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meta tags
- Meta tags are included in the html, between the <head>
and </head> at the top of the document
- It is crucial to get the correct information in
these as this could decide whether or not your web site
is listed
- The meta tags (in the HTML of each page) for title,
keywords and description should be utilized
to their full value, and match keywords that appear
in the body of the page
- Ensuring these keywords and phrases are in the page
headings, body content and
links is highly beneficial
- Do not repeat them more than
five times on a page though - search engines
can pick this up as spamming
- Some search engines (not all) use meta
tags to obtain the information about your site -
directories don't use them
- Meta tags are an important aspect of search engine
optimization
- See also - adding
meta tags to pages made from Dreamweaver templates
step by step instructions
planning
- Think of a short keyword intensive phrase for
the page
- Use this as the page title
- Keep to 90-150 characters or less (incl. spaces, punctuation
etc.)
<title>Meta tags for search
engine optimization<title>
- Use this phrase as the basis for a short paragraph
for the description meta tag
- Do not split the phrase up in the paragraph
- keep it intact
- It is beneficial to include any other keyword phrases
may be relevant for the page
- Keep to 250 characters (incl. spaces, punctuation
etc.)
<meta name="description"
content="Meta tags for search engine optimization,
including page title, keywords and description.">
- Use this description paragraph as the opening paragraph
in the main content of the page
- n.b. There is not much point putting keywords in the
description meta tag if they are not included in the
actual body content anywhere
- Think of any other possible keyword/keyword phrases
which are relevant to the page
- Use these and the keywords from the title and description
for the keywords meta tag
<meta name="keywords"
content="meta tags search engine optimization keywords
description page title">
title
The <title> tag is becoming increasingly
important to listings.
- It should be descriptive, but short (about
150 characters)
- Include keywords
- Build it around a target phrase for the page
- It needs to make sense as a sentence, but try to limit
the use of irrelevant words (a, the, etc.)
- Try to make it specific to your web site
- Never over the top, marketing hype "we are the best
site etc."
- Is not descriptive or include valuable keywords
- Can get you kicked off certain search engines/directories!
- What the user sees at the top of their browser
and therefore what is shown when they bookmark a
page - make it useful!
description
The description (<meta name="description" content="This
is what the user sees when the search engine displays the
site in a list among all other similar sites and can sway
which they click on">)
- This should be informative and not too long
(there are recommended limits - around 250 characters) as
only a set number of characters will be displayed
- Should include keyword phrases
- Ideally keywords which are repeated in the title
and body content of the page
- Put your most important keywords at the beginning
of the
description
- Don't use too many stop words (a, on,
the, etc) - search engines don't index them - wastes
your description
keywords
The keywords (<meta name="keywords" content="keyword
keyword keyword">)
- These are the possible keywords a user
may submit when searching for information
- It is worth putting in variations, acronyms
(e.g. employment, vacancies, jobs, careers) and spelling
mistakes of words
- Use plural over singular
- Don't use commas between keywords:
- Adds characters and separates words
which may be searched for together
- Makes repeating of words harder (SEs don't like repetition)
- Experiment - if no commas isn't helping your
listing, reassess after a few months
- 1000 characters (or less) in total - more is just
ignored
- Don't repeat a keyword more then 3 times
- Be careful over variations of the same word (e.g.
cook, cooked, cooking)
- Match with important keywords in the body
content of the page
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