Fact or Fiction

[GeXus]

I just wanted to clear up some things. Are the following facts or fiction?

The following will help your sites ranking.

1) Placing a link on your site back to google or another search engine
2) Placing a link to W3.org
3) Adding a link to an email address
4) Including form elements, such as drop downs, text boxes, etc. that include keywords.
5) Having your entire site using CSS, instead of tables.
6) Including the DOCTYPE on the top of your pages.
7) Using a directory structure rather then pages.

Well.. thats about all I can think of. Thanks!

[bcombs]

1) No
2) No
3) No
4) Don't believe so, but I'll defer to others.
5) Maybe. In theory, it would decrease the overall size of the page, which could increase keyword density. I'm not seen any proof of this making a difference, and with Google at least, on-page is a small factor anyways.
6) No
7) No


Brian

[ayanev]

Originally Posted by bcombs

7) No

Sure ?
http://www.v7n.com/forums/seo-forum/...elf-seo-8.html at the bottom of the page...

[bcombs]

Originally Posted by ayanev

Sure ?
http://www.v7n.com/forums/seo-forum/...elf-seo-8.html at the bottom of the page...

Ahhh, I was thinking directory as in web directory (e.g. hierachical like Yahoo) rather than directory as in file directory. I'll attribute that to a stronger focus on links than on-page factors. ;-)

In any case, I don't see why directories would perform better than file names, but there certainly might be a reason (especially since John says there is).



Brian

[MagicYoyo]

1) Placing a link on your site back to google or another search engine : No
2) Placing a link to W3.org : No, except maybe with a little hack (not tested)
3) Adding a link to an email address : No
4) Including form elements, such as drop downs, text boxes, etc. that include keywords : Keywords in form elements are considered as text (paragraph)
5) Having your entire site using CSS, instead of tables : It seems that no. I's now proven that Google don't care about W3C vlidation (http://www.site-reference.com/articl...ogle-Care.html ). It might be the same for parting content & layout with full CSS coding. But it's much more better for code maintenance, accessibility and cross-platform compatibility.
6) Including the DOCTYPE on the top of your pages : Don't have importance for Google, but for you & your visitors.
7) Using a directory structure rather then pages : Yes, but it worth less than yesterday. Only MSN gives a high factor to keywords in URL.

[John Scott]

7) Using a directory structure rather then pages.

If you are talking about using folders rather than pages, yes, it is supposedly ideal. I doubt that it will make a break your rankings, though.

Only MSN gives a high factor to keywords in URL.

In order to test that, put the keywords in the URL only, no place else. And let the page get index, then search for the keywords that are only in the URL. Google, MSN and Yahoo all take keywords in the URL into consideration.

Yahoo does the most, IMO, but Google does too, and Google treats keywords in the URL as anchor text, even if there are no links to the page using the URL as anchor text.

[MagicYoyo]

Originally Posted by JohnScott

In order to test that, put the keywords in the URL only, no place else. And let the page get index, then search for the keywords that are only in the URL. Google, MSN and Yahoo all take keywords in the URL into consideration.

It's hard to test that, as search engines work on different index of URLs, and other factors can't be separated. But this test can be helpful at least to start a study.

Originally Posted by JohnScott

Yahoo does the most, IMO, but Google does too, and Google treats keywords in the URL as anchor text, even if there are no links to the page using the URL as anchor text.

I'm used to work on french version of search engines. Sometimes there is a delay till the lastest version of algorithm is settled in France.
My 'a priori' opinion is that MSN (France) gives a higher weight to keywords URL... but worth a test.

[John Scott]

It's hard to test that, as search engines work on different index of URLs, and other factors can't be separated. But this test can be helpful at least to start a study.

Easy to test, IMO. Just put the made up word in the URL only, and if Google ranks the page for the made-up word, then you know that Google's algorithm takes into consideration keywords in URL. If Google doesn't return any results for the made up word, then you know that Google ignores keywords in URL.

[Mong]

1-6) NO
7) Half fried Yes

[MagicYoyo]

Originally Posted by JohnScott

Easy to test, IMO. Just put the made up word in the URL only, and if Google ranks the page for the made-up word, then you know that Google's algorithm takes into consideration keywords in URL. If Google doesn't return any results for the made up word, then you know that Google ignores keywords in URL.

That's not what I mean. I try again :
I agree, both of Google, Yahoo & MSN use keywords in URL to rank. It's harder to say wich SE gives the higher weight to keywords in URL in it's ranking algorithm. My opinion is that Google use it less than MSN.

Hope my words are more clear.

[John Scott]

I see what you're saying, and yes it's near impossible to test which gives more priority to keywords in the URL.

[Kirk]

1,2,3,4,6 NO

#5 CSS layout is definitley a better prospect than table formatting. CSS is light wieght and as pointed out is better a cross the bowsers. With no inline coding your cotent will be closer to the top of the page, which Google give extra credence too.

CSS positioning alows allows you to present information to the search engines in order of importance. Most spiders have cut off point of around 80-100k, therefore any content above that threshold will likely not be indexed. A page ladden with images would likely come under this category.

#7 Folder structure is important and this is a goodway of including keywords into yuor URL's. Again this has been pointed out, it may only carry little weight in a search algorithm, but every little counts