Upload
hunter-everett
View
12
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
Search is an access issue. Find this for me…. It’s all related…. The core advice is remarkably similar: W3C on access: Create well-formed, structured content Google on SEO: Create well-formed structured content. Standards = Access = Flexibility = SEO. W3C: www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag.php - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Citation preview
3
Standards = Access = Flexibility = SEO
It’s all related…It’s all related…
• The core advice is remarkably similar:
– W3C on access: Create well-formed, structured content
– Google on SEO: Create well-formed structured content
W3C: www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag.php
Google: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769
6
Standards = SEO = AccessStandards = SEO = Access
• CSS helps promote both access and search optimization
• XHTML provides semantic structure a crawler can understand
– h1, h2, h3, <p>, <ul>, etc.
• Allows you to order the page content logically & graphically
– DIV and ID structures contain & order content
– Text content flow can be independent of graphic layout
7
Standards = SEO = AccessStandards = SEO = Access
• Search engine crawlers are the most frequent “disabled
users” on the web
• Crawlers can only read text
• Crawlers don’t use mice and don’t understand “click
here”
• Can’t see your pictures & graphic display text
• Crawlers don’t use:
– Javascript
– Cookies
– Flash
• How will a crawler read your page layout tables?
Across rows? Down columns?
8
Search engine optimization definedSearch engine optimization defined
• Clean separation of content & presentation
• A consistent set of principles for content structure
• A consistent approach to page graphic layout & design
• An awareness of how search crawlers “read” a site
– Crawlers read & rank PAGES, not sites
• SEO is intrinsic to the site design & structure
– The principles are simple
– You can’t buy SEO, or simply “add it on” later
9
Page titles are the key starting pointPage titles are the key starting point
• Single most important element in SEO
• Provide the keywords and themes for the page
• Provide the most prominent text for the search results
• MUST contain carefully chosen keywords, consistent
with the rest of the page content
• Provide the text for user bookmarks
• Should be as unique as possible
– GOOD: Yale | Medical School History
– BAD: Yale University School of Medicine | History of
YSM
– Bad bookmark result: “Yale University School of…”
10
KeywordsKeywords
• Consistent across:
– Page title <title>
– Headers <h1>, <h2>
– Content
• Ideal keyword occurrence range is about 5-9%
• Heavy repetition of keywords de-ranks a page (looks like a
search scam)
– File & directory names: yes, they count too!
• Use meaningful plain English words, use hyphens as separators
Good: plain-english-words-work.html
• Underscores are “non-breaking,” and are not read as
individual words
Bad: this_is_not_search_readable.html
• Directory names count too
seo-advice/keywords/plain-english-words-work.html
11
SEO beyond the page content itselfSEO beyond the page content itself• Every word involved in your site structure matters also:
– File names
– Directory names
• Use plain-English words with breaking characters like hyphens
• Make sure your file names are readable by search engines:
– “sea-animals” reads as “sea” & “animals”
– “sea_animals” reads as “sea_animals” (not a recognizable word)
• Examples
– Good: sea-animals/marine-birds/greater-shearwater.html
– Poor: sea_animals/marine_birds/greater_shearwater.html
– (Nothing in the second example contributes to content relevance)
12
Meta tags and searchMeta tags and search
<link rel="schema.DC" href="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" /><meta name="DC.title"
lang="en" content="Patrick J. Lynch personal Web site" />
<meta name="DC.description" lang="en" content="Personal Web site of artist, author, designer and photographer Patrick J. Lynch." /> <meta name="DC.creator" lang="en" content="Patrick J. Lynch" /><meta name="DC.publisher" content="Patrick J. Lynch, Yale University" /><meta name="DC.format" scheme="DCTERMS.IMT" content="text/html" /><meta name="DC.keywords" lang="en" content="web design, web style guide, yale university, yale school of medicine, yale, wildlife illustration, wildlife art, wildlife photography, medical illustration" />
• A great idea, subverted by greed
• They can’t hurt, and might even help
• DON’T use them to cheat; that will get you blackballed
14
Use the cascadeUse the cascade
CSS
CSS
CSS
skin.cssLocal graphics & colorsunique to this page
typography.cssAll site typography
core.cssLayout DIVs for all pages
• Core & typography shared throughout the site
• Unique “skins” create graphic variations
15Page engineering by Victor Velt, Yale University
Yale web standards layoutsYale web standards layouts
Variations are produced by different “skins”
The HTML remains the same
skin1.css
skin2.css
skin3.css
skin4.css
16
Use the cascadeUse the cascade
All pages share the
same underlying
XHTML structure
CSS CSS CSS
core.css
CSS
typography.css print.css mobile.css
Styles shared by all pages
CSS CSS
skin-green.css skin-red.css“Skins”provide
visual or structural variation
18
Flexible styles across display conditionsFlexible styles across display conditions
Screenmedia=“screen”
Printmedia=“print”
Mobilemedia=“handheld”
20
WYSIWYGA foundational principle of the graphic user interface
The ironies: Violating user expectationsThe ironies: Violating user expectations
What users expect to emergefrom the printer
Huh?
21
What does “handheld” mean these days?What does “handheld” mean these days?
The regular web, on a mobile device
Limited mobile