It is no secret that these days the major search engines are examining the actual text content of websites like never before. The saying has always been 'content is king', but nowadays it's REALLY king. On the one hand, creating and laying out a document is an easy and natural thing for most people to do using a word processor. (If you need to know how to create Webpages using common word processing tools, you can download a free pdf file called "Creating_and_Hosting_Websites_Free.PDF" at the bottom of my website http://www.createafreewebsites.com/ that shows you step-by-step how to do it). On the other hand, the extraneous codes that word processing programs typically add to the html code of a webpage can move your content so far down your page (from a web spider's perspective) that the search engines will have a difficult to impossible time trying to figure out the important textual content of your page. The key, of course is to know what you can move/remove, and what you cannot. Of course you should always save your html file before every major new change you make, and view the page in your web browser. That way if you take out too much and whole page goes wonkie you can ditch the html file without saving it, and reload the last saved version. Doing this (hopefully) you should never have to start again from scratch. (For detailed instructions on how to edit the Html code for word processing-created webpages, see my webpage on the subject at <a href="http://www.WebHitCounterFree.com/">http://www.WebHitCounterFree.com/</a>). Here are some of the things I do with word processor (or other program) created webpages to make sure that my important content stays near the top of the html file: Here is an abbreviated sample of Html code generated by my word processor (Word 2000) for a fictitious webpage: (If you look closely, you will see that my actual content doesn't show up until about the last 10-15% of the page). Sample Code: <xmp> <html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"> <head> <meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"> <meta name=ProgId content=Word.Document> <meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 9"> <meta name=Originator content="Microsoft Word 9"> <link rel=File-List href="./My%20Fiji%20Vacation_files/filelist.xml"> <link rel=Edit-Time-Data href="./My%20Fiji%20Vacation_files/editdata.mso"> <!--[if !mso]> <style> v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} </style> <![endif]--> <title>My Fiji Vacation</title> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:DocumentProperties> <o:Author>Roy</o:Author> <o:Template>Normal</o:Template> <o:LastAuthor>Roy</o:LastAuthor> <o:Revision>1</o:Revision> <o:TotalTime>6</o:TotalTime> <o:Created>2006-11-11T18:23:00Z</o:Created> <o:LastSaved>2006-11-11T18:31:00Z</o:LastSaved> <o:Pages>1</o:Pages> <o:Lines>1</o:Lines> <o:Paragraphs>1</o:Paragraphs> <o:Version>9.2720</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> </xml><![endif]--> <style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} p.MsoTitle, li.MsoTitle, div.MsoTitle {margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Arial; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; font-weight:bold;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style> </head> <body lang=EN-US style='tab-interval:.5in'> <div class=Section1> <p class=MsoTitle>My Fiji Vacation</p> <p class=MsoNormal><![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p></p> <p class=MsoNormal><![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p></p> <p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600" o:spt="75" o:preferrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"/> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"/> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"/> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"/> <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"/> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"/> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"/> <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"/> <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"/> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"/> <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"/> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"/> <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"/> </v:formulas> <v:path o:extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect"/> <o:lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t"/> </v:shapetype><v:shape id="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75" style='width:255.75pt; height:192pt'> <v:imagedata src="./My%20Fiji%20Vacation_files/image001.jpg" o:title="tropical_island2"/> </v:shape><![endif]--><![if !vml]><img width=341 height=256 src="./My%20Fiji%20Vacation_files/image002.jpg" v:shapes="_x0000_i1025"><![endif]></p> <p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p></p> <p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p></p> <p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p></p> <p class=MsoNormal>My tropical vacation to Fiji was one of the most memorable experiences of my life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I went snorkeling, beach hopping, and explored the varied nightlife attractions that the island has to offer.</p> <p class=MsoNormal><![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p></p> <p class=MsoNormal><![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p></p> </div> </body> </html> </xmp> End of Sample Code Creating the layout was obviously very easy with my word processor, but my content was way too far down to be found easily by the search engines. Once I have edited the page in order to move my content as high up as possible, this is what my code now looks like: <xmp> <html><head><title>My Fiji Vacation</title></head> <body><p><center><h1>My Fiji Vacation</center></h1></p> <p><p><center><img src="image002.jpg"></center></p> <p><p><p>My tropical vacation to Fiji was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. I went snorkeling, beach hopping, and explored the varied nightlife attractions that the island has to offer.</p><p><p> </body> </html> </xmp> Believe it or not, this is actually the same webpage with all of the extraneous code removed! What I did in a nutshell: I removed anything in comments. This includes anything in between this code: <-- and this one --> This included the entire lengthy <span> section. (If it is a comment you wish to keep, consider moving it below your content so your content will be higher up on the page). Any code of: <p class=MsoNormal> (as long as there are no font changes in them) I changed to the simpler <p> </p> The lengthy center code: <p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'> I replaced with: <center> </center> Even headings such as: <html> and <body> I tried to move onto single lines, and removed all extra blank spaces between codes. You may ask why I don't create the webpage in html, using an html editor to begin with. Sometimes I do, but it is much easier to layout, move things around and tweak your page just right using a word processor. Remember, any way that you can move the content of your page up higher, the better it is for the search engines to understand what your page is all about.
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