What matters and what doesn't for Google ranking

[Silvester]

Very interesting and useful information...

 

[grishamist]

Thanks for the information. I really need that info to be on the rankings.

 

[LenBackus]

Skip H1 and start with H2 ??

 

[TVDinner]

great information. thanks for posting it. Makes me want to go back and reevaluate all of my coding and sites.

 

[motokochan]

Skip H1 and start with H2 ??

No. Do a proper outline.

In general, your site name/logo will be in the H1 tag, so all major page headings will be H2.

 

[LenBackus]

Keywords in H2-H6 headline tags seem to have an influence on the rankings while keywords in H1 headline tags don't seem to have an effect.

I guess this is why I asked if H1 should be used at all.

 

[motokochan]

Yes, it should where appropriate. In semantic coding, each tag has a use and a page should be coded with respect to its outline. If you do this, you'll get the most benefit from your site. The easier you make your page to parse, the less the individual tags will matter as the search engine will be able to figure out the structure much better.

(With respect to the h2 tag and below being given more prominence, it is likely due to the semantic coding practice of putting the site name in the h1 tag, which is where it probably should be for most designs.)

 

[djbaxter]

I think it's also due to so-called SEO experts overdoing use of the H1 tag to the point where Google at least now ignores it as a ranking factor.

 

[nricklee]

Thanks for providing that great information.

 

[Dodger]

I think it's also due to so-called SEO experts overdoing use of the H1 tag to the point where Google at least now ignores it as a ranking factor.

If that were the case, then one could hypothesize that Google would apply that to all heading tags.

I think it is more like repetitive H1 text that is spit out by popular software solutions such as WordPress et al which use the Sitename in all H1 tags. It is unclear to me why their default themes are coded this way, and why all theme developers continue to code it that way.

My feeling is that a page is a document, and as such, should stand on its own. The site name should have no bearing on that document and therefore should NOT be in the H1 tag.

I am going to take bullet 2 with a grain of salt, but would like to point out one additional thing. Most forum software do not make use of heading tags at all. Figure that one out!

 

[izumou]

Thanks for The Information but I am confused in the matter of H1 And H2.I am using smf forum.Does SMF have H2 or H1 tages.please enlighten me more on this matter.

 

[djbaxter]

I have no idea but you might post that question in the SMF forum here.

 

[Dodger]

Thanks for The Information but I am confused in the matter of H1 And H2.I am using smf forum.Does SMF have H2 or H1 tages.please enlighten me more on this matter.

Not in the default themes, no. Most forum software do not use them for some reason. You can always edit them into your theme files however.

I did notice that phpBB3 does have them in their default style now, although it is questionable how theme authors are applying them (ie, one theme I saw jumped from H1 for the board name to H4 for the category names on the index page.)

 

[Jiefred]

bullet number 3 is correct. Since robots are blind when when reading images, just use alt tag.

 

[djbaxter]

I'm pretty sure they're all correct.

 

[famade]

Hi Admin

Thanks for such useful post. I am Charles new to this forum. I am really glade to be a part of this forum..


Charles Steve

 

[3lite]

The only advice that matters...

This is the only thing that matters: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291

and

here

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769

The source.

 

[Taulath]

...except this is a list of opinions (as opposed to evidence), some of which are contradicted by the empirical study I linked to above.

I'd take the seoMOZ guide over this 'study' any day of the week

Example?

Keywords in the file path don't seem to have a positive effect on the Google rankings of the analyzed web sites.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Take a look at this SERP: http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=eptopic+pregnancy

JustParents.co.uk ranks #2 (at least for me here in the UK), and the only place 'eptopic' is mentioned is in the URL (It's a common typo for 'ectopic'). The same site ranks nowhere in the top 30 for the correct spelling, and so it's fair to say that the keyword in the url is having a large positive effect on rankings.

Most of the findings in the report are otherwise useful --although I'd question stating H1's no longer help with rankings-- but the seoMOZ guide is the opinion of some of the top SEO consultants in the world, and whilst they do not always agree 100% on factors there is a strong correlation in opinion on the most important ones.

Once you have a page which is spiderable and has your keywords in the title and body, 90% of SEO is getting quality incoming links. I wouldn't worry about the small details too much

Rob - Search Marketing Consultant for a large UK online agency

 

[4U2NV]

I'm new to SEO and this information is very helpful indeed.. Thanks for sharing it to us..

 

[Jenie0109]

keying your keywords on the right place helps you earn big points