CMPU4063 Lab 2

Lab 2

Part II – Using <meta> in an HTML5 page 

Identify four different uses of the metatag. 

1. Keywords - you can use the metatag to insert relevant keywords into your document so that search engines can find your page (<meta name="keywords" content="Vet, Pets, Dental, Veterinarian, Fish Creek, etc.">)

2. Viewport - you can use the metatag to change the view of your page depending on what type of device you're on, ensuring that the website will look good on both desktop and mobile, as well as other devices (<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">)

3. Description - using the metatag to add a description of the website can also help the search engine find it, as it will look for relevant words (<meta name="description" content="Fish Creek Animal Hospital is a veterinary clinic which provides medical services, surgical services, dental services, and house calls">

4. Refresh - using this metatag refreshes the page automatically every specified amount. This will ensure that any updates on the page will be seen by the user and do not require the user to manually refresh the page to check for updates (<meta name = "refresh" content = "30">)
(W3 Schools, 2002)

Copy the head section/make a screenshot of one of the web pages with the meta tag and paste into your blog.

Part III – Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Based on reading the aforementioned article(s), or other research/experience, outline four SEO guidelines that you will employ when designing your own websites:

1. Mobile site usability

Mobile versions of websites are now very important to get right. It is important that for a web page, the mobile an desktop URLs are the same, that mobile users trying to access the desktop version will be redirected to the mobile version,  and that Googlebot-mobile can recognise the URLs (Google, 2010). Also, while the mobile version will look different to the desktop version, the navigation of the site on mobile should still yield the same results as navigating the desktop version. The mobile version should be easy to use, with large enough font to stop constant zooming and the supporting media should also be formatted correctly (Moz Pro, 2013). If the mobile version is not formatted correctly, is difficult to use, or if the URL is different to that of the desktop version, it will rank low in search engine results.

2. Crawl accessibility

If a site cannot be crawled by bots, it will not be indexed, and it will not show up in search results. In order to make a site crawlable, the navigation of the site must be suitable. There should be a path of links throughout the site linking pages together so the bot can find every page, and there should be  link back to the primary page. There should be a site map submitted through the Google Search Console; a list of URLs on a site that crawlers can use to navigate it (Moz Pro, 2013). The smaller a site map is, the more frequently it will be crawled. The important pages should not be more than three clicks away, and irrelevent pages such as privacy policies should be blocked from crawlers (PowerSuite, 2016).

3. Keyword Research

Instead of just using keywords that seem relevent, they should be researched first. Keywords should not just be words that appear in the content of the webpage, they should be terms that searchers are searching for. Keywords should be researched to find out which variations are the most popular,, and which variations should be used. If starting a new website, it may be better to use keywords with lower search results than the more popular ones, as it means there is less competition for the website. Also, using longer, more specific keywords may be better than short, one-word keyworsds as they have a higher conversion rate of clicks. During the planning stage, the keywords should be put into groups, which should then reflect the pages of a site. It is better to have one comprehensive page on a certain topic than multiple, shorter pages for each keyword variation(Moz Pro, 2013).

4. Quality and Organised Content

A high quality of content on a website should always be a priority. The text should be easy to read, links should be easy to spot and should not have generic names like 'link' or 'click here'; they should be relevent to the content (Google, 2010). Each page should also be organised properly, using appropriate heading tags to spot relevent sections faster, paragraph breaks to prevent large walls of text, which users tend to avoid or skip, bold and italics should be used to highlight relevent terms, and the colours of a page should be readable; the font colour should be easy to read against the background colour, which can be acheived by using a high enough contrast (Moz Pro, 2013). A well-organised site with quality content will lead to searchers staying on the site longer, can prevent them from exiting the site to find another search result, and will encourage them to navigate around the site, which all contribute to higher search results.

References

Google. (2010). Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide. Available: http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en/us/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf. Last accessed 03/10/2019.

Moz Pro. (2013). The Beginner's Guide to SEO. Available: https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo. Last accessed 30/09/19.

SEO Powersuite. (2016). Technical SEO checklist: 7 essential tips to implement now for 2017. Available: https://searchengineland.com/technical-seo-checklist-7-essential-tips-2017-263936. Last accessed 03/10/2019.

W3 Schools. (2002). HTML Tag. Available: https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_meta.asp. Last accessed 30/09/19.