Lately I have been asked again and again, “What can I do to improve my rankings in Google?”. This is a bit of a loaded question, but one I always attempt to answer when I am dealing with anything search related.

I usually begin with a quick glance at the website using the 30 second test, a skim of the source code to view the semantics of the HTML and then check out the basic structure of the document and a few other technical bits here and there.

In most instances this process is just a formality as the real answer is usually quite obvious, Search Engine Useless content, or SEUs. Content that is invisible to the search engines that you are just throwing away, usually without being aware of the real consequences.

This content may be semantic and validate by W3C standards, it could even be fully accessible in some instances, but to search engines it means nothing. Search Engine Useless (SEU) content is something that plagues our industry and drives people to inquire, “Why isn’t my website getting exposure?”

Listed below are some of the most common offenders.

Iframes

Usually used on a website where you need to quickly pull in a 3rd parties content without the bother of dealing with server-side implementations. Stemming from quick deals established by sales departments that have little or no communication with developers or just the job that had to get out the door with no fuss.

The interesting thing is most of this content I encounter is very useful and engaging to the users, which would bring in relevant referral traffic if you could only expose the content.

Flash

Flash can be fully accessible when developed correctly with the new tools available over the last couple of years. It can even aid in screenreader detection in some instances, improving accessibility for websites.

Yet this accessibility, which would usually aid search engine optimisation efforts, will do nothing to help search engine spiders crawl Flash content.

The <embed> or <object> elements are the SEU offenders in this instance. Hiding good content in a plug-in that cannot be crawled by search engines. Alternate content can be offered, using great standards compliant techniques, but is rarely executed in a truly efficient or consistent manner.

AJAX

Often developed with improved interfaces for content delivery to users, but AJAX and JavaScript still tend to be used as blankets to cover content from search engines.

HIJAX has been coined as an accessible and searchable way of exposing content to the users (and search engines) but most current Web 2.0 implementations tend to ignore this idealistic technique of development.

Video and Audio

Engaging and a great way to present content but you won’t see it turn up in the search engine result pages unless you are going through Google Video. Transcripting is a great alternative but I have yet to see a corporation excited about this solution.

Lack of Content

If you don’t actually produce original content and lots of it… that could be strategy to think about. This is a problem I deal with regularly. No, FAQs and Terms & Conditions don’t count.

Why Can’t We Fix This?

It’s the bottom line that pushes these blind spots in content out to the users. It’s sales, advertising and marketing having to make targets each month without having a well thought out process to be able to implement things efficiently and being able to slow down and provide minimum standards for development on large, public websites.

It’s about SEO being the buzzword for quick results, until someone suggests long term solutions to make a real difference and solve the real problem and suddenly you don’t hear the topic brought up at meetings so much anymore.

We know the technical solutions, so why aren’t they being implemented? Well, it’s just easier to implement this way. No fuss, no problems with technical implementation or developers adding further bottlenecks to a deal that had to be out yesterday.

The Solutions Right Now

Education is always a big factor in reducing SEUs littering our industry. Slowly suggesting how to rebuild these SEU elements next time they redesign, rework or just have time to factor some of these elements that are hurting chances at returning great search results.

Having these methods and techniques as a slow mantra to be repeated at every opportune moment. This can slowly find it’s way into future builds and into future project plans without people even realising it.

One last solution is the optimisation of the actual page the SEU is embedded on. Optimising the usual page titles, meta-data and semantic headers that surround these elements. Also thinking about adding items such as introduction paragraphs, tags for users to contribute descriptive data and captions, summaries and anything else that may be relevant to the user.

It’s just small steps, but these can help to slowly eliminate one SEU at a time.