Internet Building Codes Blog

It’s no secret.  Inbound links are huge.  Google loves ‘em.  Every site that links to your site essentially gives your site a vote that helps to raise it in the search results.  However, here’s the mistake that most people are making:  They’re not paying attention to the text that is linking to them.  You know, the blue underlined text?  That’s called the anchor text.  What it says it crucial.

Here’s what I’m talking about…

If you click on a link that says “internet marketing” you can expect that you’ll end up on a page that’s all about internet marketing, right?  So Google realized that the anchor text that other sites use, is a pretty good indication of what a page is about.  But if you get a bunch of sites that link to your site with a link that says, “click here” you’re wasting your big card.  All that does is tell Google that your site is all about, “click here.”  Does that really do you any good?  Do you want to find customers when they search Google for, “click here?”

Not many sites want to rank well for that phrase.  But they don’t know any better.  They spend countless hours getting other sites to link to them and it’s all a waste of their time.  Imagine if you simply asked the other sites to link to your site with the phrase “internet marketing” (assuming you have a site about internet marketing).   You’d begin raising your rank on Google when people are searching for internet marketing.  Now that’s time well spent.  Miss that one little point and everything is a waste.  I hope that helps!

Chadd Bryant
Internet Building Codes

The use of tables has long been a no-no in the SEO world because of the need to use bloated, nasty code to describe each cell.  However, the use of tables gets exponentially worse when you nest tables within tables.  It’s not uncommon to see a table with another table in one of the cells.  The problem with this is two-fold.  Not only are you increasing the amount of code required to create the page, you’re also creating a deep-crawling nightmare for Google.  Remember a couple days ago we were talking about deep crawling and how Google doesn’t like to search deep in folders that are buried within other folders?  Well the same is true for tables that are “buried” deep within other tables.  For some reason, Google hates to look deep into folders and hates just as much to look deep into tables.  While you shouldn’t be using tables in the first place because CSS uses far less code to make the same page, definitely avoid the use of nested tables.  Remember to steer clear of nested tables and Google will reward you.

Chadd Bryant
Internet Building Codes

The other day we started talking a little about text to code ratios.  That’s the correct way to state it.  However, many people, and a large number of sites refer to it as a text to code ratio.  I’ve even fallen victim to the incorrect nature of the phrase and have been known to talk about code to text ratios because the phrase is used so often.  If you think about the ratio itself though, it’s really not a code to text ratio.   It’s a text to code ratio.  Symantics aside, let’s talk about a few ways to increase your text to code ratio (or code to text ratio if you prefer.)

First of all, the goal is to have lots of content compared to the amount of code required to create it.  Look at it this way.   Try to have more content than code.  That will automatically yield a high text to code ratio.

So how do you do that?  Here are a couple ways.

Write tons of content.  Simple as that.  Make pages with more than a thousand words and your text to code ratio will likely be pretty high.  However, poorly programmed pages just generate more code to format more content and it’s a never ending cycle of adding more code and more content so the ratio never climbs.

To increase the text to code ratio, use CSS to write you pages.  CSS is so clean that the pages naturally create high text to code ratios.  But I’m not just talking about using CSS to define your font styles.  You have to use it to lay out the whole page.

Limit your use of large scripts.  If you use things like javascript drop down menus, you’re likely adding hundreds of lines of extra code into your pages.  It’s still okay to use javascripts, but you have to externalize the scripts themselves.  Just save the javascript into a file all by itself and reference the script in your page.  That way, the hundreds of lines of code are not calculated into the text to code ratio and your page appears to be cleaner.

Create highly optimized pages that limit the number of links, images, scripts etc.  Sure, you can use all of those things in the main pages of your site, but consider creating a select few pages that are optimized by eliminating extra things that only bloat your code.

Never use tables.  With the advent of CSS, we were finally able to eliminate the dreaded table from our design.  Now you can define position and color and size without the use of a table.  Every single cell in atable requires multiple definitions to describe the length, height, position, color, background color, padding, cell spacing etc.  These elements can really begin to bloat the code when you have a table with 6 cells and each one has a table nested within it.  Eliminate tables in favor of table-less CSS and Google will reward you.

