Adding Meta Tags to your site
Presently it's hard to tell if meta tags will help you achieve a
better ranking. There are so many criteria in determining a
site's placement that meta tags are never going to be the
ultimate factor in deciding whether your site gets placed in the
top ten. Some search engines do not even support meta tags.
I always like to add meta tags to my site, because I know they
usually help. I also know they won't harm my chances of
achieving a good listing if they're made correctly.
If you're unfamiliar with html, you might want to have someone
help you add your tags to your webpages. However, it is pretty
simple and you really don't even need any experience coding
pages.
I suggest that you open your coding in a text editor like
Notepad. You always want to place your tags in-between the
tags. This is what it will look like:
Your Site's Title
Enter meta tags here.
Quite simple. Now you want to add your tags. I like to start
with the keyword tags. You should spend some time finding the
best keywords for your site. One great place to look is GoTo's
keywords suggestion page. Type in your main keyword and it will
return a large list of relevant keywords and a number of how many
times the term was searched in the past month.
The first step you want to take is to choose a good title. Most
search engines index between 80 - 120 characters, so make sure
you don't go over 120. Most engines give good weight to the
title in determining your placement, so be certain to use your
best keywords in your title. I would use one or two, but I
wouldn't recommend repeating them.
Keyword 1, Keyword 2
Now it's time to create your description tag. Always include
title and description tags. If you don't, a title and
description will be made for you and it could make your page
sound unappealing. Most search engines will use about 150 - 300
characters of a description tag, so 200 characters would be a
good size.
Remember that your description tag should make sense! List your
main keywords, but just don't repeat them endlessly. Search
engine surfers will think your site is garbage and won't visit
it, and you most likely will receive a lower ranking.
Do include two, three or even four good keywords and phrases, but
make sure your description still sounds normal.
When creating your title and description tag, pretend that you're
creating a classified ad. That's basically what you're doing.
You title tag is your headline. You want to gain your viewer's
attention as he's scanning the page and interest him to read
further. Your description should make him feel that he has
something to gain from visiting your site.
Your description tag looks like this:
In your keyword tag, you want to list your main keywords people
will use to find your page. Since some search engines are case
sensitive, you might also want add your keywords in caps and
maybe even some spelling mistakes some people might make when
searching for your site.
Here is what your keyword tag will look like:
It is disputable whether it's better to separate your keywords
with commas or to just leave a space between words.
Although meta tags help position your page, they won't determine
the success or failure of a top 20 ranking. Some search engines
don't even support meta tags. That's why it's important to use
your keywords in the certain areas of your page.
It usually helps to have a keyword place in a heading tag at the
top of the page. You also want to use your keywords in the first
few lines of the first paragraph. A good amount of weight is
usually placed here in determining your ranking. These first few
lines are usually what are displayed as your description, so you
also want to compel the reader to stay at your site.
The determinations of search engine rankings are constantly
changing. Since algorithms are hard figure out, software is
usually helpful. The three biggest I know of are "Web Position,"
"Position Agent" and "GRKda GRSoftware Keyword Density Analyzer."
Since this article only focused on meta tags, here are some sites
that will give you more detailed information on search engine
placement:
http://www.bruceclay.com/web_rank.htm
http://searchenginewatch.internet.com/webmasters/rank.html
You may also want to seek help from some experts. Here are a
couple of cool search engine forums:
http://www.seektronic.com/forum/board.cgi?
http://www.marketposition.com/
About the Author
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