Semantic Web Design
A buzz word right now on the web is semantic. Semantic coding is a way of helping machines better organize data and understand what the content is about. Semantic integration is also keeps code clean. HTML 5 will offer this, which is still a long way off, but HTML 5 will use new tags, such as <nav> which will hold navigation, <header> will hold headings, and <footer> will contain extra information, such as meta data and such.
Semantic integration can be used in standard HTML 4 using class names, which can help with SEO. So for a navigation section, use <div class="nav">, or for sections of content, use descriptive class names such as "col-1", rather than just left. This not only helps humans understand code, but search engines too. You can also nest such class names. So say if you wanted a sidebar section, you could use:
<div class="sidebar-right">
<div class="header"><h1>Example Title</h1></div>
<div class="content">Example content</div>
<div class="footer">Meta data, such as RSS, Twitter link</div>
</div>
Another way of describing data is RDF, or Resource Description Framework. A better way to explain RDF is to show an example, consider the following, say if you wanted to describe to search engines two records from a CD list:
| Title | Artist | Country | Company | Price | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Empire Burlesque | Bob Dylan | USA | Columbia | 10.90 | 1985 |
| Hide your heart | Bonnie Tyler | UK | CBS Records | 9.90 | 1988 |
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rdf:RDF
xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
xmlns:cd="http://www.recshop.fake/cd#">
<rdf:Description
rdf:about="http://www.recshop.fake/cd/Empire Burlesque">
<cd:artist>Bob Dylan</cd:artist>
<cd:country>USA</cd:country>
<cd:company>Columbia</cd:company>
<cd:price>10.90</cd:price>
<cd:year>1985</cd:year>
</rdf:Description>
<rdf:Description
rdf:about="http://www.recshop.fake/cd/Hide your heart">
<cd:artist>Bonnie Tyler</cd:artist>
<cd:country>UK</cd:country>
<cd:company>CBS Records</cd:company>
<cd:price>9.90</cd:price>
<cd:year>1988</cd:year>
</rdf:Description>
.
.
.
</rdf:RDF>
The code above may look alien, but this is how RDF code looks like.
Drupal 7 will integrate RDF as standard, which has been hyped as a big push towards semantic web, search engines such as Yahoo's Search Monkey already uses RDF data in search results. This maybe an advantage SEO-wise, maybe not right now, but certainly in the future.
Big Pepper can offer this right now to businesses, a web design company situated in Wakefield, near Leeds.