HTML Code to Success
HTML code could cost your blog or website organic traffic. Do you think that could be true with the latest Google updates? You may have heard one of my retail sites took a Google beating from the last Panda update almost 2 weeks ago. I do not use any black hat methods or even know what some of the terms they use are. I would not know how to cloak a link or hide text. I did receive a hint from my friends over at WebMeUp when I inquired. My HTML coding was a little messy.
Messy HTML code
How do you write your posts and make the headlines stand out? Do you just scroll over the text? See below.
Sometimes when you do it this way and make several changes it can cause your coding to be messy. I had to totally redo my home page and change the coding from scratch. It’s been almost 2 weeks and traffic is starting to come back.
The Right Way to Code Your HTML
- You should use your text editor to check your posts. Make sure they are not duplicate HTML codes. I had for example used <p><span style=”font-size:22px;”><span style=”font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;”> If the font is just arial (it was helvetica prior) just use arial <p><span style=”font-size:22px;”><span style=”font-family: arial;”>
See the difference?
- Always use h1 before h2 and h2 before h3 – There is a hierachy to the title tags. I had some h2 before h1. That is a no-no.
Other Possible Panda Hits
What else could have caused a drop in traffic?
- Links. I have a resource page and I did find some links that were pointing to sites that changed and not for the good. I got rid of them. It made me think. Are resource pages a thing of the past? Should I ditch it entirely?
- Heavy Pages – What are heavy pages? Heavy HTML coding – a product page with over 100 products. I learned this from my Bing Webmaster tools. yes, BING webmaster tools. I was afraid to seperate the page into several for products – say 30 products per page. I was afraid Google would think they were duplicate pages/content. I checked out some big retail sites and that’s how they do and they are on page 1.
So you know why I haven’t been to your blog lately to comment, I’ve been very busy fixing the retail sites to meet Google’s latest needs. The ironic thing is the site is ranking better on Bing even page 1 for some terms. I’ve also build a new retail site that is much lighter. You can take a peek at my latest retail website here. It’s about 80% done. More products and a blog will be added soon.
Another lesson: Never depend just on Google for your traffic. Thankfully we still had some sales from Pinterest, a relevant directory and Yahoo. I also learned you can request from Google why your site could be de-ranked. It’s called their reconsideration form.
What else do you think could case a drop in our blog or website search rankings today?
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
