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| For the foreseeable future the only way of ensuring that you get quality traffic to your site is through the proper use of search engine technology. Spend some time reading the following articles which will give you a broad overview of how to get to the top of the various search engines: Article 1: Search Engine Optimization Article 3: Search Engine Submission. Article 4: Reciprocal Linking. Meta TagsMany people think Meta Tags are the magic solution to ranking well. Create the perfect combination with the perfect keyword density and presto! Well, that is far from being true and in this article we'll tell you exactly what is important and what is not when writing html meta tags. What are Meta Tags?Meta tags are parts of an HTML document that are used for you to describe the page content for search engines. Meta tags are placed within the head area of an HTML file and with the exception of the Title tag; your visitors do not see them as part of the viewable area of the page. How to write meta tags correctly. <HEAD> <TITLE>The title of this page</TITLE> <META NAME="Description" CONTENT="The description."> <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="keyword one, two, etc."> <META NAME="robots" CONTENT="index,follow"> </HEAD> Why are Meta Tags important?The primary reason they are considered important in search engine positioning is that you have some ability to direct how your pages are described, categorized and indexed by various search engines. Don't be misled; creating the perfect Meta tags does not mean you will zoom to the top of the pack; many search engines do not even care about some or all of the tags. Which search engines support Meta TagsCrawler-based search engines have the ability to utilize the Meta tags; however, not all of them do so. Most will support one tag or the other but rarely does a search engine support them all. Crawler based search engines include: Google, Teoma, Alta Vista, Inktomi, AllTheWeb and others. Directory based search properties like Yahoo Directory and Open Directory do not spider your pages; they rely on the description you supply to them when you submit your page. The title tagThe title tag is not really a Meta tag; however it does appear in the head area of your page along with the various Meta tags and it is your most valuable tool in describing your page to the search engines. It is an extraordinarily important factor in how search engines rank and list your web site. The title is given the most weight in determining the overall fitness of your page. What search engines use the title tag? Just about all major search engines use the title tag in some way and many use it to compose the headline in their listing. When creating the title for each page you want to include your primary search terms or keywords and create a concise description of the page in general. The title tag is also used as the text to describe your page when someone adds it to his or her favourites list and it displays in the title bar of their browser, so, it is important to make it clear and descriptive.
Guidelines to writing a good title:
The Meta Description TagThe Meta description tag allows you to write a short description of the page, however, it is not fully supported by many search engines. What search engines use the Meta Description? Of the major search engines: AltaVista, AllTheWeb and Teoma make most use of the tag. Google automatically creates its own description and ignores your Meta description tag completely. Others may support it partially. Directories (like Yahoo Directory) are not search engines and they rely on the description you supply when you submit. Guidelines to writing a good Meta description:
The Meta Keyword TagThe Meta keyword tag allows you to list the keywords for the page; however, most search engines do not support this tag. What search engines use the Meta Keywords Tag? Of the major search engines: Inktomi and Teoma are the few that even take this tag into consideration. Guidelines to writing a good Meta Keyword tag:
The Meta Robots TagThe Meta Robots tag allows you to control whether or not you want the page to be indexed by search engines. By default, search engine spiders (crawlers) will try to index every page and follow links from one page to the next. The best use of the Meta robots tag is when you want to keep the search engine spiders OUT and not let them index a page. Guidelines to writing a Meta Robots tag: Make certain you double and triple check your code when using this tag. Improperly formatted tags or the wrong usage could keep search engines from indexing your pages or even your entire web site.
Examples of proper formatting:
Translation:
Note: Never put more than one Meta robot tag on the page or more than one directive in the content area of the tag. Other Meta TagsThere are many other Meta tags besides the ones we've discussed, however, none of them will improve your search engine ranking. Some are for internal search methods and some (such as the revisit tag) have no effect with search engines. In fact, meta tags like the "refresh" tag have been used to "trick" search engine spiders and are now regarded as something that could hurt your ranking with some search engines. Summary: What Meta tags are important?
The Bottom LineIn conclusion, writing good Metatags are only one small part of optimizing your pages for higher positioning. This can be evidenced by the fact that there are many pages in the search engine indexes that rank high without even having Meta tags at all. Having good content and using the correct keywords within your content is far more essential. Once you have good content, focus your attention on no more than three keywords per page and then use those words in the title, Meta tags and repeatedly in the viewable text on the page. More resources: Directory of meta tags: http://vancouver-webpages.com/META/ |
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