Search Engine Optimization
Content-to-Code Ratio
Search Engine Optimization is an ever changing field of expertise. In recent months we have developed and put into practice several tools in order to make the entire process run in a more efficient manner. It has come to our attention that there have been new breakthroughs in the implementation of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) that now have a unique and hopefully drastic result on Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
In the past, CSS has been used primarily as a design tool. For the benefits of this article we are assuming that you have a good grasp of what CSS is, what we are here to discuss is how it can now be used in conjunction with SEO. CSS is absolutely amazing; it enables for more complex layouts and gives complete control to the designer. Recently, it has also been theorized as being able to increase the Content to Code Ratio (CCR).
The CCR is the amount of actual text that exists on a given webpage in relation to the amount of html required to display the content in a browser. In the past, html has evolved, now we have xhtml, and are evolving towards a world wide web where there is no visible code at all. The importance of this is immeasurable, when one considers how a webpage is viewed in the context of spidering by search engines.
The search engine robot (spider) looks at the webpage, pulls all of the information given on a page, and stores the information in a huge database. When the spider comes to a page, it reads everything, including the actual html, JavaScript, or any other code included on the page. In theory, the easier the code is to read and understand by the spider the more efficient the spider labels the page. This ease of uniformity has some effect on the indexing of the page by the major search engines. So why not make it as simple as possible to view the code for the spider? Why not place emphasis on the actual content (copy) of the page?
The simple answer is that CSS relies on DIV tags to store the content in placeholders. DIV tags have earned a bad name in the SEO world do to various spamming techniques used by SEOs . However, there is a fundamental difference between using DIV tags in a manner frowned upon by search engines and using them in a positive manner such as the case with this new formula. In order to create a more efficient webpage in the eyes of search engines we simply have to change the rules.
In the past, we were taught to simply code the webpage so that it appears exactly the same to spiders and to visitors. This eliminates the possibility of being penalized by the search engines for spamming. Now, we can effectively and ethically hide the unnecessary code from the spiders and allow for the content to become more prevalent.
The Content is the reason for the page in the first place. Why do we need to have all of the code get in the way? We all know that search engines love content rich sites. So let's give it to them. With all of the table tags eliminated the code looks completely different.
For example:
This is an example from the home page of our web site. We have provided the entire code from the body to tag to the beginning of the footer. For space purposes we have not included the entire code. You can tell a big difference between the two.
Old Code (216 lines):
New Code (97 lines):
As you can see, we have not changed the content at all. We have merely changed the page in order to shrink the amount of code by using CSS from 216 lines to 97 lines. This gives the content more weight in regards to the total amount of code on the page.
Now, with all of this said, the CCR is as follows:
Increase Content and Decrease Code = Happy Search Engines
( Content / Code ) = CCR%
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Tuesday, May 22, 2007
All Metals & Forge Website Created by Don Johnson Design Featured in Forging Magizine
Forging Magazine, the primary trade magazine for forging companies recently featured an article reviewing one of Don Johnson Design’s clients, All Metals & Forge, LLC, and their new web site.
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