CSS Format

CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheet. It is a way of compressing HTML code, allowing
a site to load faster and, in the SEO context, improves the density and priority of
keywords.

Frames & File Size

Frames
Frames cannot be read by the major engines. So in terms of search they are an absolute
no. To find out if your site is utilising frames carry out the cache test on Google.
File Size
Do not make your opening page too large. Even if an engine can read your site many
internet users are still on a dial up connection.

Other File Formats

As at May 2005, Google claims that it is able to read 13 different file types apart from
HTML. The most common non-HTML formats are PDF and MS Office files. From my
experience documents in these two formats can all rank highly. I do, however, have
reservations about some of the other formats and, as mentioned above, particularly Flash.

HTML Code

As has been explained previously, search engines were originally designed to read via
HTML code or code related to it such as XHTML and PHP.

Technical Issues – Site Design and Construction

This section is about avoiding the technical mistakes or pitfalls that may hamper search engine visibility

Business Address and Telephone Number

It is believed that engines give an additional weighting to sites that carry an address and
telephone number. In many categories there are a large number of searches made using a
national discriminator in the search term, so include your country in the address.

Content Change

Engines apparently respond positively to a degree of content change – this is why some
blogs appear high in the rankings. Apparently, Google responds positively towards
“fresh” web sites and negatively towards “stale” web sites. If content has changed
between crawling cycles it signals to the spider to return again at more frequent intervals.

Site Map

Engines respond positively to site maps especially on larger sites with several levels. The
site map is also a useful way of aiding the navigation of a spider for deep crawl purposes.

Outbound Links (Forward)

These are apparently growing in influence as the engines realise that inbound links (IBLs
– see below) are being widely spammed. Rather link internal links, external links provide
the opportunity to include keywords in the hyperlink text.

Internal Links

Inbound links are important for two reasons. Firstly, their content is highlighted with a
hyperlink and this is given special emphasis by the search engines and secondly it is a
way of ensuring the engines can navigate and deep crawl into a site.