Semantic website coding is not one of my hobbies. Search engine optomization is of special interest to me though. Search spiders cannot read your minds business owners, come on now. They also have a hard time reading images and flash, they are pretty though (images and flash not search spiders). And the question I have had answered recently is how a search engine categorizes website's content? How will Google know what me, the owner or you, the designer want to prioritize for the search results and the consumer/viewer. Here is an awesome link going over what is coming as far as RDFA.
What does this mean to the business owner interested in SEO? Search Engine Optimization is the term for how your website speaks to the search engines. Do you want to tell the search engines what you want them to think or let them figure it out? In the sales and marketing field I have learned that the outcome is better when you organize your results into a well defined-concise suggestion and then threaten someone. I am getting bored it is time for a joke. Is this the new Internet Explorer 7 website? » IE7.com. Wow, I laughed so hard my @Twitter name tag fell off.
On the serious note, it is all about context. If the search spiders understand how to categorize your titles and links, then they will know if it is the name of the author, the name of the company, physical location. Instead of your code generically saying that this is my header and this is my text (I can't get this tune out of my head..."header, nose, knees, and text...knees and text") you can explain that it is an article written by "Joe Cool" about "Semantic Web Design and SEO". Now this blog post has a lot to do with seo and a little to do with semantic website design. If you are interested in reading more about the design and application side I suggest you read posts' by Kyle and look forward to posts by Rusty, follow them on twitter accordingly. Them and the other's here at Mindfly can explain these things technically but I can help you get in the door, or at least knock - get ignored by Pandorans (wikipedia coming soon), or get chased off by cyber dogs.
What does all this have to do with Internet marketing? When a search spider scans your website they can easily and quickly digest what your content is and organize it accordingly. So that when you drop the style sheet or look at your website on your iPhone it doesn't look like Picasso designed it. What that means for your search results, is that when I am searching for an article on "Semantic Web Design and SEO" the search spiders are like, "Here yah go buddy article written by "Joe Cool"". It is an assurance for them (them being Google) that you (you being the Googler) are getting exactly what you (you being the Googler) are searching for (for being my article). So then i don't have to write "blog post" in my lemming-zombie-ghost text a bunch of times so that Google knows that this is a blog post or relates to one. All in all, you can separate the painting from the structure of the website like a funny car. When the spiders come and get you (which they will) they will know exactly what you want read on your site and how you want it read technically and semantically, which helps big time for SEO. On the flip side, a talented designer from an awesome web design studio in beautiful Bellingham Washington can slide in and paint a portrait of your company to impress the critics and get your fans to do the wave.
Here is a great link defining semantics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantics.
Being on the internet marketing side of the website business I do not dive too deep into what is going on behind the scenes, as not to drown (with boredom). I guess I have always assumed that something like this was in place for web design. You know what assumption does, you and me buddy. Anyways, I have to finish this post. As the person who’s job it is to explain how the website will work and what it will do for an unsuspecting business owner it gives me great confidence to know that our designers and developers here at Mindfly are doing it right once, right the first time. A website built with semantics in mind has legs, it will make you more money, and be sustainable for years to come which will save you more money. Second to last Joke. Last Joke. Lied.
