Page Structure Make It Lean N Mean

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ne of the least understood      increased the overall size of
and utilized areas of SEO       each page. For some pages, this
is probably page structure.     isn't a big deal, but for pages
Webmasters will use an editor         that are already fairly large in
such as Frontpage, Dreamweaver,       file size, this can make a big
etc. to create there pages making     difference.
sure to get the right keywords in
the title tags, spread throughout     I once went through a page that
the pages, in links, alt tags,        was roughly 50kb in size and
etc. all the while forgetting one     removed all of the offending code
important fact, what it looks         bloat caused by a WYSIWYG editor.
like to the search engines.           Once finished, the size of the
                                      page was reduced to roughly 30kb.
Unfortunately, a fairly small         That means just under 50% of the
amount of webmasters actually         pages size was extraneous code!
know how to code in HTML. They        Now, you may be asking
use a WYSIWYG editor (What You        yourself..."Self...that's a lot,
See Is What You Get)such as one       but what's the big deal". Well,
of those mentioned above. There       the issue is that at 50k, a
is nothing wrong with that, in        visitor on dial-up will have to
fact, it is how I originally          wait an average of 10-12 seconds
started. The problem is that most     for the page to load, while at
of these types of editors produce     30k a dial-up using visitor will
horrible and I mean HORRIBLE          only have to wait 7-8 seconds for
code.                                 the page to fully load.

This is often referred to as          That 3-5 seconds may not seem
"code bloat" and while it isn't       like a lot, but it could mean the
NECESSARILY bad, it is not good       difference between the visitor
either. First, this "code bloat"      staying on your site or leaving

to visit a competitor.                you think it is impossible for an
                                      error on a page to cause a spider
Now, there are definitely other       to not be able to properly index
reasons to avoid "code bloat".        a page...think again! I've seen
That brings us to SEO. Remember,      it happen on more than once
while your pages make look pretty     occasion.
when viewed in a browser, that is
NOT how a search engine sees          So...what can you do to avoid the
them. They see only HTML. Have        issues associated with code
you ever pulled up a page to look     bloat?
at the HTML of the page only to
go "Whoa...I can't make heads or      First, lean HTML! There is
tales of this!". Well, put            nothing wrong with using a
yourself in the place of a search     WYSIWYG editor to create your
engine spider.                        pages, but you definitely want to
                                      be able to go through them and
In order to know what your site       remove some of the offending
is about and to properly index        code. Today's WYSIWYG editors are
AND rank your site and all it's       better, but they still have there
pages, it needs to be able to         quirks.
properly read your pages. This
means the less code the spider        Second..use CSS! Learning and
has to sift through to find your      using CSS is probably the single
content, the less chances there       best thing you can do to decrease
are that something will cause         the amount of code on your pages.
them to get "tripped up".             I would hope you already are
                                      using CSS, but if not, it's time
Over the past 9 years, I have         to learn.
seen the search engines get MUCH
better at spidering sites, but if     Third..place all unnecessary code

in external files! Does your site     your pages as lean as possible,
use javascript? Put it in an          you make it that much easier for
external file and call it. Same       the search engines to read the
goes for CSS. You've done the         actual content. This isn't an
work of using CSS, now put it         treasure hunt. We are trying to
into one file and call it instead     make it as easy as possible for
of letting it take up space on        the engines to find this treasure
each page.                            so stop hiding it behind piles of
                                      code!
By keeping the actual code of

About the Author:

John Buchanan is a veteran search engine optimization specialist with over 9 years experience. For more information, visit his site SESecrets.com or his newest site for your own SEO Video Website Analysis