Elements of HTML ll Search Engine Optimization

HTML 

Your website's HTML code is an important piece of the SEO marketing puzzle. Without proper tags, headings and descriptions, Google has a hard time understanding what your content is about and why it ranks above your competitors.

It's scary to read that HTML is part of SEO, but don't worry. There is no code to understand and little involvement in the process of changing tags and descriptions. Most of the time, changing HTML from an SEO perspective is as easy as copy and paste.

Elements of HTML

Now let's break down some of the elements to watch out for in HTML.

Title Tags

Where many people confuse is the title tag and the H1 tag. These are two different headings and should be treated as such. A title tag appears in a tab at the top of your browser to indicate that Google is viewing your page.

Meta Description

Meta Description is the area below. This is your chance to let searchers know what your content is about. It is important that this section is keyword optimized and should not exceed 160 characters. It should display correctly on both mobile and desktop screens.

The Schema

Schema is the result of a collaboration between several search engines. It's basically just a subset of certain HTML tags that enhance how SERPs display content.

For example, the creator of the example above used Bitcoin and the schema to create the ratings that Google shows in the SERPs. It's a pretty small factor, but definitely good practice.

Once you've finished adding your schema, don't forget to test your page to make sure everything is running smoothly.

Subheading

An example of a subheading is H1. This is the title of the article and will appear at the top. Even if it looks like a list of words, it's your H1, so it's important. That's your primary header.

This headline tells Google what the article or content is about. It's also an opportunity to engage readers when they first visit your page. If you want to use the primary keyword in your H1, but don't want keyword stuffing.

I also believe that H1 invites someone to the site. Must not be transactional or pushy. We hope to entice readers to stick with her H1 further down the page.

Alt text

alt text describes the images in the article. Included in all content, but not used by many.

The purpose of alt text is to allow search engines to verbally describe images for the visually impaired. When writing alt text, I like to decompose images properly, but these can also be used to insert keywords.

URL Slug

Looking back at this image, you can see that the box revolves around the phrase "What is content marketing?" This is a URL slug, the part of the URL that tells Google what the content is about. These are also important areas to include your top keywords. Four Tips for Good

HTML Enhancement Here are some important tips to keep in mind when HTML enhancing your

site. Various SEO marketing tools are worth the investment as they can help you identify HTML issues on your website. For example, Ahrefs can tell you if your site has duplicate title tags or how many articles are missing meta descriptions.

Piggybacking on the Competition: Stealing is bad, but drawing inspiration from high-level competitors isn't. If you're having a hard time deciding what to use for your title tag or meta description, check out what your competitors are doing.

Don't Stuff Your Keywords: There's nothing worse than a meta description stuffed with horribly hard-to-read keywords. Google sees through it and even penalizes you if you do enough. All focus is an important place to put your key keywords to tell Google about your article's topic.

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