Search Engine Optimization and Website Construction

   So, you have a shiny new website. Maybe, it's been up for a few weeks and you can't seem to find it in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Why not? It just may be that your site is not optimized for the search engines. "Optimized for the search engines?" you might ask.

   The process of making a website more 'friendly' to the search engines is called Search Engine Optimization or SEO. More often than not, any given website is riddled with HTML markup errors. HTML stands for 'Hyper Text Markup Language.' In a nutshell, it's the language that tells a web browser, like Mozilla Firefox, how to display or 'render' a web page. Errors in the HTML of a given website or page may or may not affect the way the site gets displayed. However, too many markup errors may affect the way that a search engine indexes a site.

   The proper approach to SEO is to to begin with code that is as close to error free as possible. A few minor markup issues are to be expected and Google, at least, seems to indicate that minor errors do not affect indexing. The greatest reason to begin with code that is as clean as possible is that future tweaks of a website in shambles can only further the problems within the markup. And, all websites need proper maintenance and upkeep. Here's an example of a very bad website, http://www.theworldsworstwebsiteever.com/. Notice that it still renders.

   Begin the development of any website with the validity of its code placed first. It only takes a few moments to check it and there are lots of free online sites that will check your code. The W3C Markup Validation Service is considered one of the best.

   Here's a parting thought. If you are building your own website then one of the best things you can do to insure a smooth future is to start with clean HTML.