SEO Analysis

HTML Elements, do they help decide your Google Rank?

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XHTML FORM Element Tree
Photo by Mr_SteinIn HTML, elements are bits of markup that tell a web browser to display or format parts of web pages. The structure of HTML is based on logic, order, and syntax and is, therefore, relatively simple to use. You should basically think of your HTML elements as the organizational and visual formatting of your HTML document. The difference between your site and other sites of equal page rank and similar material will be how well you utilize HTML elements to exemplify your work. You can very easily modify your web site so that things stick out where they should.

Search engine spiders read the source (HTML) code of your pages and decide how relevant it is to each of the keywords and key phrases they find there. A web page is made up of many components, such as head, body, title, tables, etc. Most of these components have their special meaning to the search engines.

Wolfram Alpha has a neat feature visually showing your HTML site structure.

wolfram alpha

Basic HTML Elements Mapped

  • A – Anchor

Syntax<A>…</A>
Attribute Specifications
  • HREF=URI (hypertext reference)
  • NAME=CDATA (named link destination)
  • REL=LinkTypes (relationship to link)
  • REV=LinkTypes (relationship from link)
  • TYPE=ContentType (content-type of link)
  • TARGET=FrameTarget (frame to render link in)
  • HREFLANG=LanguageCode (language of link)
  • CHARSET=Charset (character encoding of link)
  • ACCESSKEY=Character (shortcut key)
  • TABINDEX=Number (position in tabbing order)
  • SHAPE=[ rect | circle | poly | default ] (client-side image map)
  • COORDS=Coords (client-side image map)
  • ONFOCUS=Script (element received focus)
  • ONBLUR=Script (element lost focus)

  • FORM – Interactive form

Syntax<FORM>…</FORM>
Attribute Specifications
  • ACTION=URI (form handler)
  • METHOD=[ get | post ] (HTTP method for submitting form)
  • ENCTYPE=ContentType (content type to submit form as)
  • NAME=CDATA (name for client-side scripting)
  • ACCEPT-CHARSET=Charsets (supported character encodings)
  • ACCEPT=ContentTypes (media types for file upload)
  • TARGET=FrameTarget (frame to render form result in)
  • ONSUBMIT=Script (form was submitted)
  • ONRESET=Script (form was reset)

  • IMG – Inline image

Syntax<IMG>
Attribute Specifications
  • SRC=URI (location of image)
  • ALT=Text (alternate text)
  • LONGDESC=URI (link to long description)
  • WIDTH=Length (image width)
  • HEIGHT=Length (image height)
  • USEMAP=URI (client-side image map)
  • ISMAP (server-side image map)
  • ALIGN=top|middle|bottom|left|right (image alignment)
  • BORDER=Pixels (link border width)
  • HSPACE=Pixels (horizontal gutter)
  • VSPACE=Pixels (vertical gutter)
  • NAME=CDATA (name for client-side scripting)

  • INPUT – Form input

Syntax<INPUT>
Attribute Specifications
  • TYPE=[ text | password | checkbox | radio | submit | reset | file | hidden | image | button ] (type of input)
  • NAME=CDATA (key in submitted form)
  • VALUE=CDATA (value of input)
  • CHECKED (check radio button or checkbox)
  • SIZE=CDATA (suggested number of characters for text input)
  • MAXLENGTH=Number (maximum number of characters for text input)
  • SRC=URI (source for image)
  • ALT=CDATA (alternate text for image input)
  • USEMAP=URI (client-side image map)
  • ISMAP (server-side image map)
  • ALIGN=[ top | middle | bottom | left | right ] (alignment of image input)
  • DISABLED (disable element)
  • READONLY (prevent changes)
  • ACCEPT=ContentTypes (media types for file upload)
  • ACCESSKEY=Character (shortcut key)
  • TABINDEX=Number (position in tabbing order)
  • ONFOCUS=Script (element received focus)
  • ONBLUR=Script (element lost focus)
  • ONSELECT=Script (element text selected)
  • ONCHANGE=Script (element value changed)

  • P – Paragraph

Syntax<P>…</P>
Attribute Specifications
  • ALIGN=[ left | center | right | justify ] (horizontal alignment)
  • common attributes

  • TABLE – Table

Syntax<TABLE>…</TABLE>
Attribute Specifications
  • SUMMARY=Text (purpose/structure of table)
  • WIDTH=Length (table width)
  • BORDER=Pixels (border width)
  • FRAME=[ void | above | below | hsides | lhs | rhs | vsides | box | border ] (outer border)
  • RULES=[ none | groups | rows | cols | all ] (inner borders)
  • CELLSPACING=Length (spacing between cells)
  • CELLPADDING=Length (spacing within cells)
  • ALIGN=[ left | center | right ] (table alignment)
  • BGCOLOR=Color (table background color)

  • TD – Table data cell

Syntax<TD>…</TD>
Attribute Specifications
  • ROWSPAN=Number (rows spanned by the cell)
  • COLSPAN=Number (columns spanned by the cell)
  • HEADERS=IDREFS (list of header cells for current cell)
  • ABBR=Text (abbreviation for header cell)
  • SCOPE=[ row | col | rowgroup | colgroup ] (cells covered by header cell)
  • AXIS=CDATA (category of header cell)
  • ALIGN=[ left | center | right | justify | char ] (horizontal alignment)
  • CHAR=Character (alignment character)
  • CHAROFF=Length (alignment character offset)
  • VALIGN=[ top | middle | bottom | baseline ] (vertical alignment)
  • WIDTH=Length (cell width)
  • HEIGHT=Length (cell height)
  • NOWRAP (suppress word wrap)
  • BGCOLOR=Color (cell background color)

  • TR – Table row

Syntax<TR>…</TR>
Attribute Specifications
  • ALIGN=[ left | center | right | justify | char ] (horizontal alignment of cells in group)
  • CHAR=Character (alignment character for cells)
  • CHAROFF=Length (alignment character offset)
  • VALIGN=[ top | middle | bottom | baseline ] (vertical alignment of cells in group)
  • BGCOLOR=Color (row background color)

Can the argument be made that sites with better site structure rank better?

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