Theme that takes advantage of H tags?

[Scrubmeister]

I'm not an SEO guru or anything close to it.

Have noticed while surfing forums that SMF themes don't appear to take full advantage of H tags?

Is there a reason for that?

Would it be practical to assign what those tags were on the main index or individual forums?

[Crip]

I'm just not sure about stuff like that Scrubby ?

[Scrubmeister]

Isn't that a function of the theme?

[Crip]

Yes sir, very well could be ? .. i just can't recall seeing it in making of Themes..?  Lol..

[Maxx]

At SMF you can Find a Meta Mod, that allows you to apply Description details and keywords ...this way you can play around with them to find what best fits your needs. But keep in mind that it sometime take weeks or months before you can tell how ell the changes will work!

You must also read up good on the SEO stuff because there many things things that may get you kicked out of Google and other search sites, One big problem people are having is the scams that guaranty links to your site, that just get you in trouble.

Best policy from the way I see it is.
Have other site links to you by exchanging links with them!
the other is Have you Title, description and keywords and content all relevant to each other.

Content of quality is also important.

One big mistake many make is having a site that's related to SMF and not geared toward something of interest of many.

There are many site to get help from by searching this stuff, but try avoid scams, and paying, because, against my advise I've been ordered to subscribe for other companies to paid ads, and they just did not work and are very pricey!

Best way is to study learn and do it yourself, unless you have lots of $$ the through!

regards,
Maxx

[Scrubmeister]

Great advice Maxx.

I have a metatag mod in place and have done a lot for SEO. I'll admit my topic isn't the most interesting. (professional cleaning)

Had read something recently about h tags and SMF. When I checked my site and others they were right. None of us were taking advantage of that. They are quite poor in fact.

Vbulletin forums seem to do well with search engines. Is there something they are doing with that software that helps? Some sites or themes have very good h tags.

I'm determined to stick with SMF so that isn't an issue. Just wondering.

[Scrubmeister]

I came across this video about Joomla h tags last night. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC6LX6Sa2Wo

The code she modifies looks like what we have in our index.template

Is this something we can do to SMF sites? I have not seen any SMF mods that modify the h tags in any way. I would like to change what shows for h1,2,3,4 tags. Its a very small thing but all the small things add up to better SEO results..............or so I heard. 

[ZarPrime]

There are just about as many opinions on whether using header tags to get better page rankings works as there are programmers.  Some theme authors use h1 tags and some don't.  SMF uses them on their default theme but Crip doesn't use them.  Why?  Because, IMHO, it really doesn't make a difference.

Scrubby, you might want to have a look at this site and read what it it has to say, specifically #4 ...

16 SEO Tactics That Will NOT Bring Targeted Google Visitors

#4 looks like this ...

Header Tags Like H1 or H2: This is another area people spend lots of time in, as if these fields were created specifically for SEOs to put keywords into. They weren't, and they aren't. They're simply one way to mark up your website code with headlines. While it's always a good idea to have great headlines on a site that may or may not use a keyword phrase, whether it's wrapped in H-whatever tags is of no consequence to your rankings.

Here is another interesting site concerning header tags ...

How To Use H1-H6 HTML Elements Properly

Here is a quote from that site that I also found interesting ...

Search Engines Love H1 Elements – We Think!

It has been argued that the main search engines pay more attention to H1 elements these days, so you might want to consider this when creating your pages, and include your best keywords in it. While the THEORY is sound, there is little actual evidence that H1-H6 headings improve SEO (For Google).

ZarPrime

[Scrubmeister]

I agree that there are a lot of opinions out there and that SEO is a fluid thing.

Google has a channel at Youtube (Webmastertools). I spent over an hour there and could have spent more. Lots of good tips.

Also downloaded this Search Engine Optimization guide for beginners at Google. http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en/us/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf

On page 20 they mention the h tags. If it wasn't used at all then why would they mention it?

One thing struck me while watching some of the videos on Youtube...........A factor in the video PLUS 200 other factors determine page rank. This was stated on several different videos.

Not sure that anyone other than Google knows what the 200 other factors are? 

I think SEO for the average site owner is doing all the things we can to cover what Google says they look for. These tags are only one small piece of the puzzle for sure.

[Maxx]

Well, I have placed Corporation sites from CA. to Singapore in the top position for the keywords they wanted, although it has been so time now, that I've done this for anyone, but as I mention so many time before to everyone, there is no sure way to get you site up high in all keywords or in some cases any of you keywords... this depends on many many factor and as I've stated before again the content relevant to the site tittle and description is the most import of all these things and have good content that the peeps are looking for.


You can Buy and try all kinds of trick and schemes and even pay top dollar for placement but if your content, is not needed by many you will lose. ( Big problem now days also is that if it hot then everyone is doing it... so that makes it even harder to get place high even for short period of time.

This stuff takes allot of trail and error and waiting and constant attention and care, it's full time job.

using the proper meta tags and content and are very important, but there is no quick fix or solution to this and most all tactics that are publicized are those that have worked in the past, and are now being used by way to many. you can bet if someone has a great way they'd not publicly announce this. so we back to trial error, and experiment with what you think is best to try, and also try to see what the other sites are doing to get there position. (just get and idea don't copy)!

and remember anything you do now may not show up for months or sometime at the very least!
watch study and learn is the best way to start experimenting!
Don't through any money away, even big companies are complaining their ads are not paying!!

regards,
Maxx