Mention at least 1 target keyword sporadically in all the succeeding paragraphs.


• Mention the primary keyword in the last sentence of the last paragraph.

RSS Feeds

HOW TO USED RSS?

RSS means Really Simple Syndication. RSS is a special format based on XML, which was first used to unite headers with web content. In fact, RSS feeds are XML files containing data according to the RSS specification, and usually located on a website.

As soon as an RSS feed appears in the Internet, any connected computer can access it. In order for the user to be able to use the RSS feed, he needs special software or services called readers or aggregators.

Tags to use to write a RSS file

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/rss.html

Once your feed is online you can check is it is valid by using :

http://feedvalidator.org/

As an example you can see the RSS feeds of lemonde.fr

http://www.lemonde.fr/web/rss/0,48-0,1-0,0.html

Google Compliance

CODES HIERARCHY

The use of the <H1> <H2> and <H3> tags is clearly set up, as to differentiate different levels of titles and subtitles , A valid CSS & use of <Alt> tags. Proper formatting, with bold & strong tags.

SITEMAP

A sitemap is included, providing hard entry links to all the pages of the site.

META TAGS

Clear definition of the Meta tags, including the <Title>, <description>, <keywords> and <Robots> tags. Optimized use of the available resources.

LINKS PER PAGE

The number of links per page is never superior to 100, thus in perfect compliance with the Google guidelines.

TEXT CRAWL

Use of a text crawl to navigate the site to ensure spiders’ friendliness.

SERP DISPLAY

Proper use of the <title> and <description> tags, and valid optimized structure of the links: SERP display in triple crown.

ORGANIC CONTENT

Use of genuine organic content on each of the website’s page. The body of the page must be large enough to be considered relevant by search engines. The content of the pages is not to be duplicated, but specific for each page. The content of the page is relevant to the tags and titles of the pages.

ADDED VALUE

Added value as flash animations, RSS feeds and downloadable freebies to provide a better user experience are very relevant especially in an industry as competitive as online gambling. Also, developing a relevant linking policy to provide useful and related content to the users. More added value will bring more legitimacy to the site. The list of added value recommendations is not exhaustive and should represent an ongoing analysis of its own.

CLOAKING

Changing user agent doesn’t modify the content shown to the users. The spiders and the users are provided with the same information.

REDIRECTIONS/ DOORWAY PAGES

No sneaky redirection, using JavaScript or meta-redirects to bring the user to another page.