SEO and HTML

This page has a general discussion of Search Engine Optimization and HTML, a simple introduction to HTML code.

Here are some excellent 3rd party tutorials/courses:

Shay Howe: http://learn.shayhowe.com/html-css/

Code Academy: http://www.codecademy.com/tracks/web

(Also, beware of Google searches. Click here to see an article that discusses "Where Not To Start", where a high-ranking site on learning HTML is basically SEO spam.)

Intro to SEO and HTML

When you are learning about search engine optimization, it can be helpful to learn the basics of HTML. Whenever you see a Web page, your Internet browser is using HTML code to make the page for you. For example, right now you can right-click (Windows) or CTRL-click (Mac) and choose "View Source" to see the code for this page. And when you are looking at the code, you can think of it like a screenplay or a series of directions for the browser to follow.

So many systems nowawadays (ex: Google Sites, which this site is made from) allow you to make a Web page without necessarily having to know HTML - the system assembles the code for you.

But it is still helpful to learn HTML, especially when you get into search engine optimization, because Google and other search engines look at the code, in some cases placing a preference for Websites where links and headings and other code is done in a certain way.

For example, the link below leads to Google:

click here

And the code to make it is very simple:

<A HREF="www.google.com">click here</A>

Part of the way HTML works with SEO is that Google likes links with keywords. For example, if you make a link for a tutorial on HTML, and link to it from your blog or website, it carries more "authority" if the link text is a keyword related to the website:

a) free html tutorials

b) http://learn.shayhowe.com/html-css/

So in "a", the keyword "free html tutorials" gives more weight for SEO, to the site it's pointing to.

In "b", the link still works, but it has less SEO value. And the code to make it is something Google is scanning.

In order to get started learning HTML, I recommend the following sites:

Shay Howe set up some great tutorials:

http://learn.shayhowe.com/html-css/

and

Code Academy has some excellent free resources:

http://www.codecademy.com/tracks/web

My general suggestion is to try courses like that, and then go back into a simple free tool like Google Sites, or Blogger, and then try looking at a page you make, at the actual HTML code.

For example, in Google Sites, create a page, make a link, and then try clicking on the HTML button:

In Blogger, do the same thing. Make a post, make a link, and then try clicking on the HTML button. For example, here is a screenshot of me making a blog post in Blogger, and inserting a link:

Then, when I click the HTML button, I see the code for it:

There in the code it shows the "A HREF" HTML tag.

When you try this simple approach, switching back and forth, making links, inserting images, it's an easy way to "learn by doing"

Best wishes!