HTML for Marketers 101- Very Simple SEO Basics

I often get questions from friends and peers about how to easily boost a site's search engine optimization and basic HTML strategies are the first thing that come to my mind.


Without getting all complicated, start with title and meta tags. Not sure what these are? Click on the View tab in your browser and select the View Source option.  The image below is a screen shot of the title and meta tags for target.com:

Here is what this HTML looks like in Google's search results:

Title tags are what appear at the top of a search results so it is important that they encompass the most strategic keywords to describe your site. The better the terms in your HTML title tag match to the key terms your target audience searches for the better the likelihood that they will find your site in their search results.

• It is important to remember to limit the length of title tags to 65 characters or less. This is the amount of room that search engines will  allot for a single title so its best to keep it concise. (different search engines vary on exactly how many characters but I stick to 60 to keep it safe when possible.

Meta Tags should be created for every unique page on a website. This peice of HTML helps search engine crawlers index your site's information more easily, making your site available to potential visitors faster (or thats the idea anyway). Meta descriptions enclose a short, keyword rich summary of what appears on a particular page. This description appears in search results directly beneath the Title Tag (described above). 

• The general rule of thumb is to keep meta tags 160 characters or less, but there doesn't seem to be much proof that a longer meta will actually hurt a page's SEO.

Often, dense websites do not contain meta descriptions for every single page because it can be tedious. 

When no HTML tag is provided, search engines will crawl a page and basically throw in the most frequent terms from its content. Much debate about the pros and cons of this have been discussed in great detail in the marketing world-- seems that the best approach is a trial and error. If a page is not performing as well as expected, try optimizing its title tags and meta tags with better keywords.

For more on HTML rules for better SEO check out Internet Guru Rand Fishkin's post. I always look to his blog for professional tips.

My First Flash File

Ok so all you Flash pros out there don't laugh-- I know I still have a long ways to go before becoming a Flash animation master, but I am really excited about my first presentable file! While some of you marketers out there might be like, um...why are you taking Flash classes?? 

I have some news for you.

Whether you are still in college or not, I highly recommend taking a Computer Science course if you are a marketer, SEO specialist, advertiser, or just an aspiring communicator that really wants to understand how the Internet works. 

Of course, the majority of our zest for SEM is based on understanding consumer behavior, sociology, market trends (the list never really ends). But we can't forget the real overall facilitator of all things marketable--computers and more specifically--the Internet. 

The Introduction to Computer Science course I've been taking at BU this year really has made me dig deep into the back end of what really goes on between a click and a conversion. And if you are just starting out in the online marketing world (or are a really out of touch professional) and don't yet understand how the Google Algorithm works yet, a Computer Science course is a great way to start.

Some may think that learning Flash is irrelevant to their everyday business practices, but learning new things never hurt anyone. I'm all about it. Give comp sci a try.