This is the follow up post for SEO Tips for Websites Templates part 1. In this post we discuss how to optimize each segment of your web pages to create an optimal, streamlined website template.
Web Page Variations are Typically Constituted By:
- The header or masthead
- The body area
- Columns which separate the body (1,2,3 or 4)
- And the footer
Based on the information contained within each region, different weights are applied from the perspective of SEO to assign a higher search engine position based on the content, page strength and reputation of that page.
Each one of these regions is broken into a block, search engines use block segmentation analysis and other methods to assess and grade the value of each types of information within each block; this in turn impacts the overall relevance score for that page.
Page Layout Options:
Rather than consume a page whole, segmentation algorithms treat each region with unique filters such as structural tags (h1-h6), semantic blocks, navigation blocks, etc., to determine which blocks receive more weight in correlation to calculating relevance.
Now, it’s just a matter of (a) not producing too many overlapping areas (b) knowing which segments carry more weight and (c) tying them together in a logical and structured format to produce optimal search engine results.
Optimizing Your Sites Header:
- Hard code links when possible using absolute URLs into your navigation http://www.domain.com/page.html vs. relative URLs /page.html – this will pass link flow as a referrer as well as ensure you minimize 404 errors (broken links), if you’re using dynamically pulled data to populate the navigation schema.
- Determine competitive keyword thresholds and implement keyword-rich titles where applicable (i.e instead of “black shoes” as anchor, try “black designer shoes” to link to category pages which reflect the keyword / destination) if there is an opportunity to increase relevance without stuffing keywords to compensate for on page content.
<link href="/css-location.css" rel="stylesheet" />or
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://www.domain.com/menu.css" />or use gzip compression for CSS or other data that needs to load in advance (such as images or stylesheets). Here is a great Gzip http compression plugin if you use WordPress that does this in a snap.
Optimizing the Body Region:
- Use an h1 tag with the exact match 2 or 3 keyword variation you intend to rank for.
- Establish prominence by using the keyword you intend to rank for within the first 25 words in the body area. This works best if surrounded by other contextual synonyms that reinforce topicality.
- Ensure that each page has enough unique content to separate it from the other site segments “such as a heavy header, common sidebar or common footer elements”. Each of the other regions can inadvertently be packed full of dozens of links and skew the focus of the page (since all the keywords, data and links overlap).
- If you are using dynamic sidebars or other server side includes that pull from a database, try to segment each page as much as possible to eliminate duplicity as much as possible and link from themed pages to themed pages (related products to category pages or other related product pages). The more original and unique each page is, the better. When in doubt, limit the number of inbound to outbound links and ensure the page links to either (a) the sitemap (b) the parent page or (c) the homepage to recycle the link flow the page has acquired from both on page and off page factors.
- Use text to provide “keyword-rich” anchor text/links to other pages themed to rank for the keywords in the anchor text (every occurrence of blue shoes in body text across the site, links to the domain.com/blue-shoes.html page).
- Reduce images through jpeg compression to make sure load times are minimal. Also make sure to use alt attributes for images, particularly if those images are links (which can also serve as secondary navigation).
- Limit dynamic API’s from taxing the body area that have to wait for other sites to populate or respond in order for the rest of your site segments to load (things like social media buttons, etc. can all sap performance and load time, which is becoming more important as a metric for rankings).
- Don’t stuff keywords or link excessively from the body area, one link for every 100 words is acceptable, anything exceeding this may hemorrhage vital ranking factor from contextual links.
Optimizing Columns or Sidebars:
Common uses for sidebars are to provide related links via block quotes or anchor text for sub navigation. They can also house widgets, API’s from other sites, advertisements, images and / or text to funnel traffic to other pertinent regions of a website.
Considerations for Secondary Columns or Sidebars:
- When applicable try not to reuse common areas across the entire site. Create a unique set of server side includes that you can pull dynamically in the sidebar or footer that change based on the page or site segment you are on. There are many ways to do this, such as using a tiered breadcrumb like trail for site navigation or using related links based on site structure and relevance (lateral linking across mfg’s, linking up to categories, etc.).
- Instead of linking out excessively site wide, consider consolidating links on category pages and then having one link to those category pages to showcase multiple options (instead of linking out dozens of times on each page).
The takeaway is:
- Make the main body area the focal point for content, context and relevance.
- Reinforce that with an h1 tag, SEO friendly naming conventions that match the preferred ranking, h1 and internal links to the page.
- Segment each sidebar to reflect what is relevant to the user on THAT page, but try to limit the link loss from having common recurring elements across the entire site (which only creates internal duplicate content and pushes pages supplemental).
- If you are forced to repeat the same elements across a block on multiple pages within the global site architecture, then eventually search engines algorithms will normalize their occurrences by creating a null set (which prioritizes the information). Sometimes this is not avoidable, but in some instances, using a more suitable lean template is a solution to add more weight to the page and increase its relevance score for the focal point in the main body (which is the main region scored in tandem with the title and links from algorithms for context).
Optimizing the Template Footer:
Footers provide a way to elect pages with the most significance within a site when you need to create additional prominence for specific landing pages.
Considerations for the Footer Region:
- Have multiple variations to match the site segment so you do not emulate the same footer across every page in the site. This makes it easier for search engines to assign relevance to individual pages and not have to pick and choose from several potential sources of similar content (since the sidebar, header and footer are packed full of text and or links).
- Keep the links manageable (under 100 including navigation), the more links there are leaving a page, the closer that page should be to the root folder unless you intend to build sufficient deep links from other sites to that subfolder to placate relevance and link flow.
- Always link to a local (folder based) sitemap or to a global / master sitemap from the footer regardless of which page you are on. If spiders find it, it will use (a) the links on the page and (b) the sitemap to find new pages, index them and their links and add the scoring methodology to the pages it discovers.
Obviously, this is merely an overview, but aside from writing volumes on each subject, combined with the previous post “SEO Tips for Website Templates” this is at least enough to set the stage and whet your appetite for more information on the topic, or hire someone to execute these types of strategies and SEO services on your behalf.