• Let’s Talk About Good Versus Messy HTML Codes •
• An SEO Friendly Website Includes Clean Coding, Too •

In the normal course of steps I take when doing research for my clients, I will take a look at the HTML source code of the top ranking competitor websites.

A web page is created using a language called Hypertext Markup Language, usually referred to as “HTML code”. This code is of the utmost importance, as it tells the web browsers how to interpret your webpage. In other words, the HTML coding is responsible for making everything “show up” on your computer screen.

I look at the competitions’ sites, as I need to see how well, or in most cases how half-heartedly, they have applied the basic search engine optimization techniques to their Title tag, and Description and Keyword Meta tags.

I also look to see how cleanly coded those competitors sites are. If you are not aware, it is most important that your website does not suffer from HTML “code bloat”. Just as you expect the term bloat to mean when it comes to our tummies … it means the same in coding issues.

Code Bloat Is Not  SEO Friendly!

The more unnecessary and/or downright sloppy HTML coding that exists on your site, the more difficult you are making it for a search engine spider to crawl through to try and figure out what your webpage is all about.

In addition, the search engine spiders will only attempt to maneuver just so far down through the maze of HTML. Those little spiders will stop at a certain point and leave your page! Did you realize this?

So, if you or your web designer have a poor grasp of what constitutes good vs. sloppy coding … you might be causing yourself to lose some ranking points.

When I am hired on as a professional SEO consultant, I owe it to a potential client to discuss the status of many behind-the-scenes issues, one of them being the coding. Reason being, if a website is suffering from code bloat, then my efforts at trying to address basic SEO issues will not be as effective as possible. Many times I refuse to perform SEO services until the client has gotten the coding issues cleaned up!

If you are in the market to hire a professional SEO consultant to optimize your site, please be aware they should discuss all aspects of your site.

If you are told that all you need is a keyword report run and on-page optimization handled, and there is NO conversation about the entire “health” of your website’s technical aspects (HTML coding, etc.) and design structure, well … I’d take my money and run, and I’d be on the search for another SEO consultant to interview!

Let’s Have An SEO Friendly Site — Acquaint Yourself With Proper HTML

If you’ve got a website or blog, taking the time to learn how to hand code even basic HTML will go a long way for you. Not only are you learning valuable information that will serve you well, such as knowing how to enhance your own content with things like hyperlinks, bullet points, etc., but you will become aware of what good vs. bad coding is all about.

In addition, if you do hire someone to serve as your webmaster, you’ll have knowledge of whether they truly have a professional level understanding of proper HTML coding or not!.

It is becoming more often than not, that a new client who comes to me for SEO work happens to have a horrible code-bloated website. Unfortunately the person they have been paying as their webmaster is very uneducated as to proper HTML coding protocols.

If you’d like to start to acquaint yourself with HTML issues, I can point you to one great source to check out. Investigate this free teaching site: W3Schools HTML Tutorials. Look over to the menu bar on the left and you’ll see over 20+ different interactive lessons and also reference guides for things like colors, symbols and functions.

I encourage you to learn basic HTML. We all should have SEO friendly sites!

• Maintaining Websites, Blogs & Such Can Make Your Head Spin! •
• I Often Have To Remind Myself To Take A Deep Breath & Slow Down •

I’m taking a little break from a website-type “chore” that I’ve been putting off for a few weeks now to write this post. The chore isn’t that hard to do, it’s just time consuming. So, I’ve kept pushing it down on the “to do” list of priorities. And then I got to thinking …

Are you like me? (I’ll bet you are.) Do you sometimes get to feeling pretty overwhelmed with all of the maintenance, and even new strategies, you want to implement on your sites? I know lots of people become so completely overwhelmed that they put off getting started for far too long.

I recently saw reference to a quote from Walt Disney and I thought it would make for a great addition to today’s post. Mr. Disney said it this way:

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”

In relation to the myriad of things we solo online marketing entrepreneurs must tend to, I think Mr. Disney’s statement sure rings true, doesn’t it? The general principle certainly applies to all the tasks we must tend to and deal with on a day-to-day basis.

