Your Web Page Structure IS important

A little order to your pages content will go a long way!

The way you structure your content on a web page is an important part of search engine optimization. Bloated code and an unstructured page can reduce your website's effectiveness in being ranked correctly in search engines.

This process is known as "on-page" optimization.

Many search engines like Google use content on a page to determine the subject matter of a web site. This helps them find the most relevant sites to then display in their search results - which is where you want your site highly listed.

All content should be written to target keywords and phrases and it is vital that they appear at the start of your web page content (in at least the two first paragraphs) and then correctly placed further down in the page content at suitable intervals.

If you think of your website's homepage as a newspapers front page, in the way a newspaper grabs your attention at the news-stand then you can start to break this down and use as as a basis for your own HTML documents and pages online.

We will start with the main headline on the newspaper.

Notice that:

It is likely short
It is snappy to get your attention
It is set high up the page - "above the fold"
It is larger than the rest of the text, ads and other headlines around

We can emulate this on our own web pages using Custom Style Sheets (CSS) - by the way if you are still formatting text with <font> tags it's time to move on!

Ensure the content on your page is structured correctly

We recommend that use the <h1> tag and place your headline there. Make it interesting and compelling - remember short and snappy grabs the visitors attention. You will also want to ensure it is at least targeting your main keyword.

Here is an example of a H1 Heading tag which should appear between the BODY tags of your web page:

<H1>Short Snappy Headings</H1>

when styled with CSS you will see

Short Snappy Headings

Now the newspaper we are using as our example makes use of a sub heading once the main headline has grabbed the reader's attention.

So we will opt to use a H2 Heading tag within our code - making it a slightly smaller size, a different shade of colour or both:

<H2>Slightly Longer Sub-Heading</H2>

Styled here:

Slightly Longer Sub-Heading

We can now start thinking about the actual content we wish to place on the page. However we recommend you continue to use the <h3>, <h4> and <h5> headings at suitable points in your content.

Use each heading with accompanying text with the subject matter that pertains to the heading directly above.

Breaking your content up into small readable chunks can make it easier for your online readers to digest - again something newspapers do to make it easier for readers to follow their story.

We do this here by using the <p> tag, using CSS for style.

People read content on a web page differently than written content on a newspaper - they scan looking for interesting content and new links.

Bearing that in mind if you wish to emphasize the benefits clearly of your product then you can do two to three things:

Set the type as bold
Set the type as italic
Make the text an internal link to a new page
Place the text as a bulleted point

Notice how we are making our text easier to read and follow?

This ensure we keep the readers interest and can help towards on page optimization too.

Ensure you do not overdo setting your content in bold, italic, linked or bullet points and for every 250 words ensure your targeted keyword is used fairly regularly - you want to ensure that when read aloud your content does not sound repetitive.

Call today on 01793 729326 if you need page content restructured to get a better response from visitors to your website

All Things Web, 50 Sams Lane, Blunsdon, Wiltshire, SN26 7AZ