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SEO - Search Engine Optimization

website optimization

The SEO is a technique intended to improve ranking on search engines and increase your website traffic. By indexing, the content (the most important thing for positioning) of the website is evaluated.

Semantic and code writing are equally essential in a positioning project. The contents of a website should always be positioned in the first lines of a page, placing them before various scripts and codes. In this way the textual content is immediately "feeding" the search engine spiders and crawlers. Through CSS formatting code, each element will be visually arranged in the right position, but in the HTML markup code, a precise pattern will follow to index the contents to the best.

fundamentals of websites positioning

In USA over 60% of web searches are done with Google. In Europe this percentage increase to 90%. This is why it is very important to be well positioned on this search engine. Google's algorithms are always evolving with changes, sometimes substantial, which can deeply affect the positioning of websites. However, some principles are basic and concern the titles and descriptions of the pages, the textual contents and the keywords, the alternative texts and the name of the images, the titles and the texts of the links.

titles and descriptions of the pages

The title of a page is what we see among the results of a search in engines like Google. It is good that there is a keyword or a synonym within it. The title must be inherent and related to the textual content of the page, to allow the user to understand that he will find the information he is actually looking for.

The description of a web page is shown in the search results under its title. Google doesn't always use this procedure. Sometimes it shows as description a part of the text of the page that it considers most relevant. This parameter has now lost value as a positioning factor to Google. For other search engines it still remains a valid factor. In any case, a description that can capture users' attention will consequently capture that of search engines.

text and keywords

Search engines mainly index the text, which represents the foundation of a web page. Google's algorithms are now able to make very complex assessments within a web page. The most important context certainly concerns the informations and the quality of the texts of a web page. Why else a search engine would reward one page over another?

links and images

The links within a text offer a more satisfying user experience of navigation, and help to create a network of external and internal links to the website that can improve the positioning on search engines. The text and title of a link must inform the user about the content of the linked page. Receiving natural links to our website from well positioned websites that are inherent to our textual content is a very important context of website positioning.

Images are another relevant context in the positioning of websites. The name of the image should contain keywords that index it to the best. The metadata allow to have additional information useful for positioning. The alternative text must explain what the image represents when it cannot be loaded by the browser (thus respecting web accessibility). The text around the image must be relates to the alternative text. All this information, if entered correctly, helps indexing and positioning.

the incidence of page size

To improve the positioning of a website on search engines and also the user experience< strong>the weight in KB of the pages must be limited and the images optimized to the best. Google requires extremely light web pages to offer users an ever faster service.

The weight of HTML images and tables greatly affects the page size. It is therefore essential that the former are optimized to the best and the tables are used only for the presentation of tabular data. The use of HTML and CSS code separates the content from the formatting, considerably lightening the weight of the web pages and allowing the respect of websites compliance.

the importance of updating content

Updating content is another fundamental point for positioning on search engines, which consider of greater value those sites that update their content (or implement new ones) frequently, such as blogs (one of the types of websites). A static website, instead, always offers the usual information, not updating users in any way. These issues are now crucial to compete with the websites of your competition.

code semantics

A professional web designer writes HTML code that respects the semantics of the content. Each element, such as titles, paragraphs and lists, will be properly treated and implemented in the respective tags, such as <h (x)>, <p> and <li>. Create websites in this way allows you to view content correctly, respecting the semantic meaning of each element and obtaining a SEO enhancement.

difference between desktop and mobile positioning

Since April 2015, Google has decreed responsive design as a positioning factor. You will understand the importance of having a website that fits every resolution and device. The positioning of a desktop and mobile website is quite distinct. This means that a website well positioned on a desktop search may not be positioned as well on a mobile search.

use of analytical tools

The information provided so far is only a small part of SEO. Analytical assessments, tools for obtaining data and continuous studies are such complex issues that would be needed a book to be able to deal with them in sufficient details. However, one can perceive the importance of analytical data, which allow to obtain valuable information regarding the visits received on the website. This data is carefully evaluated and used to make improvements to the positioning of the website. Without proper analytics, there can be no truly functional Search Engine Optimization.