| Meta tags are not the complete answer to the | | | | creatively as to what keywords people would use if |
| question of "How do I improve my search engine | | | | they were looking for goods or services that your |
| ranking?" they can help with some search engines. | | | | site offers. |
| Since there are millions of pages with Meta tags, you | | | | Keywords and Description |
| can add all the pages you want and still not control a | | | | Two Meta tags that are important are KEYWORDS |
| sizeable percentage of the pages on the World Wide | | | | and DESCRIPTION. You have to be very careful |
| Web. | | | | about how these are developed and positioned. |
| What are Meta tags? | | | | Frequency and location of the keyword that is being |
| They are information inserted into the "head" area of | | | | searched are important criteria that determine |
| your web pages. Other than the title tag, information | | | | relevance and hence page ranking. The search engine |
| in the head area of your web pages is not seen by | | | | would generally consider the page more relevant if |
| those viewing your pages in browsers. Instead, Meta | | | | the keyword that is being sought is in the TITLE tag |
| information in this area is used to communicate | | | | or is in the KEYWORDS tag near the top of the |
| information that a human visitor may not be | | | | page. Similarly if the sought after keyword is found |
| concerned with. Meta tags, for example, can tell a | | | | being repeated in the page, it may give the |
| browser what "character set" to use or whether a | | | | impression that this is a more relevant page and |
| web page has self-rated itself in terms of adult | | | | improve ranking. |
| content. | | | | There is a caveat, though. The above is only a |
| Meta tags may help you with some search engines, | | | | general rule that has been often followed by many |
| so you'll want to consider adding them to every page | | | | search engines, but then there are many variants to |
| you create. On the other hand, you can find many | | | | it. Several players in the SEO industry have tried to |
| highly ranked web pages without Meta tags. For | | | | proclaim that this is the gospel truth and hence it has |
| example, Meta tags have no effect on how humans | | | | spawned a large number of experts that suggest and |
| will view your pages and enter your information into | | | | resort to keyword stuffing and spamming (repeating |
| directories like Yahoo. | | | | long strings of keywords). |
| Titles | | | | The result can often be just the opposite. Some |
| Use Keywords In Page Titles | | | | search engines penalize pages that have keyword |
| It is recommended to use keywords in page titles | | | | spamming. Some will just ignore these pages. Some |
| itself. This title tag is different from a Meta tag, but | | | | engines also do not read Meta tags. The intelligent |
| it's worth considering it in relation to them. Whatever | | | | method today is to stay away from spamming and |
| text one places in the title tag (between the opening | | | | to use tags judiciously. Blend your technique to attain |
| 'title' tag and closing 'title' tag portions) will appear in | | | | the right frequency and location, but stay away from |
| the title bar of browsers when they view the web | | | | any excess or spamming. |
| page. Some browsers also append whatever you put | | | | You can provide an in-depth list of words and |
| in the title tag by adding their own name, as for | | | | phrases in the KEYWORD Meta tag. These words |
| example Microsoft's Internet Explorer or OPERA. | | | | should have some relevance to the specific page or, |
| The actual text you use in the title tag is one of the | | | | at least, to your website. While you can vary the |
| most important factors in how a search engine may | | | | case of the keywords, you'll want to concentrate on |
| decide to rank your web page. In addition, all major | | | | the lower case because over 90% of the searches |
| web crawlers will use the text of your title tag as | | | | either use lower case or are conducted on search |
| the text they use for the title of your page in your | | | | engines that are not case sensitive. |
| listings. | | | | These keywords should contain variations on the |
| If you have designed your website as a series of | | | | same theme. If your site was about gardening, you |
| websites or linked pages and not just a single Home | | | | could use garden, gardening, home and garden, home |
| Page, you must bear in mind that each page of your | | | | gardening, vegetable garden, and herb garden. These |
| website must be search engine optimized. The title of | | | | are all words that might be used in searches for |
| each page i.e. the keywords you use on that page | | | | information that your site might provide. The |
| and the phrases you use in the content will draw | | | | keywords Meta tag is not intended to replace the |
| traffic to your site. | | | | actual text on your website. This tag is simply to aid |
| The unique combination of these words and phrases | | | | the spider in collecting accurate information about |
| and content will draw customers using different | | | | your web pages. |
| search engine terms and techniques, so be sure you | | | | The DESCRIPTION tag is used by search engines like |
| capture all the keywords and phrases you need for | | | | Inktomi for the page summary that is displayed on |
| each product, service or information page. | | | | the results page. This summary is what the visitor will |
| The most common mistake made by small business | | | | read and decide whether he/she wishes to enter |
| owners when they first design their website is to | | | | your site. If the description is just full of repeated |
| place their business name or firm name in every title | | | | keywords, it won't do you any good, even if your |
| of every page. Actually most of your prospective | | | | page is ranked high. You still do not have a visitor. |
| customers do not bother to know the name of your | | | | May be you have put off a visitor. |
| firm until after they have looked at your site and | | | | Meta Robots Tag |
| decided it is worth book marking. | | | | This is probably the only other prominent Meta tag. |
| So, while you want your business name in the title of | | | | This is a very peculiar tag in the sense that it |
| the home page, it is probably a waste of valuable | | | | indicates what web pages should not be indexed by |
| keywords and space to put it in the title line of | | | | Search Engines. The Robots tag is inserted in |
| every page on your site. Why not consider putting | | | | between the header tags. |
| keywords in the title so that your page will display | | | | By default, a crawler will try to index all your web |
| closer to the top of the search engine listing. | | | | pages and will try to follow links from one page to |
| Dedicating first three positions for keywords in title | | | | another. This can be prevented by using the Robots |
| avoiding the stop words like 'and', 'at' and the like is | | | | Tag. Most major search engines support the Meta |
| crucial in search engine optimization. | | | | robots tag. The Meta robots tag also has some |
| The TITLE tag is an important one for search | | | | extensions offered by particular search engines to |
| engines like Google, as that is often the first one | | | | prevent indexing of multimedia content. |
| indexed and it is given higher weighting in the | | | | There are other Meta tags apart from the ones |
| relevance rankings. You have to pay attention to this | | | | explored above but most of them are simply ignored |
| tag. Keep it short (lower than 40 characters) and let | | | | by almost all search engines. |
| the tag have material relevant to the keywords used | | | | To sum up, some search engines will give you a |
| during search. | | | | boost if you have Meta tags. But don't expect that |
| As an example, if you had stuffed your Company | | | | to necessarily be enough to put you in the top ten. |
| Name as the TITLE tag, it would not help. The visitor | | | | Meta tags are mainly a design element you can tap |
| that you want to attract is unlikely to be looking for | | | | into, a crutch for helping information-poor pages |
| your Company name in the search string. Think | | | | better be acknowledged by the search engines. |