Understanding how web pages are composed is essential to begin a discussion of search engine optimization. This article is designed to help you understand the codes behind a web page so that you can better understand how SEO works.
A web page consists of two parts, the head and the body. Each part is composed of tags with different tags having different functions. The tags are called Hyper Text Markup Language or HTML. These tags are what make up each web page and contain the text and images you see in the browser window.
The head section contains information not visable on the page when viewed through the browser. This section is made up of several tags, which search engines read to find out information about the page. The head can also contain functional information for the page, such as Javascript, and style declarations, such as cascading style sheets or CSS.
Tags in the head that are important for SEO are the title tag and the meta tags, specifically the “keywords” and “description” meta tags. The title tag contains the title of the page. A search engine reads the title to give it an idea of what the page is about. The title is also typically the first line displayed in each search engine result, so this is the first area of your site a user will see.
The keywords meta tag is for adding keywords or a list of keywords that are relevant to the content of the page. This tag is not for the users benefit but the search engines. The description meta tag is used to describe the content or topic of the page in natural, descriptive language. This tag is designed for the users benefit. It is sometimes displayed in search engine results directly underneath the title of the page, depending on the search engine.
The body of a web page contains the content that is viewable by the user through the browser window. Different tags in the body include header, paragraph and image tags. The body of a page is structured the same way any document is structured, with headers containing headlines followed by paragraphs explaining the headlines. The body may also include sub-headers. Headers or headlines are designed to tell the reader what the page or content is about. As a result, headers are also important for search engine optimization. Search engines index headers and use them in determining what the theme or topic of the page is. They also use the sub-headers and the paragraph text for this purpose.
Search engines cannot read text inside an image. Also, some users turn off image display for faster web browsing. Seeing impaired users can have reader browsers, which read the text on the page out loud. The readers cannot read text inside an image. This is why image tags have an attribute called the alt attribute. This attribute contains text that describes what is in the image, so that people with images turned off or text readers will know what is in the image. As a result, search engines also may read alt text to get an idea of what the page is about. Web designers sometimes use images for navigation and other links. Alt text gives search engines an idea of what a graphical link is since it can’t read image in the text on its own.
The anatomy of a web page is composed of two main parts, the body and the head, with different tags making up each part. Once you know which tags are important for SEO, then you can begin adding your keywords there. When you understand the makeup of a web page, you can begin to understand how to “optimize” a web page for search engines.
