Posted on January 10th, 2010 — in Web Of SEO
Defining Meta Tags is much easier than explaining how they are used, and by which engines. The reason is very few engines clearly lay out what they do and do not look at, and how much emphasis they put on any one factor. So, we’ll start with the easy part
Meta Tags are lines of HTML code embedded into web pages that are used by search engines to store information about your site. These “tags” contain keywords, descriptions, copyright information, site titles and more. They are among the numerous things that the search engines look for, when trying to evaluate a web site.
Meta Tags are not “required” when you’re creating web pages. Unfortunately, many web site operators who don’t use them are left wondering why the saying “If I build it they will come” didn’t apply to their site.
There’s also a few naysayers in the search engine optimization industry who claim that Meta Tags are useless. You can believe them if you like, but you would be wise not to. While not technically “required”, Meta Tags are essential.
If you simply create a web site and register the URL with the search engines, their spiders will visit your site, and attempt to index it. Each search engine operates slightly differently, and each one weighs different elements of a web site according to their own proprietary algorithms. For example, Altavista places an emphasis on the description tag and Inktomi states on their web site that;
Inktomi “(…) indexes both the full text of the Web page you submit as well as the meta-tags within the site’s HTML.”
Other search engines like Exactseek are true meta tag search engines which clearly state their policy:
“Your site will not be added if it does not have Title and Meta Description tags.”
They also use the keywords tag.
Of course, not all search engines work this way. Some place their emphasis on content. The search engines have over 100 individual factors they look at when reviewing a web site. Some of these factors deal with page structure. They check to see that all the ‘t’s are crossed, and the ‘i’s dotted. They note sites that have omitted basic steps, like missing tags.
One reason so many engines de-emphasized the meta-keyword tag had to do with spam. There was a time when ’search engine promotion specialists’ would cram keywords tags full of irrelevant information. The web site would be selling garbage cans, but the keywords tags were chock full of irrelevant terms like “mp3″ or “Britney Spears”. They figured that if enough people visited their site, some would buy.
So today, to avoid and penalize this kind of abuse, some search engines don’t specifically use the keywords tag as part of the scoring of a site, but they monitor the keywords to ensure they match the content in the site. The reasoning being that, if the tags are irrelevant, they must have an alternate purpose. Is it a spam site? When keywords tags are completely irrelevant to the content, some search engines, that don’t specifically use keywords tags, will penalize that web site.
Even for those engines that have downplayed the value of Meta Tags, there are situations where Meta Tags gain considerably in importance, e.g. sites with rich graphics, but poor textual content. Unfortunately, a picture is worth 1000 words to you and me, but zero to a search engine. If a site has poor textual content, the engines will be more dependent than ever on the Meta Tags to properly categorize it.
Even if you ensure you have completely relevant Meta Tags, some search engines will still ignore them. But better they ignore them, than they ignore your whole site because they suspect something is less than above board. Never hope that having Meta Tags will make the difference in all the search engines; nothing is a substitute for good content. But in cases where the engine depends on that content, it may be the only thing that does work for your site.
So How To Use The Meta Tags?
Meta tags should always be placed in the area of an HTML document. This starts just after the tag, and ends immediately before the tag. Here’s how the most basic set should look:
Search Engine Optimization Software - Metamend
Always make sure that your meta tags do not have any line breaks, otherwise the search engines will just see bad code and ignore them. You should also avoid use of capitals in your code (html5 standard) as well as repetition of terms within the keywords tag.
What Goes Into a Meta Tag?
For the Description tag: ; Many search engines will display this summary along with the title of your page in their search results. Keep this reasonably short, concise and to the point, but make sure that it’s an appropriate reflection of your site content.
For the keyword tag;
Keywords represent the key terms that someone might enter into a search engine. Choose only relevant keywords. If the terms are going to appear in your keywords tag, they must appear in the content of your site, or be a synonym to a term on your site. Most search engines compare your meta content with what is actually on your page, and if it doesn’t match, your web site can get penalized, and suffer in search results.
for the Robots tag ;Many web pages have this tag wrong. An example of the wrong usage is content=”index, follow, all” - wrong because some spiders can’t handle spaces between the words in the tag or the word “all”. Most engines by default assume that you want a web page to be indexed and links followed, so using the wrong syntax can actually result in the spider coming to the wrong conclusion and penalizing, or worse, ignoring the page outright. If by chance you do not want your links followed, or the page not indexed, then you would substitute “noindex” and or “nofollow” into the tag.
With the Internet growing at a rate of over 8,000,000 new pages per day, and the search engines adding a fraction of that number, Meta Tags are a common standard which can reasonably ensure a measure of proper categorization for a web site. So, always ensure that you cover all the bases, and use completely relevant terms in properly structured Meta Tags. Using tags properly will pay dividends in the short and long term. After all, using them properly only helps the search engines, which means they will send you more qualified traffic - customers.
