The amount of source code isn’t an SEO issue per se. It’s the amount of markup and scripting that gets between the engine spiders and the actual page content that’s the issue. For example, sites that use tabled layouts contain far more markup per unit of real content than sites that use table-less designs.
Compressing your code won’t help with SEO. It might decrease download time fractionally but from the bots point of view, there’s still the same amount of code to wade through.
With javascript, it’s better to use external scripts than place the scripting in the page source – both from a code bloat and a security perspective. It’s not a big difference but it does make potentially sensitive information a little less accessible to the casual observer.
If you want to improve SEO, turn off all CSS in your browser. Or try browsing through your site with a text-only browser. That should give you some impression of how a search engine bot “sees” your site.
Or imagine you’re reading a post/page out to someone over the phone. Does it all make sense or would you have to add extra explanations?
- Use headings properly and in order.
- Provide keyword-rich link text that makes sense when taken out of context.
- Ensure that image links have concise and descriptive alternative texts.
- Employ front-loading copywriting techniques by starting each page/post with a short keyword-rich summary of what the rest of the post/page is about.
- Use reciprocal link swaps to generate good quality incoming links.
Good SEO takes time, care and patience.
wow esmi, youre a guru — thats awesome advice!!
