Best Practices for Search Engine Optimization

The visible text content of your pages is a primary factor that search engines utilize to find, index and deliver your pages to prospective site visitors. …try to integrate search terms into your page copy in a natural fashion so that the terms make sense in context and complement the overall message of the page content.

Effective search engine optimization is not about “tricking” the search engines into ranking your site favorably. Rather, SEO is a research process designed to eliver relevant information to the people seeking that information.

If your organization’s mission has to do with environmental protection, are your target visitors most likely to search for “acid rain”, “save the “greenhouse effect”, or all of the above? Do you want to reach visitors who are local, regional or national in scope? These are considerations that need careful attention as you begin the SEO process.

Flash animation and video may look cool to site visitors, but search engines cannot read or index the content embedded within multimedia objects.That is not to say that you shouldn’t use multimedia where appropriate, but be aware that it is not search engine-friendly. ( SEO - Right video at the right time is priceless )

SEO - Tips for your Website Effectiveness

SEO title tag mistakes

• The title tag shows up in search results as the blue link, and a good one helps the site get more clicks and visitors from search results.
• Title tags are a crucial SEO element that can help the website show up higher when people search Google for the words in it.
• Title tags show up when web pages are shared on social media sites like Facebook. 

 

Avoid these and you'll be ahead of the game, ranking higher in search results and enticing more people to click on your site. 

1."Home" or "Home Page" in title tag  
2.Domain name in title tag
3.Too long  
4.Too short
5.No keywords
6.Just the business name  
7.First few words aren't important or eye-catching  
8.Doesn't include geographic location (if location is important to business)
9.Too many keywords that make it look spammy

Guidance on Applying WCAG 2.0 to Non-Web ICT: Updated Draft Published

13 December 2012

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (WCAG WG)  published an updated Working Draft of Guidance on Applying WCAG 2.0 to Non-Web Information and Communications Technologies (WCAG2ICT). It is a draft of an informative (that is, not normative) W3C Working Group Note that will clarify how Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 can be applied to non-Web ICT. Please see important information in the Call for Review e-mail. Comments are welcome through 15 February 2013. Read about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

WOFF File Format 1.0 is a W3C Recommendation

13 December 2012

The WebFonts Working Group has published a W3C Recommendation of WOFF File Format 1.0. This document specifies the WOFF font packaging format. This format was designed to provide lightweight, easy-to-implement compression of font data, suitable for use with CSS @font-face rules. Any properly licensed TrueType/OpenType/Open Font Format file can be packaged in WOFF format for Web use. User agents decode the WOFF file to restore the font data such that it will display identically to the input font. Learn more about the Fonts Activity.

Role Attribute Proposed Recommendation Published

13 December 2012

The Protocols and Formats Working Group (PFWG) published a Proposed Recommendation of Role Attribute, an XML attribute that allows authors to add semantic information to documents. Role Attribute supports WAI-ARIA, the Accessible Rich Internet Applications technical specification for making dynamic, interactive web content accessible to people with disabilities. Comments are welcome through 1 February 2013. Read the Role Attribute Proposed Recommendation e-mail announcement for more information, and about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

Last Call: Proximity Events

06 December 2012

The Device APIs Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Proximity Events. This specification defines a means to receive events that correspond to a proximity sensor detecting the presence of a physical object. Comments are welcome through 24 January. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

Last Call: State Chart XML (SCXML): State Machine Notation for Control Abstraction

06 December 2012

The Voice Browser Working Group published a Las Call Working Draft of State Chart XML (SCXML): State Machine Notation for Control Abstraction. This document describes SCXML, or the "State Chart extensible Markup Language". SCXML provides a generic state-machine based execution environment based on CCXML and Harel State Tables. Comments are welcome through 11 January 2013. Learn more about the Voice Browser Activity.

Last Call: Internationalization Tag Set (ITS) Version 2.0

06 December 2012

The MultilingualWeb-LT Working Group published a Last Call Working Draft of Internationalization Tag Set (ITS) Version 2.0. This document defines data categories and their implementation as a set of elements and attributes called the Internationalization Tag Set (ITS) 2.0. ITS 2.0 is the successor of ITS 1.0; it is designed to foster the creation of multilingual Web content, focusing on HTML, XML based formats in general, and to leverage localization workflows based on the XML Localization Interchange File Format (XLIFF). Comments are welcome through 10 January 2013. Learn more about the Internationalization Activity.

Updated Working Drafts of The Screen Orientation API, XMLHttpRequest, DOM4

06 December 2012

The Web Applications Working Group published three Working Drafts :

• The Screen Orientation API. The Screen Orientation API's goal is to provide an interface for web applications to be able to read the screen orientation state, to be informed when this state changes and to be able to lock the screen orientation to a specific state.
• XMLHttpRequest. The XMLHttpRequest specification defines an API that provides scripted client functionality for transferring data between a client and a server.
• DOM4, published in co-operation with the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group. DOM defines the event and document model the Web platform uses. The DOM is a language- and platform neutral interface that allows programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the content and structure of documents.

Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.