Chadd Bryant
Internet Building Codes

Ever heard of a text to code ratio?  This may be one of the few things that most SEO technicians are not aware of.  A text to code ratio is simply a measurement of how much content you have on your page compared to the amount of code required to create that page.  A low text to code ratio is bad.  A high text to code ratio is good.  If you Google “text to code ratio” you’ll find a number of sites that run a quick test on your page to determine the ratio.  Run the test and see if you get a number like 3% or 63%.   A result of 3% basically means that your page is 3% content and 97% code.  That’s pretty pathetic.  Google sees sites like that and gives up and goes away.  They’re not interested in reading code.  They’re only interested in finding the visible text that your readers can see.  If you make Google crawl through obnoxious amounts of code, just to find the content in your site, they’ll give up and skip your pages.  On the other hand, if you code your pages so that they are clean and use CSS, your text to code ratio will likely be above 30% or 40%.  Great sites are above 60%.  Strive for a high text to code ratio and Google will reward you.

Chadd Bryant
Internet Building Codes

Last time, we talked about getting people to link to your site and to add your site to their favorites.  This time, were going to discuss something called “deep crawling.”   What’s deep crawling?  It’s when a search engine comes to your site and begins reading through all of the pages in your site.   They follow each link that they encounter and eventually find all of the pages in your site.  Then all of the content in your site is catalogged so when someone searches for something that matches the content of your site, your site is listed in the search results pages.  Now that’s a perfect scenario.  A more realistic scenario would look like this…

A search engine comes to your site, reads through a couple pages and gets disgusted for one reason or another and leaves.  You can have a site up for years and never have some of your pages spidered by the search engines.  Why is it that they read some and not others?  Well, it can be for caused by many different factors.  Sometimes a search engine dislikes your bloated code, so they leave.  Sometimes they encounter a broken link or a malfuntioning script.  So they leave.  Or, a very common issue is the use of too many directories or folders.   If you save a file in a folder, enclosed in another folder, enclosed in another folder, the search engines will likely ignore that page.  It’s simply buried too deep.  It doesn’t seem to tough to open a virtual folder, but Google doesn’t like doing it.  I’ve seen pages that are unranked, go from not being found, to the top of the results page within a couple days, just by moving the page out of several folders and saving it at the root directory.  This easy access pleases Google and they’ll reward you.   Despite what you may read, they don’t like deep crawling.  Don’t make then struggle to find your page.  Keep it simple and they’ll reward you.

Chadd Bryant
Internet Building Codes

Did you know that adding a “link to this page” script to your site can increase your search engine ranking?  It can.  Google is now looking at bookmarks as a way to determine what the public thinks of a site.  If they see that thousands of visitors have chosen to save your site in their favorites, then your site must be pretty good.  They’re essentially letting the public vote for the winners of the search engine game.  The same is true for links.  If you can get a lot of other sites to link to yours, you’re essentially getting other sites to vote for yours.  They are saying that your site is good enough to link to.  So just add a little script that reminds people to bookmark your site.  Over time, you’ll begin to see a difference.  Remember, it’s just one of the many things you’ll need to do in order to rank well though.

Chadd Bryant
Internet Building Codes

Let’s get right into it today and discuss some more great SEO tips and tactics.  We’ve already discussed domain extensions, file size, URL length and more.  Today, we’re going to discuss using your address in the footer of every page on your site.

If you run a local business, it’s likely that you want to be found when people search for something like “plumbers in San Francisco.”  You don’t care to be found at the top of the search results when someone searches for “plumbers in Dallas.”  You’re not flying to Texas to unplug a drain.  But you do want to be found at the top of the local results.   The best way to do that is to add your address with your city and state to the bottom of every page on your site.  Google quickly begins to see the trend and they recognize that you’re located in San Francisco.  Better yet, put something in your footer that says, “For all your plumbing needs.  Serving San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose.”  That puts the work plumbing in close proximity to the cities that you serve.  Google likes that and will rank your site higher than the others.

Hope that helps all of you local businesses out there.

Chadd Bryant
Internet Building Codes

For the past few days we’ve been discussing various SEO tips and tactics and hopefully some of the little SEO tips have been useful.  I know that none of them are earth-shattering but like I’ve said, SEO isn’t rocket science.  It’s a discipline, not an art.  If you follow all of the little rules, you win.  If you don’t, you lose.  It’s that simple.  If you hear someone say that they have found the key to SEO, they’re either ignorant, or they’re lying.  There is no secret.  There are things that you may not know yet, but they’re not a secret, because the experts all know the same tricks.  It’s just a matter of “he who follows the most rules, wins.”  It’s not back-breaking work but it requires attention to detail.  It requires diligence and leg work.  That’s all.   The question is, “Are you willing to put in the work needed to rise to the top of the search engine rankings?

