Hi again, if you have landed here, or are viewing this page, this is a follow on from my first article – Seo Checklist Part 1. Today we are continuing that checklist, and starting with page loading times, we’ll cover a few points today, and look out for the next part i’ll publish soon!
4. Web Page Loading Times
This is a topic which can easily be over looked these days, we’ve all got super fast broadband haven’t we? Well unfortunatley not, we don’t, most of the world is actually still on less than 56k, as of the time of this article, and there are still plenty of areas in the UK and USA, and europe, who do not have super fast broadband. The search engines know this, and so factor in your page loading time in. To show this is true, you will find in the majority of instances, small web page sizes ranking higher in Google, not always, as other factors do apply, but pretty frequently – which goes to show how important this factor is. Steps you can take to improve loading time:
4.1 Use Text as much as Possible
As you may know already, all search engines, google, yahoo, msn and more, can only really read text, they are slowly progessing with PDF’s, flash, and javascript, but ignore their progressions for now, as you want results now, not in 5 years time! So remember, use text frequently, and remember on images you do use, always describe them fully in the ALT text, not in a spammy way, however, in a descriptive way.
4.2 Use JPEG’s GIF’s, and PNG’s Appropriately
JPEG’s and GIF’s are the most commonly used format, with TIFF’s, and PNG’s being the new kids on the block. PNG’s are great for their transparency properties, and compression, but lacking in browser support with the almost dead IE6. But make sure you use each type of image appropriately. Use JPEG’s for images, but describe them well in your alt tags, compress them with professional software like Photoshop, good compression will have your visitors hardly noticing what you’ve done. GIF’s on simpler images with less colours, like background images and such. If only a few colour’s are used in a particular image, GIF’s excel, remaining tiny in size. Use PNG’s for more complex images, like transparency, they are more effective than transparent GIF’s.
4.3 Large Files
Avoid large files which might slow down the loading of a page, and test your pages with friend or family who may be using a slower connection
5. Valid Code
This one always gets met by resistence, however, it’s more than just valid code. It’s good code. Code which doesn’t hide text, or will break when a new browser comes out. That is good code.
5.1 Accessibility
When I talk to people about this, I always have to put a monetary value on it. There are millions of disabled internet users out there, users who suffer from hearing problems or sight issues, or the goldern arena of the silver surfers, but the true value of these groups of people is their spending power! When I explain it in these terms most clients I talk to listen, and come on board. In the long run, it has other benefits. Arena’s to place more relevant keywords, and Google does look fondly on site swho go the extra mile to be AAA accessbility compliant.
6. External Linking
External linking is tricky when it comes to SEO, you do need to link to others, but you need to be reserved and selective when linking. Link to relevant websites, link with good anchor text, descriptive text links, and not too many. For small websites, 2 or 3 most, and larger websites, I suggest having a links page, with 10 – 15 at most, however use no follow tags on them where possible. Do not sell links or offer a link buying programme on your website. It’s against the google terms and conditions.
I’m going to leave it there for today, be sure to look out for part 3.
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