Belajar SEO, Web Standards and Usability-based Techniques
June 20, 2008 – 01:03 by Dani IswaraBelajar SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a term which I found on the web. They talk about SEO practices to increase SERPs ranking, traffic and money. I guess it is not that easy or difficult. Actually, I don’t understand the meaning of ‘true’ SEO from the SEM point of view. In my opinion, it shouldn’t just a tricky way, simple keyword research and analysis, emphirical study — personal point of view, Google guessing, buying links..but who knows..
Why don’t they start from the web standards, accessibility, usability techniques that delivered useful content / services for human (and machine too)? Who is your blog’s visitors / viewers or who is your targeted end users?
- Humans
There are people with vision impairment, color blind, totally blind, elderly people, people with disabilities, mobile (device) users, bandwidth-aware users and users on slow Internet connection. - Machines
People may come through web / online search engines e.g. Google, Yahoo, MSN / Live.com. Some of them use screen readers or voice browsers, touch-screen browsers, modern and (W3C) standards compliant browsers such as Opera, Firefox (Gecko-based: Mozilla, Flock, Swiftfox, Iceweasel, etc), Safari (Webkit-based: Konqueror). Most of users still use an old and non-standards compliant browsers such as Internet Explorer (IE 5, IE 6). Don’t forget people on Linux machines with no proprietary fonts (MS fonts;msttcore-fontsis available to resolve this problem). The rest are feed readers, small screen devices, printers, projectors and label-filtered softwares.
I’ll updated if I missed something..
Based on those principals, here are some important things. The web pages should:
- viewable
- navigable
- accessible
- useable
- useful
Some concept has already posted on Dani Iswara .Net blog titled Belajar SEO dan Aksesibilitas Web in Bahasa Indonesia.
Understanding User Needs to Learn SEO
In more detail we can say:
First impression, overall design look with the proper graphic design and fast loading (remember of file sizes, http request, compression) will make user to stay and decided to browse deeper. Displayed properly on all browsers with any screen resolution (wide and small screen) is suggested. Use plugin if needed.
Consistent and accessible navigation links are a must. Provides text links, not just image or javascript-based. User’s eye will be more comfortable with the artistic color schemes and safe color contrast. Visually impairment users will read and suggest text (within the text content) with the underline as a link. People with disabilities (who can’t use mouse) will use tab keys (keyboard access keys) to move within the links or sections. Changing color on focusing and hovering (:focus, :hover; CSS code) will be useful. Links should have a relevant content and describes clearly, not just “click here”. Web safe fonts (e.g. sans-serif, serif, monospace), left aligned and resizeable text are more usable as the best practice on the web.
Readers (human) usually don’t have a time to read a ‘book’ or long content on the online web pages, especially for user with time-based Internet connection. Some user will choose to save the page. Remember that several characters on title or post title are difficult to save. Try to save the post title that contains the separator: ยป, @, | and -. The last two (with space in words) is most useful in SEO but ” - ” (single dash) is more usable, I guess..
Users will use a kind of fast reading techniques like scanning and skimming. See Standar Web, Membaca Cepat, SEO in Bahasa Indonesia.
Here we need semantic X/HTML correctly markup. See Semantik XHTML, Aksesibilitas, SEO (Indonesia). Some special text such as title, h1, h2-h6, strong text, emphasized, anchor links, first and last sentences or paragraphs will be helpful to catch the main idea of the web pages. Efficient keywords as special text will be useful for search engine crawlers. Webagogo use those rules on their SEO score and ICRA label for the web safe content. More detail on Catatan Analisis Blog versi Webagogo (Indonesia). Search engine crawlers are as blind as screen readers. Always provides alternative text (e.g. alt, descriptive text) for images, animation, user / client-side script (javascript; use noscript code if possible) and multimedia content such as flash, sound, MP3, video, map, etc.
In the long term, Belajar SEO using web standards, semantic X/HTML, web accessibility / usability has the advantage (positive ’side effect’ or bonus): backward compatibility with the web browser / screen reader technology, better Google’s PageRank and SERPs.
Help readers (and machines) to understand the quality content. Then you can receive money natural backlinks fairly.. 
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Last updated: Sunday, February 22, 2009 at 9:11
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Comment by Annie on June 20, 2008 at 10:52:33
Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.8 on 
Windows XP
using
hmmm…. annie mo coba tapi lom ngerti juga…:(
Comment by imsuryawan on June 20, 2008 at 12:22:42
Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.14 on 
Windows XP
using
kok tadi error pas mau isi komen?
Comment by Deni Pradana on June 20, 2008 at 14:53:06
Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.14 on 
Windows XP
using
it’s like compare and balancing for both human and machine language (cmiiw). some procedure is still difficult for people’s like me, about technique languages such as convert HTML to XHTML, CSS 1.0 to CSS 2.0, i need a little time, i guess. but, i’ll try, step by step
for better blog, i was repaired some TITLE=”" and ALT=”" and the result is.. not bad 
mas Dani, thanks for your information, very useful for me. money?? hee.. hee..
keep sharing!
Comment by dani on June 20, 2008 at 15:21:52
Opera 9.50 on 
Linux
using
- Annie:
perlu ngga perlu, bole kok dicoba kapan2..
- imsuryawan:
mungkin yg input identitas komen itu ya bli..