Chadd Bryant
Internet Building Codes

Yesterday we talked about SEO tips including domain extensions, file sizes, frequency of updates, and URL length.  Just a quick recap.

Domain extensions using .gov, .edu, and .org tend to receive preferencial treatment from Google.

Limit your file sizes to 100k per page.

Update your site frequently.  Use a blog if that makes updates easier.

Limit your URL length.  Google hates long URLs.

Today, we’re going to hit on a couple more SEO tips, including freshness of pages, site size, age of the page vs. the age of the site, and CSS layouts.

Let’s get right to it.  Freshness of your pages is important to Google. Yesterday we talked a little about the frequency of your updates and how Google will spider your site more frequently if they see that you’re adding content to your site on a regular basis.  But the benefit of adding content to your site is two-fold.  If you add a new page here and there, Google will enjoy finding the new content and will likely give those pages preferencial treatment in their rankings.  But if you add new content everyday, you’ll see that Google also comes to your site every couple minutes and picks up the new content right away.  That’s why you can search for breaking news and find it listed in Google’s rankings on sites like ABC.com or CNN.com. those sites add content all the time so Google reads through it every couple minutes.  Within a couple minutes of posting an article, Google has picked it up and knows that it’s there.  If your site never posts new content, Google may not bother to visit your site but once every couple months.  You could post some breaking news on your site and it’s will never be seen by the public.

The age of the page is important in relation to the age of the site.  Sure Google likes your site to have a reputation.  They love old sites that have proven themselves.  They like to see people who have been around for a long time.  After all, they’re more reliable.  But old pages tend to lose their relevance.  If you want your pages to remain ranked well, they need to be constantly modified and changed so Google sees new content.

CSS is the cleanest way to code a site these days.  Sure things are always changing but right now, Google loves CSS.   It used to be that tables were the best way to lay out a site.   However, the code required to define each and every little cell in a table tends to bloat the code and Google likes clean code.  If you don’t know how to code in CSS yet.  Learn it.  It’s vital to your site’s success.  If you’ve just developed a site using tables, re-do it.  It’s that important.   A site using tables will never have the visibility needed to survive as more and more of your competitors’ sites come online using CSS.  And I’m not just talking about using CSS for your font definitions.  The whole site needs to be defined using CSS.

That’s it for today.  More to come later.

Chadd Bryant
Internet Building Codes

SEO tips are a dime a dozen these days.  After all, SEO isn’t really rocket science.  It’s just a matter of knowing all of the little factors that can either improve or hamper your ranking.  Look at your Google ranking as a cumulative thing.  If you only do 10 of the 100 things right, then you won’t rank as well as the guy who does 11 things right.  Sure some things are weighted more than others, but you need to try and do as many things as you can in order to please the search engines.   So here’s a quick list of things that, in addition to the other things we’ve already discussed, will help to improve your ranking.

Domain name extension – it’s been long conjectured that domains using .gov, .edu, and .org are given higher priority in Google’s algorithm.

File Size – Try to limit your pages to 100k or less.  While Google isn’t limited in their bandwidth, they do recognize that all users are not using broadband connections.   Limit your page size and notice the difference.

Frequency of updates.  This one’s huge.  There’s a reason why the word BLOG has become an acronym for “Better Listings On Google.”  Blogs tend to have frequent updates and it’s be proven time and again that they can increase your ranking on Google and other search engines.  Google likes to see recently-updated content so the more frequently you add posts to your blog, the more frequently Google will visit your site.  After just a couple weeks of blogging, you’ll start to see that your content is added to Google within hours, if not minutes.  Slow down and only blog once in a while, and you’ll see that Google starts picking up your content less frequently.

Limit your URL length.  Google hates long URLs, especially dynamic URLs.  Keep them short.  Fill them with keywords and you’ll do yourself a favor.

That’s it for today.  I’ll pass along a couple more tidbits tomorrow.

Chadd Bryant
Internet Building Codes