Question: Do dates in the URL of blogs or websites help determine freshness of the content or is it largely ignored? -Filipe Santos, NYC

Do website or blog URLs determine the freshness of the content?

To search engines, no, spiders crawl then index those pages which determines the freshness. To users, yes, users will look at the URL to determine out fresh that post is and see if it is relevant to what they are searching for.

I really like how Matt Cutts put this answer because I see bloggers trying to trick Google News or other blog news related websites and keep their post  at the top of the ‘most recent news’ list by constantly changing the date in the URL; honestly, it’s somewhat annoying.

However, Google does do a very good job determining the age of a blog post by caching it super fast and then caching every so often to check for new content and changes to that post. You will find the more popular one particular post is, the more that page will get cached. Frankly, I’ve found that changing the date in your post URL or changing URLs period is not a good practice and should be avoided – create the post and let Google do the rest.

Some Quick SEO Tips for Your URLs

1. Remember to create keyword rich URLs – static page & blog post URLs
2. Never put a date within a static page URL
3. Avoid long URLs – you want something simple and to the point
4. DON’T, I repeat DON’T have dynamic URLs
5. Avoid changing URLs often and if done be sure to use proper 301 redirects
6. Leverage your internal linking by linking to other pages within your website ie: link from blog post to static pages

Is a website designed with a CSS-based layout more SEO friendly tan a table-based layout? – Thomas, Cincinnati

Are table-based or CSS-based layouts better for SEO?

As Matt Cutts answered in our video above, Google does a good job to score them both alike however CSS is what almost everyone is leaning towards in this Web 2.0 era. Personally, I prefer CSS layouts over table-based for many reasons but mainly because I’ve found that Google crawls through a website more efficiently if utilizing a CSS-based layout.

On the other hand, there are tons of websites that have large amounts of nested tables in their layout and still rank #1 & #2 in SERPs. This is normally the case simply because those sites have been around for AGES and Google puts a ton of weight on websites that have been around for a long time with unique content.

Why use CSS-based layouts instead of table-based?

1. More Efficient - CSS-based websites load faster which provides a better user experience but it also is more efficient when spiders are caching your website. My overall recommendation is to ensure your website is as efficient as possible so spiders can cache your actual content rather than tons of HTML code, tables, etc.
2. Easier to Make Changes & Edits – CSS can make your website changes much faster and 100% simpler but as everything it requires a learning curve and is somewhat different than just nested tables and HTML styles.
3. CSS is Flexible – One of the greatest features of CSS is how flexible it is during the design process and adding new sections to your website – tables are truly of the past and CSS has taken the lead.

Header tag content gets more emphasis & carries more weight than other plain text, so proper usage & optimization are key to leveraging your header tags for better rankings. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when using header tags in your websites content.

We’ll use this sample piece of content to display examples of our tips in action.

1. Use Header Tags For Emphasis

As search engines crawl your page’s content they recognize & place emphasis on the content with-in header tags. Since content with-in a header tag receives more weight than other plain text on the page, you really want to make sure you are using them, and that your targeted keywords are supported there.

If  you’re using downloaded templates for a CMS like WordPress you’ll want to review the template to make sure it doesn’t have headers wrapped around something useless like an H1 around the site wide logo or H2′s around sidebar headings for instance.

• Break up large segments of content into smaller groups, separated by headers
• Use keywords in headers that are relevant to the content in the subsequent paragraphs

2. Use Appropriate Hierarchy

Additionally, search engines give the heaviest weight to the highest tag (H1 over H2) and lesser weight to subsequent tags (H3 less than an H2, H4 less than an H3 and so on). It’s important to keep this in mind when setting up or reviewing your site templates. Make sure you’re template doesn’t have an H1 wrapped around something useless like a site wide logo for instance.

• Use appropriate hierarchy / keep headers in proper order
  • Absolute hierarchy: H1 then H2, then H3, then H4 and so on
  • Relative hierarchy: H1 then H2, then H3, H3, H3, then H2, then H3, H3, H3
• Place H1 header high in the page content (generally before the post or body content begins)
• Review site templates for proper header tag order.

3. Limit Usage For Greatest Impact

Header tags should be used sparingly to bring emphasis only to the most relevant point of the pages content. SanctuaryOne recommends only utilizing the H1 header tag once per page. Other key points of content can be highlighted using H2 tags – but again this should be used sparingly to keep the emphasis effectively focused. Additional supportive points can be called out using H3, H4, H5 or even H6 headers as needed.