- Deni Pradana:
there are many tips n tricks to convert your graphic design to standards compliant X/HTML and CSS..try Google..
title,alt, semantic and meaningful h1-h6 on the post are more than enough for wp.com blog..Comment by Deni Pradana on June 20, 2008 at 16:20:37
Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.14 on 
Windows XP
using
ic, txs
Comment by Deddy on June 22, 2008 at 20:01:13
Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.14 on 
Windows XP
using
For me, SEO is too complicated… Sometime I just think that maybe internet world is better without SEO…
Comment by dani on June 22, 2008 at 21:29:12
Mozilla Firefox 3.0 on 
Linux
using
- Deni Pradana:
ur welcome
- Deddy:
can you imagine that the great content with no h1-h6, just plain, with many backlinks..rank higher on google..
or almost no great content..just 1 short paragraph which is an excerpt from the other not-so-popular sites..rank higher on serps..
ya agree with you..send to trash bin for the ‘tricky’ seo..
Comment by Halim - Belajar SEO on June 25, 2008 at 00:21:13
Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.14 on 
Windows XP
using
Saya juga masih belum mengerti sama itu seo, agak sukar kerana sumber utamanya semua dari english.
Comment by dani on June 25, 2008 at 08:22:06
Mozilla Firefox 3.1a1pre on 
Linux
using
- Halim – Belajar SEO:
apalagi saya..selamat berlomba..nanti bagi2 tipsnya ya..
Comment by belajar seo on June 25, 2008 at 10:32:53
Internet Explorer 7.0 on 
Windows XP
using
i love organic traffic. thats why “belajar seo” is important
. just my 2 cent
Comment by Dani Iswara on June 26, 2008 at 00:24:50
Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.14 on 
Linux
using
- belajar seo:
mmm..another participant..u should share your seo tips
Comment by Pandu on July 2, 2008 at 12:31:59
Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.14 on 
Windows 2000
using
Belajar SEO itu ternyata tidak gampang. Butuh kesabaran dan kejelian. Kalo salah menerapkan, bisa-bisa malah kena penalty. Makasih atas sharingnya, Om…
Comment by Dani Iswara on July 9, 2008 at 10:15:15
Mozilla Firefox 3.0 on 
Linux
using
- Pandu:
kalo ketatnya google dan mesin pencari lainnya jd memudahkan pengguna, ya.. enak jg ya..
Comment by Mr. Khairilhusni on July 13, 2008 at 11:45:23
Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.15 on 
Windows Vista
using
susah juga ya pak mau belajar seo
Comment by dani on July 13, 2008 at 11:53:41
Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.15 on 
Linux
using
- Mr. Khairilhusni:
lbh susah lg kalo ternyata yg kita optimasi jd krg sreg bagi pembaca..ya itu tugas google dan mesin pencari jg kan..
selamat berlomba..
Comment by Devid Haryalesmana on August 31, 2008 at 08:57:16
Mozilla Firefox 3.0 on 
Windows XP
using
Wuihh…situsnya kayaknya banyak scriptnya! Tapi sayang desaignnya membosankan mas! Hehehe… Maap loh! Numpang lewat doank!
Comment by Dani Iswara on August 31, 2008 at 16:52:32
Mozilla Firefox 3.0.1 on 
Gentoo Linux
using
- Devid Haryalesmana:
alo mas devid..emangnya knapa mas..lambat aksesnya ya..mungkin di server-nya lg trouble kemarin2 ini..kl script sptnya ngga jg..bs dicek di www dot websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/index.html
blog jelek saya ini ngga ada javascriptnya malah..
cuman x/html+css terkompresi..
iya nih mas..bosen jg saya..ngga bs desain weblog soalnya..baiknya gemana ya mas devid..
Comment by anton on September 22, 2008 at 04:19:59
Mozilla Firefox 3.0.1 on 
Windows XP
using
Maaf mas saya tidak begitu tahu dengan bahasa inggris. Jadi tidak begitu mengeti arti tulisan..
Comment by @del on January 10, 2009 at 02:06:27
Opera 9.23 on 
Windows XP
using
SEO is important for web and financial. Sure, we have a blog or web for getting popularity to introduce product. So, THAT is IMPORTANT
Comment by dani on January 10, 2009 at 08:00:08
Mozilla Firefox 3.0.5 on 
Gentoo Linux
using
- @del:
actually I don’t know SEO exactly
afaik, it is related to visitors
in other words, it’s kind of SEO experts vs search engines (Google)
Comment by Evyta on February 10, 2009 at 07:50:32
Mozilla Firefox 3.0.6 on 
Windows XP
using
Actually what you wrote above are all SEO techniques. That’s why I say that SEO is very wide fields. SEO is naturally backlinks (because if it’s not natural, google doesn’t like it). SEO is good and usefull contents, good design, easy to read. SEO is science, using algorithm and calculation, statistic, etc.
There are ethical and un-ethical technique in SEO. Some people use un-ethical doesn’t mean that SEO isn’t usefull, don’t make it general for all. Most of people use white hat SEO, ethical one. And this is very usefull for many people. Actually we should learn more about SEO, so that we can say another perspective about it from all side
Comment by Dani Iswara on February 10, 2009 at 08:14:11
Mozilla Firefox 3.0.6 on 
Gentoo Linux
using
- Evyta:
I guess SEO should be based on web standard, accessibility, and usability…then, the rest maybe we need a truly SEO
Ya, I’ve read some negative talks about SEO, they are spamming search engines with a non-ethical way, and there is google against them