What are the recommended HTML specification a developer should follow
when creating a page which will rank high in Googles search rankings?

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Request for Question Clarification by aceresearcher-ga on 04 Apr 2003 10:20 PST

Greetings, disciullo! 

Creating a website that does well in Search Engine results is an
extremely complex subject, with many aspects that need to be
considered.
 
For the fee you are offering, Researchers might be able to offer you a
couple of tips. You might want to check out Google Answer's Pricing
Guide at
http://answers.google.com/answers/pricing.html 
 
For some good, in-depth analysis of your website and specific
suggestions for improvement, you may want to consider posting your
website URL (if it has already been developed) and raising your fee.
 
Best wishes, 
 
aceresearcher

Hello Disciullo,

The following steps will help your Google search rankings:


-------- Create Quality Content

This is the most important one; make sure you have good, original
content that people will want to read.


-------- Create a Lot of Content

The more pages, the better.


-------- Keep Content Fresh

Keep updating the site regularly.


-------- Remove Duplicates

Do not create pages with the same, or almost same, content.


-------- Versatile, Precise Wording

Alternate the wording for repeated phrases if you like to target them
in web searches.


-------- Focus on Important Keywords

Imagine your audience and what keywords they might enter in a search,
and use those words.


-------- Create Valid HTML

Validate your HTML, CSS, and check your links:

W3C Validator
http://validator.w3.org/

Link Checker
http://validator.w3.org/checklink


-------- Create Structured HTML

Use headings and other phrase mark-up (h1, h2, em, strong).


-------- Provide text-alternatives

When including images, especially those containing text, provide a
text-alternative via the "alt"-attribute.


-------- Use Meaningful Meta-Data

Every page should have a unique title. You might also want to add
meta-keywords and a meta-description.


-------- Keep It Simple

Basic HTML works best. Especially, try to avoid JavaScript links or
forwarding.


-------- Use Common Sense, Don't Rely on Tricks

You cannot cheat Google, so don't try -- even if something seems to
work now, one day you might run into trouble.


-------- Get a Reliable, Robust, Fast Server

Get your own top-level domain and let it be a reliable server.


-------- Keep Your Location

Don't move around files too often. Once you upload a file, try to keep
it there in the future.


-------- Create Meaningful File-names

Don't abbreviate file and folder names, but instead use the full
keywords which are important for that page.


-------- Publish Your Site in Directories

Especially, get into this one:

Open Directory Project
http://dmoz.org/


-------- Add Your URL to Search Engines

Use services like following:

Google's Add URL
://www.google.com/addurl.html


-------- Communicate Your Site to Others

Write to other people who you think might be interested and tell them
about your site (but do not rely on spamming newsgroups).


-------- Test Your Ranking and Fine-tune

Check how Google reacts now that you've done the changes.


-------- Keep Updated on Search Engine Technology

Keep reading on search engines, and Google rankings.
Also, from time to time, read through this page:

Google Webmaster Guidelines
://www.google.com/intl/vi/webmasters/guidelines.html


-------- In the End, Relax

Nothing much you can do now that you did everything right, except
waiting for the Googlebot to visit your site again and update its
data! You might use the time for creating more quality content.


Hope it helps!

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Request for Answer Clarification by disciullo-ga on 07 Apr 2003 06:25 PDT

Specifically what HTML DOCTYPE is recommended (if any) "strict" or "transitional"?

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Clarification of Answer by j_philipp-ga on 07 Apr 2003 22:03 PDT

Hello Disciullo,

The HTML Doctype of the document is in general of no importance to the
Google search ranking, or rankings of other search engines. Indeed the
page need not be valid to rank high (the Google website itself doesn't
include a Doctype), though of course it cannot hurt to include the
Doctype for "normal" visitors other than searchbots. This is due to
the fact that some browsers implement so-called "Doctype-sniffing" and
switch to different modes depending on what string they are offered at
the beginning of the HTML document. And validation also has benefits,
since some browsers might hide errors in the HTML document that some
other browsers -- those that one didn't test with -- reveal them.

So in the end which Doctype (or Document Type Declaration, to be more
precise) you choose has to do entirely with which DTD (Document Type
Definition) you actually want to reference, and that is dependent on
what kind of document you are attempting to write. There is not the
"one best" DTD, though in general the "Strict" flavors of either HTML4
and XHTML1 are preferred for best usability, as well as browser and
media independence.
XHTML is the more modern version of HTML (it replaces the SGML syntax
with an XML syntax). So if using the latest recommendations is your
aim, go for XHTML1; but unless you need the HTML to be in XML, you can
also go for HTML4.


For more information on HTML Doctypes see:

HTML version information
http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/global.html#h-7.2


Hope this clarifies!

Thanks. The information provided was very helpful and has helped me in
my recommendation to my colleges