How to Help Make Your Life A Little Less Stressful

Have you really tried to make a specific “to do” list of tasks and/or strategies that you need to implement on your website or blog? Are you really using it to knock off each “to do”, one by one?

I admit that I don’t always adhere to my itemized list each day, but when I do, I really do tend to get more accomplished. I tackle one single item and do my best to work on it until it is D…O…N…E!

Sometimes something as simple as truly utilizing a “to do” task list can have a very positive impact on the effectiveness of your daily time management. Let’s face it, the more we can accomplish in tending to our sites and our online marketing efforts each day, the better we’re going to feel each day!

Don’t be a proscrastinator. Don’t feel so overwhelmed that your head is spinning and you end up getting stuck in one spot! Try this simple strategy and make a list each day.

There’s really no reason that any of us have to feel totally overwhelmed due to the tasks at hand. A simple, basic organizational thing like a “to do” list can help us make sure and steady accomplishments each day in our businesses.

On that note … I’d better get back to what I was doing. I want to get this task checked OFF my list !

• I Have Top Rankings For ‘SEO Consultant Tennessee’ •
• Why Solid Attention To Basic On-Page Optimization Works •

In previous posts about how I have achieved top organic rankings for various important keyword phrases on my websites, I showed some local search results for a couple of pretty specific long-tail phrases relating to my SEO consulting rankings.

So today, I thought I’d show you that I am doing very nicely with a top #1 and #2 organic ranking for a more specific keyword phrase that targets the state in which I reside – Tennessee.

Here’s a screen shot taken today (July 10, 2008) for the listing ”seo consultant Tennessee”  that I’ve utilized on my website www.SEO-Innovation.com:

I’m proud of these top-spot rankings! I mean … the ranking results are for all the SEO consultants in Tennessee. You know, there are a number of pretty successful SEO consultants in this state that have websites that been around a lot longer than mine … yet I’m ranking at the top.

How’d I Achieve Top Organic Google Rankings?

If you’re learning about the ins and outs of how to properly tend to on-page optimization for your website or blog, you probably know that there are a number of factors that Google takes into consideration when determining which site is #1, #2, #3 and so on. Though careful attention to properly optimizing the Title tag , Description meta tag and knowing how to utilize your keyword phrase through-out the content is very important, there are other factors that Google takes into consideration, too.

These all important factors that add up to everyone’s Google rankings can be the following, but not limited to:

• Keyword phrase targeted in the Title tag
• Keyword phrase targeted in the Description meta tag
• Keyword phrase targeted in the page title and coded H1 or H2
• Content focused specifically on the targeted keyword phrase and keyword phrase (and appropriate modifiers) is used in the content
• Cleanly coded (robot crawlable) website
• Inbound links (relevant to your site and quantity of relevant links)
• Inbound link anchor text
• Age of your domain
• Many lesser factors

So back to why I believe I am ranking above all the other SEO consultant’s sites here in Tennessee. Well … evidently I’ve done a very good job of on-page optimization, number one. Next, though my website is not an “older” site than some of the other Tennessee SEO consultants’ sites, when all the factors are added up, Google says “congratulations, SEO-Innovation.com … your ranking factors all add up to being the most relevant for the queried search term and so, you’re #1 and #2.”

It’s All Up To Google’s Search Engine Ranking Algorithms

If I tell you it is a bit of a mystery to me as to why I have beat out a few of my competitors (who I’ll leave nameless), I am being honest with you. I know I do a darn good job when it comes to organic optimization, but they seem to, also. But it really is a crap-shoot quite often in more competitive markets.

Why one site may rank above the other can often be difficult to exactly nail on the head! You truly have to dig down into all the above mentioned factors for each website you rank higher than, or lower than, to try to ascertain the hows and whys.

But suffice it to say, that I practice what I preach … and what I teach. And with this screenshot, I can show you clear evidence that what I do when hired by a client works, because it also works for me!

Hey … have you signed up yet for my bi-weekly SEO newsletter?  Learn how to implement ethical SEO techniques on your website or blog! If you’ve not yet done so, click here and you’ll be taken right to the sign-up page!  Plus, you’ll get a FREE copy of my informative eBook “The SEO Edge”.

Learn my techniques to optimize your site for high rankings! If it works for me … it’ll work for you, too!