About The Author
Richard Zwicky is a founder and the CEO of Metamend Software & Design Ltd., www.metamend.com, a Victoria B.C. based firm whose cutting edge Search Engine Optimization software is recognized as the world leader in its field. Employing a staff of 10, the firm’s business comes from around the world, with clients from every continent. Most recently the company was recognized for their geo-locational, or GIS, along with their phraseological and context sensitive search technologies.
articles@metamend.com
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Posted on November 3rd, 2009 — in Web Of SEO
I don’t know about you, but I felt a lot of internal resistance when it was first suggested to me that I write ‘for’ the search engines.
Years of training and habit, and a lot of pride, turned me against the idea of adjusting or changing my copy to suit ’spiders’. It’s about the reader, not some computer. Right?
The whole thing smelled of compromise to me. And as us ego-driven writers all know, compromise is not something we like.
Well, I’m pleased to say that my pride finally shuffled off to one side a bit and allowed me a more objective look at the whole thing.
And now, well, I’m something of a convert. I have been for quite a while now.
Not because I have made that ‘compromise’. But because it became evident to me that both spiders and readers are looking for exactly the same thing…
Relevance.
Spiders are becoming more and more sophisticated in determining the relevance of a page when matched to a keyword or phrase that is typed in by the user. In short, pages that are most likely to satisfy the needs of the reader are being delivered first.
The spider looks for relevance. And the reader hopes for it.
And that’s where the writer comes in. Using Overture’s Search Suggestion tool, or something a little more sophisticated, like Wordtracker, you can research which words and phrases are being used most frequently by people in search for your kind of page. These are great resources for writers, allowing us to drill right down to the words that our prospects and customers use.
And how better to make them feel they have come to the right place than to greet them with the exact words and phrases they are looking for?
And once you start getting really serious about being relevant to the needs of your visitors, the implications begin to snowball. Not only do you start writing in a very relevant way, but it also makes you start thinking about more fundamental issues - like the structure and architecture of the site in general.
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Article Resource: Read my review of WordTracker here
Nick Usborne is a copywriter, author, speaker and advocat of good writing. You can access all his archived newsletter articles on copywriting and writing for the web at his Excess Voice site. You’ll find more articles and resources on how to make money as a freelance writer at his Freelance Writing Success site.
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Posted on October 17th, 2008 — in Web Of SEO
Search engine optimization experts are having fun with Google. Experts, with DarkBlue.com at the helm, are holding a contest to determine how Google really works. Experts are competing, with the goal of optimizing a webpage for a non-sensical phrase: ‘nigritude ultramarine’.
On May 7th, the day the terms ‘nigritude ultramarine’ was announced, typing the phrase into Google generated no search listings. Search engine optimizers hoping to define themselves as industry leaders are all vying for the number one spot. Others see the contest as an opportunity to test theories and experiment without jeopardizing existing traffic. Some webmasters are leery at staking their professional reputation on a contest with an undefined number of participants.
As an added incentive for search engine experts and webmasters to participate and work their magic, DarkBlue.com is giving away an Apple Mini iPod and a Sony Flat Screen Monitor to anyone who can take their page to #1 for the phrase ‘nigritude ultramarine’. The contest is scheduled to run for two months and will conclude on July 7th, 2004.
Magical Phrase
The phrase generating the frenzy, ‘nigritude ultramarine’, is likely to bring out the best and the worst in optimization tactics. The black magic optimization techniques that are suspected in having sites banned from Google are likely to be exercised, along with tried and true optimization practices. Immediately after the contest was announced experts snapped up hyphenated domain names and began tweaking their text. Many experts were surprised to see how quickly ‘nigritude ultramarine’ made its way into the Google’s listings, with new listings appearing daily it is clear that the contest is well underway.
The experts will be at the mercy of Google and any new algorithms implemented over the course of the next two months. Experts will have to anticipate and update on a regular basis, to ensure that they are able to obtain and retain a strong listings.
Results
The results of the contest are unlikely to have any lasting effects, as Google will likely implement filters that will prevent search engine experts from reaping the rewards of any tactics that are found to be effective. Regardless the sense of adventure and a method of testing Google are intriguing.
About The Author
Sharon Housley manages marketing for NotePage, Inc. http://www.notepage.net a company specializing in alphanumeric paging, SMS and wireless messaging software solutions. Other sites by Sharon can be found at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com, and http://www.small-business-software.net
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Posted on September 25th, 2008 — in Web Of SEO
Introduction
“Link Popularity” - these words may have caught your attention several times while you have been searching the Internet for tips on optimizing your website for top search engine rankings. Link popularity means popularizing a particular link of a website by increasing the number of websites that link to that site. Nowadays link popularity is being considered to be the most important step of the search engine optimization process. You cannot imagine getting good ranks in the top search engines especially Google without following an effective link popularity plan.
