Basic Logo/Business Name SEO Best Practices Question

Hi, I am wondering what people feel the best practice for SEO is in this relatively common circumstance...

On the main page of a site (only) and given that:

1. Primary keyword is "Lorem Ipsum"
2. Secondary keyword is "Lorem Ipsum Dolor"
3. The business name is "Sit Amet"
4. The business name is to be displayed as an image rather than text
5. This is html5

What html/css structure do people feel is best practice for SEO? I've seen people here and elsewhere recommending just about everything under the sun.

What I've always used (no clue if it's totally stupid or not):


and then use css to replace the <h1> text with an image (of the business name, "Sit Amet").

I've seen people use things like:

or

and then use css to replace the <h1> and the <h2> / <p> text with an image.

On internal pages the h1 switches off to the page/post title leaving something like:


with css replacing the <p> text and link with an image and link and then using a footer link with "Lorem Ipsum" back to the main page.

Just hoping to get some folks with some expertise give to best practice advice...Thanks!

Alan,

I wouldn't worry so much about what language your site is programmed in as long as the site is crawlable by Google and other search engines. As long as search engine bots can crawl the site you will be fine.

More on that topic,

http://blog.diyseo.com/2011/02/seo-basics/

Hope that helps,

Shawn

Thanks Shawn.

Wasn't worrying so much about the language, I was just using "Lorem ipsum sit amet" placeholder text for the example.

What I guess I'm trying to ask is is there a best way to structure the html of logo area on the first page to maximize SEO benefit?

Most businesses I work with on site design have a name that has little to do with their target keyword. For example, the business name might be something like "Bob's Cooling," and the business will have an image they want to use for their logo. But the primary keyword that the business is interested might be something like "air conditioning." I run into this situation with many small businesses I do sites for.

I use HTML5 (and I get that that has no real bearing on anything beyond the html structure of the example).

I'm just not certain if there's any benefit, or for that matter penalty, to using one of these code styles versus another in order to get a business listed for a giving keyword:

Using Bob's Cooling and air conditioning, does anyone have any advice on which of these code structures is best on the main page, when trying to rank for "air conditioning"? Note that the image will be a logo that says Bob's Cooling or something.

Example 1: Image logo via CSS replacement with business name in H1 tag

Example 2: Image logo via CSS replacement with keyword in H1 tag

Example 3: Image logo with <img> in H1 and business in alt text

Example 4: Image logo with <img> in H1 and keyword in alt text

Example 5: A Combination of the above techniques such as (where the text is hidden via css and only the image shows)

I have seen each of these forms recommended on different sites by different "experts" -- but there seems to be no consensus. Just trying to see if anyone here has an informed opinion. Thanks again.

Of course maybe I should just use an <a> tag (or something other than h1) in the <header> and put the <h1> down in the body around the keyword like this...

In short, think of h-tags as structural elements that describe the topics and subtopics of your page. With CSS, you can control their appearance, and depending on your content, you may not even need to differentiate them from the rest of the text on the page.

Best practice is as follows:

Reserve your h1 for the main topic of the page (I.e. main keyword)

H2 is a subtopic within the h1 main topic (i.e. a secondary keyword which is not significant enough to warrant its own page)

H3 Would be a subpoint within the h2 topic (I.e. long tail)

And so on and so-forth.

This gives your content structure and helps G to better understand the flow of the content of the page

Site/business name should be contained in an image in order to free up the h1 to contain the topic of the page. No point in having the name of your business as the h1 on every page.. It's a waste of an important structural element.

I wouldn't over stress the logo optimization...


should do just fine.