Web standard and findability sitting in a tree

Web standards and findability are a complementary duo. By following Web standards you can improve findability by making your content more meaningful and legible for search engines. Web standards provide the structure and hierarchy of information that search engines need to discern what a page is about and what’s most important in the content.

There are a number of ways that Web Standards development practices can serve our goal of building more findable websites. Here are some of the most significant once:

Ensures search engine spiders can parse your code without stumbling on errors such as missing close tags or syntax errors
Often decreases the ratio markup to content, which can help improve search engine rankings
Improves page load times so search engines can quickly index your entire site
Improves the communication of the information hierarchy of your pages so search engines can discern what content is important
Accessibility standards provide a number of opportunities to include descriptive keywords in your markup that will help disabled users and search engines better understand the contents of your page

Web standards can put you on the right path to building documents that are search engine friendly. However, it’s important to note that following standards is not an SEO silver bullet. If only it were that simple!

When marking can put you up a document, you still need to use your head when considering the most appropriate tag for your content. What the content of your pages says is important to search engines-but how you say it is equally important.

Web Standards Solutions