Link Popularity Basics
Google gives a lot of importance to the number of websites that link to a website. In order to get the number of websites that link to a site, just type in a domain name in this manner link:www.your-domain.com in the search box and the number that returns is the number of incoming links to your site. On the basis of the number of incoming links to a website along with various other factors, Google provides points within 1-10 to that website. These points or PageRank in the language of Google is like a measuring tool that helps the Internet surfers to know about the online popularity of that website. The PageRank of a website can be obtained from the PageRank Toolbar of Google which can be easily downloaded from the Google website. (http://toolbar.google.com/)
Link Popularity Methods
Link Popularity can be done through different methods like
- Reciprocal Link Exchange Programs among websites
- Posting messages of your websites on various message boards and guest books
- Publishing articles about your website or company in other websites.
1. Reciprocal Link Exchange Program
Definition -
Reciprocal Link Exchange Program is the most popular and commonly followed method for implementing the link popularity plan of a website and getting the desired results.
Reciprocal Link Exchange Program Steps -
A reciprocal link exchange program deals in exchanging of links with several websites. This program involves several steps that need to be followed which have been described below:
Step 1 -
Link exchange for a website is usually done with websites of the same industry as well as with the websites of other industries. For example, if your website is all about finance, you should be on the lookout for websites that deal in finance along with other websites that are not related to finance. So the first and foremost step is to find prospective link partners/websites that offer reciprocal link exchange programs. You can do this easily by typing in the industry related keywords (e.g. “personal finance”, “financial expert”) in the Google search box. And you can find out the websites offering link exchange out of the search results thus generated.
Step 2 -
Always try to exchange links with websites having Google PR (PageRank) of 4 or more. Here the PR 4 criteria is applicable for both index page as well as the links page of a website.
Step 3 -
You have to look for the link exchange details of each of the websites. The link exchange details lets you know how the website wants to its link to appear in your links page, where to send your link exchange details, etc. The details generally include the website’s link code, email address to send your information. Sometimes you may have to submit your link information through a form provided in the website.
Step 4 -
Now, create an html page containing the list of link partners that you have searched and saved so far. Name this html page as Resources/Partners/Links/Interesting Websites, etc. and provide a link to this links page in the index page of your website. Make sure that your links page is either 1 click or maximum of two clicks away from the index page otherwise prospective link partners may not be interested in reciprocating your link.
Step 5 -
Prepare the link code for your website that you would send or submit through a form to the prospective link partners. A sample link code is given below:
Search Engine Optimization - Offering search engine optimization services.
Always try to include potential keywords for your website in the link text that is the text between the anchor tag () as well as in the description provided against the link text. Always go for text links instead of banner ads because Google gives a lot of importance to the anchor text of the incoming links.
Step 6 -
Target to get maximum of the incoming links towards the home page of your website as it is the most significant page of your website that leads to the other pages of your website. This means you have to request the link partners to link to your index page. Ensure that a good navigation exists within your website so that all the pages are accessible from one particular page of your website. And that all the link texts/anchor texts in your website contain the most important keywords related to your business. This helps in improving the link popularity of your website.
Step 7 -
After preparing the link code for your website, you have to approach the prospective link partners through email requesting them to accept your link exchange offer and place a link to your website in their links page.
Step 8 -
Lastly you have to submit these links pages to the search engines especially Google where your link has been placed by your link partners. (http://www.google.com/addurl.html)
2. Message Board Link Popularity Program -
Link popularity can also be pursued by posting your website link message to the message boards and guest books. In this method you have pay more attention towards the selection of message boards and guest books. Always select message boards and guest books that have a PageRank of 4 or more and have already been indexed by Google. It is also necessary to submit the URLS generated after posting messages to the search engines. For example, say www.online-message-board.com is one of the popular message boards where you want to post your website link. After posting your website link at www.online-message-board.com, the message board will generate a particular URL say www.online-message-board.com/your-website-link.html which contains the particular information about your site. Submit this URL in various search engines so as to boost the link popularity of your site.
3. Other Methods of Increasing Link Popularity -
You can also improve the link popularity of your site by publishing articles or write-ups regarding your company or website in other websites. And make sure you do not forget to include a link to your website in these articles or write-ups. In this way your link becomes visible to the search engine robots. Paid ads also help in your link popularity plan.
Conclusion
In this paper, we have tried to explain the link popularity basics along with various methods for pursuing the link popularity campaigns for your website. Being a vital parameter of your search engine optimization plan, you need to make a link popularity plan and follow it strictly so that your website finds place within the top 10 results of all the important search engines, especially Google.
About The Author
Vudatala Meena is the Co-Founder & Managing Director of Search Engine Optimization Guru Pvt. Ltd. (http://www.searchengine-optimization-guru.com), a premiere Search Engine Optimization and Marketing (SEO/SEM) consultancy firm, catering to clients which range from Fortune 500 to small home business start-ups. Our services include Top 10 SE rankings, Pay Per Click (PPC) targeted traffic campaign, Paid Listing Management, Keyword Advertizing. She can be contacted at meena@searchengine-optimization-guru.com
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