The Search Engines are Hungry- Feed Them
February 20, 2008
One of the three pillars of SEO strategy is of content, specifically relevant text that is search engine readable. We’re going to take a look at what is search engine friendly content, what is not, and how to find out what your site or blog looks like to search engines.
Search Engine Readable - What is it?
Search engines index your web page and everybody else’s by scanning the HTML code contained within it. They scan looking to determine the content and context of the page, and also consider relevant HTML tags (H1, H2, H3, em, strong, etc.).
Search Engine Readable - What’s left out?
Search engines do not, however, load images, CSS styles, and animation (including Flash). Text that is written in images, including navigation menus, are invible without using the “alt” tag, which by the way is a poor substitute. This means anything written in these images or animations will not be indexed, and won’t influence your search engine rankings accordingly.
Examples: Good & Bad
Here’s an example of a full Flash site, loaded in a frame set. Notice how there are no written words to give search engines a clue as to what this page is about?
On the other hand, the following page offers lots of written text, links, and HTML tags:
See what the Search Engines see
To view what content the search engines can index, simply enter your web address in the following page address in the tool below.
http://www.willmaster.com/library/tools/What_Search_Engine_Spiders_See.php?dlperry
