Page Layout For Max SEO Value
Skip | 19 January, 2005 11:34
Ok, so we haven't given you much in the way of code samples lately. Well, yesterday, Dave promised me he'd start blogging again. And today, I learned a nifty little secret about the <rowspan> tag and it's impact on how a search engine sees your website.....
Ok. Let's say you're going to build your website and you design your main template. In all liklihood, you'll do a typical table layout something like this:
<table width="80%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td width="20%"> <b>Link Nav</b><br>
Link1<br>
Link2<br>
Link3<br>
</td>
<td width="80%" rowspan="2" valign="top" bgcolor="#D9BBBB"> Main Body Section</td>
</tr>
</table>
That table layout would look like this:
Which is fine, except that a search engine spider will read your links text first, then your main body text. Most people put their H1 tags in the main body section, which is a very important tag for search engines. Since SE spiders see your links and link text first, they believe those are the most important aspsects to your page, leaving the body section as seeming less important.
So now contrast the above code sample with this one:
<td width="80%" rowspan="2" valign="top" bgcolor="#D9BBBB"> Main Body Section</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <b>Link Nav</b><br>
Link1<br>
Link2<br>
Link 3<br>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
And here is how that would look:
Notice the use of the "rowspan=2" tag?
By using this tag, your page now presents your main H1 headline and body copy first, then your links, images, footers etc.
This is a very cool use of html that will certainly gain you much higher rankings in the search engines.
Now, I only need to go back to my 17 websites and redesign and update about 4,000 html pages! Sheesh....
LOL
But seriously, I'll be using this technique going forward!
Enjoy!
Skip
Ok. Let's say you're going to build your website and you design your main template. In all liklihood, you'll do a typical table layout something like this:
<table width="80%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<td width="20%"> <b>Link Nav</b><br>
Link1<br>
Link2<br>
Link3<br>
</td>
<td width="80%" rowspan="2" valign="top" bgcolor="#D9BBBB"> Main Body Section</td>
</tr>
</table>
That table layout would look like this:
| Link Nav Link1 Link2 Link3 |
Main Body Section |
Which is fine, except that a search engine spider will read your links text first, then your main body text. Most people put their H1 tags in the main body section, which is a very important tag for search engines. Since SE spiders see your links and link text first, they believe those are the most important aspsects to your page, leaving the body section as seeming less important.
So now contrast the above code sample with this one:
<td width="80%" rowspan="2" valign="top" bgcolor="#D9BBBB"> Main Body Section</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <b>Link Nav</b><br>
Link1<br>
Link2<br>
Link 3<br>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
And here is how that would look:
|
|
Main Body Section |
| Link Nav Link1 Link2 Link 3 |
Notice the use of the "rowspan=2" tag?
By using this tag, your page now presents your main H1 headline and body copy first, then your links, images, footers etc.
This is a very cool use of html that will certainly gain you much higher rankings in the search engines.
Now, I only need to go back to my 17 websites and redesign and update about 4,000 html pages! Sheesh....
LOL
But seriously, I'll be using this technique going forward!
Enjoy!
Skip
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