You don’t need to be an HTML guru but should know essential SEO HTML tags and elements linked with optimisation. They will help you make content searchable by Google and other engines.
How to Use SEO for HTML Website
HTML is the standardised markup language for web documents. When a search engine comes across your content, it looks at your website’s HTML tags. This information helps search engines like Google categorise and evaluate your content.
Let’s review the main SEO HTML tips regarding tags and attributes to help users find your content.
The <title> Tag
Being responsible for the title in the search results, the <title> tag is one of the most important in search promotion. It helps search engines understand what the page is about and determine the relevance to user queries. The most important information in the title should fit in 60 characters.
SEO for HTML Website Meta Tags
In addition to the <title> tag, <head> contains tags of <meta> type, intended for browsers and search engines. The correct use of meta tags allows to increase the attractiveness of snippets and manage page indexing (you can also choose SEO auditing tools like splatjs.com). It ensures the correct display of the web pages to users.
Meta Description
Talking about SEO for HTML websites, a special role is given to Description meta tag. The information from this tag does not directly affect the ranking of the page. However, Google uses it to form descriptions in the snippet. Also, search engines take it into account to determine the relevance of the page content to the search query. A catchy description will help attract visitors to your site.
Meta robots
Robots help you specify the rules for indexing pages and links on them. The index value indicates that robots can index the page (otherwise, change the value to noindex). The follow value allows links to be indexed (otherwise use nofollow). If there are no meta robots, the page is open for indexing.
Meta Charset
The “charset” attribute indicates the encoding type of the document. Use it for browsers to correctly display the text of the page. Many browsers have learned to recognise the document encoding automatically, but it is still recommended to write a short string to avoid possible problems.
Meta Viewport
It tells the browser how to handle the page size and scale it to fit the device screen width. If this element is missing, mobile browsers use the desktop version by default and try to optimise it. It may result in a disproportionate look at the page content. Search engines consider such sites not adapted for mobile devices and lower it in the search results.
Meta Keywords
This meta tag should contain 5-7 keywords describing the main content of the page. Previously, it had a strong influence on the ranking, but it has lost its significance due to the actions of unscrupulous webmasters and the constant development of search engines. However, we still recommend using it.
SEO HTML Rules for Link Tags
The <head> block also contains <link> tags that link the document to other web pages. Consider the following attributes of the “link” tag: “canonical”, “next / prev”, “alternate”. You can also inform search engines about the mobile version of the site using the “media” attribute.
The “rel=”canonical”” Attribute
Use it to resolve issues with duplicate content: when the site has pages that are close or identical in content at different URLs. The attribute tells search engines which of the duplicate pages to index and show in search results. It also passes on the link juice and other characteristics of the duplicates.
The “rel=”alternate”” Attribute
Use this attribute to indicate alternative versions of the site’s pages, such as different language versions or the mobile version of the site. With its help, search engines choose which version of the page to show to a particular user in the search results.
SEO for HTML Website Content Optimisation
With text formatting, you can place accents and make it readable. Search engines recognise formatting tags and always prefer “convenient” texts. Content with a clear structure and markup is easier to perceive both by search robots and users. Errors in content markup can affect the validity of the code. The incorrect layout will distort the display of the page in a browser and may lead to misinterpretation of its content by engines.
Headings H1 – H6
There are many tags for decorating the text content. The most important is the H1-H6 heading tags, especially the main page title, H1. Along with <title>, this tag informs users and search robots about the content of a particular webpage. Heading tags often contain the main theses of the text and, having skimmed through them, the users understand whether they will read the text or not.
Conclusions
SEO website HTML tips imply basic knowledge of the HTML language. An SEO specialist (SEO for beginners also applies this) should focus on optimisation of tags from the <head> block, with the information for browsers and engines. It helps search engines understand what the page is about and how to interpret it. It is equally important to optimise tags and attributes located in the <body> since users see information from this block. The main thing is to understand how and why to use each tag and make content primarily for people, not for search robots.
