For those who
read my first post a few weeks ago, “What Is SEO?” this article will be my
first of a multi-part series, each of which will go a bit more in-depth in
explaining the three main ingredients of SEO – site architecture, content and
link building. For those who are still a bit unsure as to what SEO is or how it
works, click the link to view my initial post, “What Is SEO?”
If you’re still
reading this article but have completely forgotten what the title is, I’ll
remind you: Website Architecture for SEO - Structure. In this post, I will
explain the architectural and formatting requirements for a website. I would like
to preface this article by stating that this is an article for beginners. While
I will not go over every single aspect of a website’s structural necessities
for SEO, I will discuss the main elements that a website requires to
successfully rank in search results. Having said that, let’s get into it!
When talking
about website architecture, the first thing to look at is site structure.
First, websitesthat are looking to rank in search should be coded in a
standard, straightforward language such as HTML or XHTML. Search crawlers are
unable to read Flash, so websites that are heavy in Flash will largely be seen
as being ‘empty’ to search crawlers.
In addition to
using a standard language, webmasters need to be aware of scripts, such as java
scripts, that are running in the background of a site and the effects these
scripts have on page load time. Site speed has become a much greater factor in
determining a site’s rankings in search, so it is crucial to understand how
things like tracking scripts affect your site’s speed. Another way to decrease
page load time is to keep things like CSS in an external file, as opposed to
having this inline-coded at the top of each page on your site.
A third way to
minimize the page load time on your site is to implement a caching system.
Imagine that on each page of your site, the page’s top perimeter is decorated
with a beautiful image that spans the entire width of the page. Typically, a
request for that image will be made to your site’s database each time a person visits
a page on the site. As you probably guessed, each request adds to the total
load time of the page. With a caching system, the image is cached on each page
upon the first request for the image, reducing the number of requests for this
image to one per visitor.
A third, very
importantaspect of website architecture is the URL structure of pages on your
site. Often times, web searchers will come across pages that have URLs that
look something like this: search.autotrader.co.uk/es-uk/www/cars/FORD+KA/Ne-2-4-5-6-7-8-27-44-49-53-61-64-67-103-133-146,N-19-29-4294966844-4294967194/advert.action?R=200804302411772&distance=24&postcode=L. In case
you couldn’t guess, this is an example of a bad URL. Instead, this site should
use something like this: Search.autotrader.co.uk/Cars-Ford-Ka. In addition to helping users get a
better idea of what a page is about (and therefore influencing clicks to the
site from the Search Results page,) URLs help search crawlers to better
understand what a certain page is about, ultimately contributing to a higher
search authority and, thus, higher search results.
When creating new URLs for your website, it is
important to remember that URLs need not, and should not, reflect the
navigational path required to reach a particular page from the homepage. If you
were creating a page for the Nike G Force Shox (fictional product, I
think/hope?), and this product was found within the “Basketball Shoes” section,
your URL would not be Nike.com/Basketball/G-force-shox.html,
but instead Nike.com/G-fore-shox.html. We do this for several reasons.
First, it is easiest for the search engine to understand exactly what the page
is if the URL shows reflects information that is specific to that page. Second,
on the server side of things (the part no one but the hosting company and
webmaster see), a website’s contents are typically organized into directories,
each directory containing information for a certain type of page. In the example
above, Basketball shoes are the category, while G Force Shox is the product.
Category-page info and Product-page info are generally kept in different
directories, and because URLs usually reflect the page of the directory that
the data is stored in, we leave the data from the other directory (category
page) out.
If this seems
like a lot of information, you’re right: it is. Remember, this is only the tip
of the iceberg, and further research is required to fully grasp the structural
elements of SEO. In my next post, “Website Architecture for SEO – Structure pt.
2,” I will discuss the topics of indexing and crawling, two concepts that site
architecture plays strongly into and can help drastically improve your site’s
rankings. Stay tuned!
George Fox is a marketer for SuperheroDen.
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