Randal Manthei
04-12-2006, 04:23 PM
While everyone knows that you code is much cleaner with a CSS, having all the style attributes tucked away in a single file as opposed to littered across your site, people have not taken the next step. Here it is:
Use SEM savvy keywords in the naming of classes in your CSS (Cascading Style Sheet).
When you begin to generate your CSS, you should also consider using valuable keywords to your business or products as the name of your classes.
For example, say you ran a chain of hotels in México. Instead of using a more tradition naming method to define your fonts in the CSS, use ones that are search engine marketing savvy.
Here is an example of a generically named CSS class:
.black12 {
font: 12px Helvetica, sans-serif;
text-decoration : none;
color: #000000;
}
Say this class defines the base font for all your pages throughout your site. It will appear in the <span> and <td> tags repeatedly in your code. Since it will be read by meta spiders indexing your page, you should rename the class to:
.hotels-mexico-b12 {
font: 12px Helvetica, sans-serif;
text-decoration : none;
color: #990000;
}
If you are just major resort, like in Cancun, you can be even more specific in your class naming scheme. This will help drive more qualified traffic to your website, as Mexico has resorts everywhere.
Here is an example of regional and business keyword phrase being used in the CSS:
.cancun-resort-b12 {
font: 12px Helvetica, sans-serif;
text-decoration : none;
color: #990000;
}
This little trick will help your site achieve a higher level of search engine optimization and help out in your organic search rankings. This is also a good way to include low tail keywords in your existing design. Since the greatest concern about this is keeping up with the naming scheme you employ, here is how I do it:
.cancun-resort-b12 {
font: 12px Helvetica, sans-serif;
text-decoration : none;
color: #990000;
}
The b stands for black and 12 stands for 12px. Say you had a header font which was red and 18px. Then the naming scheme would be:
.cancun-resort-r18 {
And to take it a step farther, each new class I attribute to the style of my page, I switch up the keywords. So I would use:
.cancun-hotel-r18 {
I am usually able to add in several keyword strings that I could not place anywhere else in the design without forcing it. Now, there is no reason to stop just at font and table styles. The same kind of dual naming scheme: keyword phrase+internal naming, can also be applied to Div and other type of classes.
And if you are using a spacer.gif as a design element, then I would highly suggest renaming spacer to your most valuable keyword string. In the example above, resort-in-cancun.gif would be the obvious choice.
Use SEM savvy keywords in the naming of classes in your CSS (Cascading Style Sheet).
When you begin to generate your CSS, you should also consider using valuable keywords to your business or products as the name of your classes.
For example, say you ran a chain of hotels in México. Instead of using a more tradition naming method to define your fonts in the CSS, use ones that are search engine marketing savvy.
Here is an example of a generically named CSS class:
.black12 {
font: 12px Helvetica, sans-serif;
text-decoration : none;
color: #000000;
}
Say this class defines the base font for all your pages throughout your site. It will appear in the <span> and <td> tags repeatedly in your code. Since it will be read by meta spiders indexing your page, you should rename the class to:
.hotels-mexico-b12 {
font: 12px Helvetica, sans-serif;
text-decoration : none;
color: #990000;
}
If you are just major resort, like in Cancun, you can be even more specific in your class naming scheme. This will help drive more qualified traffic to your website, as Mexico has resorts everywhere.
Here is an example of regional and business keyword phrase being used in the CSS:
.cancun-resort-b12 {
font: 12px Helvetica, sans-serif;
text-decoration : none;
color: #990000;
}
This little trick will help your site achieve a higher level of search engine optimization and help out in your organic search rankings. This is also a good way to include low tail keywords in your existing design. Since the greatest concern about this is keeping up with the naming scheme you employ, here is how I do it:
.cancun-resort-b12 {
font: 12px Helvetica, sans-serif;
text-decoration : none;
color: #990000;
}
The b stands for black and 12 stands for 12px. Say you had a header font which was red and 18px. Then the naming scheme would be:
.cancun-resort-r18 {
And to take it a step farther, each new class I attribute to the style of my page, I switch up the keywords. So I would use:
.cancun-hotel-r18 {
I am usually able to add in several keyword strings that I could not place anywhere else in the design without forcing it. Now, there is no reason to stop just at font and table styles. The same kind of dual naming scheme: keyword phrase+internal naming, can also be applied to Div and other type of classes.
And if you are using a spacer.gif as a design element, then I would highly suggest renaming spacer to your most valuable keyword string. In the example above, resort-in-cancun.gif would be the obvious choice.