Search Engine Optimization Reports
What is Meta Tag Optimization and Why do In Need It
Meta tag
optimization
is done for the search engines.
Meta tags are
pieces information that are inserted into the "head" area of the
html code of your page. In the main these give information, not to
humans, but to the search engine crawlers that spider the web. So
they are created to help the search engine crawlers know what
your page is about.
Meta - what the heck
does that mean? In this sense, it means: the part of
something that is not immediately visible but which is there
nonetheless and has an effect.
Tags
are a pieces of html code. (HTML is the language in which web pages
are written)
Meta tag optimization
was at one time thought to be the magic wand that made search
engines bend to our whims (or at least rank our sites at the top).
This is not the case. In fact, according to searchenginewatch.com.
few major crawlers pay any attention to "keywords" and
"description". Teoma, Fast and Alta Vista support the meta
description tag. While only Inktomi supports meta keywords. These
crawlers are certainly large enough that you will not want to ignore
the meta tags.
Note that recently Google has
suggested that webmasters pay attention to the meta tags of their
pages. If the information provided in those tags is honest and
appropriate to the page Google may use these on their search engine
results listings.
Although many of the crawlers do not use the meta tags to help in
the ranking of your site, these tags are often used by the search
engine as part of the title and description you see when your site
is listed.
The meta title tag,
the description tag and the keywords tag are the three most
common tags of interest in search engine promotion.
Meta tags should be
placed in your site like this:
<head>
<TITLE>Getting into
Google - Ultimate Site Promotion</TITLE>
<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="google, link popularity, high
ranking. high ranking in google>
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="Find our more about getting
indexed in the Google search engine. How link popularity and
content work together to establish your ranking">
</head>
The Title Tag
Whatever you place in
the title tag will appear at the very top portion of the browser the
viewer is using to look at your web site. This tag is also used as
the words to describe the page when someone adds it to their
"favorites" or "bookmarks".
This tag is also
crucial to search engines. The text you use in the title tag is one
of the most important factors in how a search engine (that uses
these meta tags for ranking) will rank your site. Also, all major
crawlers will use what you put in your title tag as the text they
use for the title of your page in their listings.
The Description Tag
The meta description
tag allows you some control over the description of your page in the
crawlers that support the tag. The text you want here goes within
the quotes after the word content in the tag. Generally,
200 to 250 characters may be indexed, although fewer may be
displayed in the listing.
The Keywords Tag
Meta keywords tag is
used to list terms that apply to that page. These are separated by
commas. It is helpful if these terms are mentioned in the text of
your page. If your page has to do with German shepherd puppies, for
example, some keywords and phrases you could use might be: German
shepherds, German shepherd puppies, German shepherds, puppies for
sale, pedigreed dogs, police dogs
For the crawlers that
support this it is a useful way to reinforce the terms you feel are
most important to your page and which you think potential visitors
are likely to type into a search engine.
This may all sound
complicated for those of you unfamiliar with html. Have no fear.
When you hire Ultimate Site Promotion, Inc. as part of our web
site optimization services we take care of meta tag optimization.
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