I want to make my code better [for search engines]

[nigelh70638339]

Hello,

I have used this forum a numbr of times only after looking online for myself. So after hours of trawling and trying I have to post here.

I have some text on a page of my website that I want to be better formatted and have certain words more visible to search engines. I have taken a few screenshots of both the code and the CSS that I am using for this piece of the page.

The words I want to highlight are Dubreq, Waddingtons and FX Schmid.

Any help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

[Ben M]

CSS formatting has nothing to do with search engines seeing the content of your page.  Search engines only see the source code.  You need to look into tools like Moz, SEMRush, Ahrefs, etc. to help with your SEO or at the very minimum something like Google Webmaster Tools ( https://search.google.com/search-console/ ).

[nigelh70638339]

Hi Ben,

Yes I use the Google  search console and it shows that out of 4,000+ pages there are just over 2,000 that arent being indexed and wanted to do something about it.

I know CSS doesnt do anything in regards to SEO and searches but wanted to highlight those words. My belief is that using H tags etc are important. 

Thanks!

[Jon Fritz]

Heading tags can help the search engines decide what's important, much like the old outlines we had to do in grade school: <h1> is your main focus (used once), <h2> are your main supporting points, <h3> are sub headings to those, and so on.

However, nothing is more important than your actual html text content, no matter how you structure it.

On the page you gave us, there's a single sentence and a small list. As far as search engines care, that's essentially empty. Without far more, relevant content for the algorithms to grab on to, there's just not enough there to garner a top listing no matter what you do with the html structure. 

[Ben M]

Hi Ben,

Yes I use the Google  search console and it shows that out of 4,000+ pages there are just over 2,000 that arent being indexed and wanted to do something about it.

I know CSS doesnt do anything in regards to SEO and searches but wanted to highlight those words. My belief is that using H tags etc are important. 

Thanks!

By @nigelh70638339

As Jon eluded to, H tags, or headings, don't highlight anything as being important and they certainly don't style even though they are often styled with CSS by default.  The core of HTML is having a properly structured page much like a novel in that you have a title, chapter headings and subheadings, and copy.  All of these play an important role.

When you say you have over 4,000 pages, I worry that Google is not crawling to the depths of your site likely because it's not relevant or buried so deep that it won't crawl that far down. At that amount of pages, you should invest in a tool like the ones I mentioned previously to look into your SEO at a deeper level.  One page not ranking for a particular topic, might have less to do with the page and it might be more closely related to the overall authority of your domain to rank for a brand new piece of content.  And another factor that goes into this is how your site renders on mobile devices.  Unfortunately there are so many factors that go into ranking that I don't think you are going to find a simple answer to your question.

[Nancy OShea]

All things being equal  -- proper HTML syntax, mobile friendly site, plenty of search-relevant, keyword-rich content, sitemap.xml, etc... -- how much are you spending on Google & Bing ads? 

Little known fact:  Google favors sites that pay for Google Ads, not a lot but a little.  And your site will get indexed quicker with paid ads than it will without them.

In the absence of organic site ranking, the best way to drive new traffic to sites is with paid search ads.  When people search for your targeted keywords, they often see you on page 1 results alongside your competitors.  The higher your ad budget, the more impressions you get.  The lower your ad budget, the fewer impressions you get.  Adjust your ad budget accordingly. 

Your search advertising strategy is important too: 

• Are you getting the greatest return from your investment (ROI)?
  https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/14090?hl=en
• Are you targeting the best geographic regions and the best keywords based on what people search for?
  https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1722043?hl=en
  https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/

The second best thing you can do is post relevant videos on YouTube which Google also indexes. 

Social media comes third.  What you post on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc will drive traffic to your site, particularly if your pages are properly coded with OpenGraph meta tags.

https://ahrefs.com/blog/open-graph-meta-tags/

Hope that helps.

[B i r n o u]

I don't really agree with the idea of having to pay to place a meaningful SERP.

Of course, all things considered, depending on the sector of activity in which the site operates ... real estate, finance, trade, in short, growth markets ... the task will be harder, and will require a more experienced knowledge... but this is not unattainable

Let's take a simple example of what I mean, and I would like you all to contribute to it... let's take an article on accessibility ... sorry it is written in French and so probably the demo won't work from your own country...  https://www.puce-et-media.com/aria-les-bases-roles-reperes-etats-et-proprietes/

This is an article from 2017... so it's quite old... and as I said it's in French which may cause some trouble if you are based in Australia, the United States or even Europe, but not in France...anyway... I will give snapshots

Let's put ourselves in the shoes of a person who is looking for information on the aria-checked and/or aria-pressed state or properties. (I agree it's a tiny market, but anyhow Dubreq, Waddingtone, FX Schmid puzzle, doesn't return tons of results on single keywords... so that's more or less the same type of usecase and far under the present exemple.

Dubreq

Waddingtons

FX Schmid Puzzle

aria-checked

So the main point is to try to understand what our content talk about and how it can be helfull to the users for whom it is intended.

It is therefore important, even essential, to ask ourself as a content contributor, how to help the user with this content, and how it can help him.
From this analysis, and with the precious help of Google Trends (among others) https://trends.google.com/trends/,  we will be able to refine the request to enter, or formulate, by the concerned users... which could be for our current example... sorry it's in French 😞

accessibilité états propriétés aria-checked aria-pressed

So here is the verdict... the page comes up :

third on Google,

fifth on Bing

and fifth on Duck Duck Go...

Nothing was paid for... no ads were subscribed... but a mix of what mostly @Jon Fritz  and @Ben M said...

common sense, appropriate content, and I will add a pre analysis of Google Trends ... are all very usefull to get a nice SERP.

[L e n a]

A new plugin should be used soon to allow auto-translation, but already and although old, by using translate or deepl, you can glean some additional information to what has been said by @Jon Fritz , @Ben M and @B i r n o u ... by reading some posts https://www.puce-et-media.com/category/structure-et-contenu/referencement/

[nigelh70638339]

Thank you everyone, it has been a learning curve indeed! I will need to concentrate harder on content then.

The site if anyone is interested in is www.ultimate-top-trumps.co.uk. It is in the kids market of games and so I am up against all of the games producers and retailers. Its a labour of love listing my collection and info from other helpful sources. Being disabled and so on benefits its impossible to pay for services and if I can would love to do it myself and your answers have been very helpful.

Thank you all for your wise words and guidance!