One of the biggest holes in a client’s SEO (pre livewire SEO, that is) is almost always the site structure. So many SEO companies focus on content and backlinks that quality code is often overlooked. There are many cases where we have come into the tail end of another company’s SEO efforts and changed only the site structure, summarily putting them on top in no time flat. The previous company had done some quality work but neglected to ensure all the proper code was in the proper places.
The most egregious infractions include:
- Missing or unuseful title tags
- Missing or unuseful H1 and H2 tags (these let search engines know the focal point of your content – the main idea)
- Too much content below the fold
- Parsing javascript in the header and not delaying it until the closing body tag
- Poor meta use
- Missing or unuseful alt tags for images
How your site “looks” to search engines is different than how it looks to us. We focus on aesthetics and layout, search engines focus on how the site is laid out via the tags and attributes. Without the right tags and structure, search engines have a more difficult time understanding what you’re trying to say. Hence you don’t rank well. You can have all the content and backlinks in the world but without the correct format, you’ll be confusing the search engines and that will affect your ranking prospects dramatically, negatively.