HTML and SEO Validation Techspectations Seminar

Student: Grainne O Reilly Student No: 53640809 MMK HTML is barely in its twenties, but it has changed the world that we live in irrevocably. The Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) describes the presentation and structure of information through the use of the Internet (www.peachpit.com). HTML keywords and tags allow for the formatting and displaying of content on a web page. These keywords of a site allow for greater results and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). This will be discussed further in this body of work, first HTML and its usage will be explored in order to develop a comprehensive understanding of its application. “HTML is the lingua franca of the Internet” (www.peachpit.com). At the seminar we learned that the knowledge and correct function of HTML allows anyone that has an online presence to change and add small additions to their website. This ensures that a business person is not paying unnecessary additional fees to a web site developer and provides the business person with firsthand kno wledge of their site. HTML is a basic mark-up language and not as scary as people may think. It is simple code that is the very backbone of the digital world. Not so long ago, the classic web application was compiled of a set of inert HTML written pages (Shannon, 2007). Current modern applications consist of new technologies in order to supply interactive applications across the World Wide Web (www). Despite these new technologies, HTML code still plays a central role for many web based applications (Shanno n, 2007). The use of the correct HTML code and hyperlinks in a webpage allow the user to view a webpage with ease. Most internet surfers find there is nothing more frustrating than a webpage that does not work correctly or sends you to the wrong page. The purpose of HTML is to supply a set of general rules that propose how content should look when delivered as a webpage. As the Internet grew in scale and users, HTML became the tool that allowed ease of access to resources and information. HTML originates from the Standard Generalised Markup Language (SCML), which is an international standard (ISO 8879) that was made available in 1986 as system for marking and structuring documents (Shannon 2007). HTML uses a simple version of SGML’s to develop content and the vital inclusion of hypertext allows developers to define a semantic network of linking information (www.peachpit.com).

“HTML is a data format, not a programming language”(Shannon 2007 p 10). Appendix 1 shows basic HTML code and Appendix 2 shows the webpage as it is displayed on a browser platform from my own computer. The text code is saved as a html file (Wordpad in this case) and viewed through a browser (Internet Explorer). The browser reads the html file and translates it into a webpage with content. In order to write HTML it is important to use tags correctly, tags are simply the words that are placed in between the <brackets>. Different tags perform various functions and do not appear when you view your page through a browser but the format requested via the tag does. The text below from Appendix 1 and 2 shows this formatting that allows for a heading: Code in Wordpad: <h2> Fluttering Pages!</h2> Which appears as: Fluttering Pages! in the browser page. Learning HTML in its basic form is very simple and straight forward, there are copious amounts of literature relating to it that anyone can understand. However, using HTML and designing a good webpage is very different. Having the tag skills and an idea of the general design of a webpage will help. You can code a website offline (such as the example in this body of work) and then transfer the files online (Shannon 2007). HTML can be considered to be the best friend of SEO when it comes to the digital playground. The key fundamental elements of SEO are to produce search engine friendly content with high quality links. Excellent writing and using a variety of synonyms for keywords are vital to rank well with search engines such as Google and Bing (Hanlon and Akins 2009). The content of your webpage should be high quality text with regularly updated content as this enables search engines to distinguish the good pages from the bad and the ugly pages. The h1 tag that was used in the above example is a strong tool of SEO as it tells search engines the main title of the page. This title should also appear in the main text body in order to optimise particular content and keywords (Hanlon and Akins 2009). It was also noted at the seminar that the eyes of the user go to the top left of the webpage first so this is where the main heading should appear, users do not like to scroll unnecessarily. The menu tab of a webpage should appear on the right as search engines read from top to bottom and from left to right and this will ensure that your main heading is searched first. Having a high amount of content rather than a high amount of code will also give your webpage a higher ranking (Hanlon and Akins 2009). Good, clean HTML is vital for SEO, a small amount of it combined with good quality text is what users and search engine prefer (Hanlon and Akins 2009). A digital marketer/businessperson needs to consider all of these factors in order to meet their client(s) and user needs. In order to make the most of the online applications available (such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin), having an understanding of the tools that create them can only be a good thing. Using your own vision and creating interesting campaigns in order to stand out from the crowd is vital. HTML is inherent ly linked to every aspect of the web, and its link to SEO is of particular relevance to every good marketing campaign.

References Books Hanlon, A. and Akins J. (2009) Digital Marketing: Answers to Your top 100 Digital marketing Questions. Rutledge Press. Online Journals Shannon, R. (2007) What is HTML? Cardinal Hayes. Available from:http://www.cardinalhayes.org/ourpages/auto/2007/11/2/1194008752794/what_is_html_ articles.pdf{Accessed on the 18th of March 2012} Websites Peach Pit. (2007) www.peachpit.com. Available from: http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=24021{Accessed on the 18th of March 2012 at 00.05}

Appendices Appendix 1 HTML code for basic webpage
<html> <head> <title> Reading the Best Books Around </title> </head> <body> <h1> Books falling from the Sky! </h1> <div style="width:400px"> <p> There are a number of contenders for the honor of bearing the title of "first printed book in the world." The answer to this question is actually quite tricky, because it depends on what one means by "printing," and historical evidence strongly suggests that the identity of the first book in print will probably never be known, because it's unlikely that it survived to the present day. There is also a great deal of cultural bias in the answer to this question, as authorities commonly cite Western texts such as the Gutenberg Bible, when in fact the title most likely belongs to a book in Asia. The question of which book in Asia is still up for grabs. </p> </div> <div> <div style="width:400px"> <h2> Fluttering Pages!</h2> <p align=right> <i>cultural bias<i/> <b>Gutenberg Bible</b> </p> </div> <div style="width:400px"> <h3> grabs </h3> <p align=justify> first printed book <i>in the world</i> </p> </div> <ul> <li> Books</li> <li> Flying</i> </ul>

<img src="flying books.jpg" alt="flying books" /> <p> More <a href="http://www.facebook.com/">Books falling from the Sky!</a> News! </p> </body> </html>

Appendix 2 Basic HTML Webpage Screenshots C:\Users\Grainne\Desktop\HTML\webpage.html