Free templates and on-page SEO

[sander k]

Lots of people use free templates for example for WordPress, but Google and other search engines prefer unique content and those free templates look all the same.
Isn't it better to buy a template or build your own, because that way your site will be more unique. With a free template all internal links look the same as well as H1, H2 headers.
For Google and the other search engines unique content is very important, so don't use a free template... right?

[Sain Cai]

Does altering an existing theme qualify as unique? For example I currently have 2 projects, both using wordpress template twenty-eleven: http://pfzonline.com/ & http://dragonthrone.namepad.net/

I altered the default template into my layout. Does this qualify as unique?

[sander k]

I am not sure.

I did read it in an ebook, I was wondering if it was true or not.

[ace2010]

i think that google look your content and not your site code

[sander k]

i think that google look your content and not your site code

It does look at the code too.
If it wasn't why should you make your sites xhtml + css valid?

[cliffordstoll]

i am agree with you, except of using the ready made templates you have to use the pre made template for better results ..

[happyman]

I'm going to research this because its a very good point. However, my first thoughts are that content should champion page structure - page structure is essentially the same for most sites and a logical page structure should not be penalised for being logical, i.e. logo and h1 at top with a paragraphs broken up by h2s. Its fair enough getting the style out of the way with CSS to speed up crawling the content and being xhtml compliant is like the cherry on the cake.

Still, we could do with some hard evidence to clarify whats what...

[sander k]

Still, we could do with some hard evidence to clarify whats what...

True, do you have any suggestions?

[cassiejmiller]

i think that google look your content and not your site code

Google still looks at your code but the only code that matters to search engines are your META Tags etc... Better set-up META Tags, description, title the right way for they will greatly affect your website's ranking.

[sander k]

Thats not true. Search engines still look at meta but it is no longer that important.
You should stay up-to-date.

[deanhills]

The ideal is probably to build one from scratch. The more up to date the code probably the better - such as HTML5. Only part that is a bit of a problem is that one has to use special scripts with HTML5 as HTML5 Websites aren't easily read by older versions of the browsers.

I also think the simpler the design the easier it must be for the bots to navigate the content. For that reason I also like HTML5 as it is much simpler code than previous versions of HTML.

I still think it is a good idea however to take an existing template and completely modify it. Particularly if one does not have time to do it from scratch. Or one could do one design from scratch and modify it for other Websites.

[ukseo]

most of the designers change a bit tot template and add some text to make it unique.

[sander k]

most of the designers change a bit tot template and add some text to make it unique.

You mean that they change the logo and footer, that won't help much.

[szenith1]

thanks for sharing a it , this is very useful for me i need it thanks

[optiple]

Actually Google read everything in your site like page contents, title description, site coding, etc. any violation considers as a plenty.

[FTPspace]

I do agree with OP, Im not sure that h1,h2 are that important anymore in Google search rankings. Thats just my opinion though.

[johnvaghela1987]

Thanks for your right guidance about of free template.

[sander k]

There are quite a few places to go on the web for free website design templates. However, not all templates are good for SEO

And your point is?

[cheersdial]

Lots of people use free templates for example for WordPress, but Google and other search engines prefer unique content and those free templates look all the same.
Isn't it better to buy a template or build your own, because that way your site will be more unique. With a free template all internal links look the same as well as H1, H2 headers.
For Google and the other search engines unique content is very important, so don't use a free template... right?


Don't even create the website for optimization,the website must be useful and valuable along with this seo it gets ranked automatically.....

[HostMafia]

using a common template should not decrease your ur seo, however,whatever template you use, the working and signature of wordpress are lawys quite common and visible, so if this is true that common templates decrease search position, than wordpress