• Limit to 1 H1 headers per page
• Limit to 1 or 2 H2 headers per page
• Use H3, H4, H5, H6 sparingly for less important points
• Review your template, make sure its not putting emphasis on irrelevant content (common in sidebar headers)

4. H1 & Page Title Should Share Relevance

The context of the H1 header tag should be directly tied to the content of the page title. Both the H1 header tag and the page title should highlight the general point of the page’s content.

• Title and H1 should share a central relevant point
• Title and H1 should both be relevant to the page content
• Title and H1 should both contain your targeted keywords

5. Apply CSS Styles

Don’t be afraid to change up the look of your header tags with a little CSS magic. However, you will want to avoid using styles that try to trick search engines – avoid hiding header tag content using tricky CSS.

• Default heading tags are ungainly and can really change the look & feel of a website
• Apply appropriate CSS styles to header tags to get control of how they are displayed
• Avoid styling any content to be invisible to users (display:none, z-index:-1000, font-size: 1 etc)

Controlling the frequency, placement and content of your header tags allows you to influence what search engines place the most emphasis & weight on. Take control and make the most of your content with a little header tag optimization!

Header Tag Optimization Resources

Check out some additional resources related to header tag optimization.

• http://www.searchengineguide.com/stoney-degeyter/how-to-use-hx-tags-to-boost-page-perform.php
• http://www.searchengineguide.com/stoney-degeyter/please-stop-abusing-your-hx-tags-it-does.php
• http://www.saversites.com/seo/free-seo-guide/header-optimization/
• http://www.seobook.com/cleansing-seo-ignorance-public-seo-cesspool-one-blog-post-time
• http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors#on-page-keyword-specific-ranking-factors

More than one H1 on a page: good or bad? – Erin, south of Boston

Is more than one H1 header tag good or bad?

In short, bad!

There are two main reason why you should only have one <h1> header tag in place per page:

1. Better for SEO – I recommend having only one <h1> header tag per page and one <h2> header tag utilizing those two for your target keywords without keyword stuffing either of them. If you have more than two sections on one page, follow those up with <h3>’s and <h4>’s as needed and remember you can style them via CSS to look excatly like your <h1> and <h2>’s if you wish. Keep search engines and visitors in mind when using header tags.
2. Style – Header tags were created for style and anyone that’s been around web development at all knows that multiple h1′s on your page looks horrible when CSS is disabled – hence the reason why there are h2, h3, h4, etc. Don’t forget that you do have header tags beyond h1 & h2!

If you have a company logo on your site, what is the best way to include the text of the logo for SEO purposes? ALT tag, CSS hiding, or does it matter? – Richard M, Austrialia

Use ‘alt tag’ or CSS to label your logo?

In short, Yes, use the ‘alt tag’ or the alternative text tag to add text to your logo or any other image for that matter.

In detail, Search engines love to see alternative text being utilized in images and hate to see hidden text in any way, shape, or form. I recommend keeping your alternative text very simple and to the point around 3-4 words but remember to add some relevant keywords within your images alt text as well – always keep search engines in mind along with users.

Why use the ALT tag in your image?

1. It’s Search Engine friendly – search engines, especially Google, have gotten very smart at catching ‘black hat’ type SEO tricks and hate to see them in any part of your website. They do however love to see correct ways of optimization and will value your website higher in the long run if you do everything correctly. With that said, USE ALT TEXT because search engines love to see all images, including your logo, have them in place plus it does add value to your site.
2. Generate traffic from Image Search- I don’t know about you but I love Google Image Search and use it on a daily basis to find great, relevant images for my particular need. Supply your images with alternative text will give you that extra boost you might need for your images to start showing up in image search ultimately generating more traffic for you. Weather it’s a church website or a personal blog, always use alt text.
3. It’s Simple & Easy to use – I know that CSS hiding is NOT hard but neither is using the ALT tag in your images. In fact, it actually takes less time to add some good alternative text than it does hiding some text via CSS. Another cool feature about the alt tag is ANYONE CAN USE IT – that’s right, anyone! If you can add an image via HTML you can add alternative text (see below for reference). If your using a CMS (Content Management System) be sure to utilize the Alternative Text option – it’s super easy!

So, How do I add alt text to my images?

Easy, just use the codex below:

• <img src="boat.gif" alt="Big Boat" />

When adding an image just add the alt=” ” to your HTML and remember to put unique alternative text for each image between the ” “.