meta keywords tags
Some website owners don’t think that meta tag titles, descriptions, and keywords matter so much in their site rankings anymore. It is true that search engine algorithms are constantly changing in how they determine where your pages rank. I am of the old school of thinking, and prefer to stay with my current method of search engine optimization and meta data entry, at least for now.
Online businesses are growing at an alarming rate. Some will make it, and some will not. If you expect to create a website, add a few products or articles, and do nothing else but wait for the money to come rolling in, I fear you will be terribly disappointed.
Whether you have an online business or a physical brick and mortar store, there will always be competition. You have to market your business and product(s). Advertising your online business does not have to cost you a fortune. There are multiple ways to market your business without spending a nickel.
Before embarking on your free site promotion efforts, however, put some information under your belt about meta titles, descriptions, and keywords. Each page of your site, including your category, article, and product pages, should have at a minimum a meta title, a meta description, and meta keywords.
How you enter this data is based on the site builder you use or how you manage your site content. I use a site builder that allows the data to be entered on the fly as I enter categories and products.
The meta title does not need to be lengthy. It is simply a short title that will appear on the browser tab, or at least it will in the Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers. If I were creating a meta title for this article, I would make it something like “How to Use Meta Keywords, Descriptions, and Titles.” Typically, the title should indicate what the specific page is about content wise.
You also need to enter site relevant meta keywords. If you are entering a category for various products to fall under, enter keywords relevant to that particular category. The keywords used here are going to be broader in scope than those used in the product pages you create to go under these categories.
When you next add the individual products to the category, it is advisable to “drill down” into more specific keywords. When choosing them, select words you want to rank for in the search engines. Think of words shoppers might type in to find the product(s) you are selling.
There is no reason to enter a lengthy list of keywords. The search engines stop spidering the meta keyword data at around 100 characters, so choose the most prominent words to use and that is all you need to enter.
The meta description is what will appear in most search engines when your page comes up in the results. You want to enter data here that will entice the surfer to click on through to your page, so take enough time to write an eye-catching description.
There is one common mistake many web creators make. All of their pages, including category, product, and information pages, etc. all have the same meta tag information. That is the incorrect way to structure your descriptions, titles, and keywords. Consider the “meat” or content of the website itself. Is every page about the same thing? Probably not. When you start the creation of your website, have a plan; maybe even draw it out on paper. Determine what each specific area of the site is about, and structure the content accordingly.
Next, put yourself in the shoes of a shopper, and think of what might make your site information appealing enough to make them want to click through, visit your site, and make a purchase.
Your keywords should appear in your page content as well, but do not get carried away with this step. For example, do not type in your keyword 20 or 30 times on the page to help you rank for the word. This most often backfires and creates an adverse effect. Search engines are smarter than that, and this strategy will ultimately hurt your site more than it will help it.
Search engines favor high quality content that makes sense and is readable. The keyword quantity in your content should be of a certain percentage, roughly about 2-4% of your overall content, but avoid excessive keyword entry. It is best to write about your products and category information in a very natural way, not focusing on interjecting your keywords repeatedly.
Get plenty of information on free site promotion and Meta Tag Keywords at Penney Layne.
Take a look at Penney Layne’s DIY Stores also for great hosting and site promotion packages for your websites.
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Author: Laura Maness Brown
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Marketing and optimizing a website for search engines is a broad topic. There are many factors to consider when heading out with the goal of improving your website’s visibility and ranking within various search engines. In part one I will discuss the highly requested topic of website keywords. In follow-up articles I will cover additional topics such as page ranking, pay-per-click advertising campaigns, the marketing techniques to avoid, and the latest analysis technologies including eye tracking software.
Choosing the right keywords for a website is an important and informative research task. In the process of improving your website you’ll learn a lot about your industry and your competitors.
Keywords are one the main factors that come into play in the algorithms used by major search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Windows Live Search. If a web surfer is looking for home decorating tips and types ‘home decorating’ into a search engine, it will search its database for websites that contain that phrase and those individual words.
Selecting the correct keywords
If you are an expert in your field, you know what your customers are looking for. Specifically, you know many of the words and phrases your customers would use to describe your products and services. Start with what you know.
Write out a list of phrases and words that describe your business. If you have a home decorating business you may think of words like ‘interior design’ and ‘furnishings’. Sort your list so that the most common phrases are on the top of your list.
You will now want to cross-reference the list of keywords that you have compiled with other lists generated for your industry. This will bring to mind other keywords that you may not have thought of. I recommend using a popular web-based keyword research tool named Wordtracker (http://www.wordtracker.com). Wordtracker helps identify additional keywords and phrases and offers a free trial of their service. It provides only a limited number of related words, but is still a great starting point. Searching for related keywords for ‘home decorating’ with Wordtracker produces a list of keywords like ‘home’, ‘decor’, ‘decorating’, ‘home decor’, ‘furniture’, ‘design’, ‘interior’, ‘interior decorating’, ‘art’, ‘wall’, and ‘fabric’.
Other keyword tools, which produce similar results, are also available. These include, among others, the web-based tools provided by Yahoo (Overture) (http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/), and Google (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal).
After compiling and merging the various lists of keywords, you’ll be ready to move on to the next step.
Using the correct keywords on your website
Now that you have a clear picture of which keywords web surfers may type into their search engine to find your business, you need to be sure your website contains these important keywords.
A strategy is required when updating your website to include the keywords in your list. Starting at the top of your list, quickly review the keywords. Think about which keywords would naturally be present on your website and which keywords you probably wouldn’t use. Using the first list of keywords, you may now start reviewing the different sections of your website.
Your selected keywords should be placed in various areas of your site with the proper frequency. Your website content should focus on making sense to your visitors, not fed with keywords that will hopefully improve your search positioning. Search engine algorithms can detect the over use of keywords, which can negatively affect your positioning. Let’s now look at different areas of your website.
Website Title
Every website has a title. This is not a website logo or a bold heading found on the top section of a website. The website title is displayed in the web browser’s title bar. This is the top most area of the window located to the far left of the window’s minimize, maximize, and close buttons. The website title is also the text that is displayed in search engine search results, which is often in a larger font and underlined. The website title is the first thing that a web surfer sees when performing a search. Web surfers quickly scan through search result website titles to evaluate which website will meet their needs. This is your first opportunity to grab their attention.
A website title should contain as many of your keywords as possible, while maintaining easy readability. This will do two things for you. First, the search engine will find your website in its database and display your website in their results. Second, the website title will catch the surfer’s interest as they see their search criteria matching your website title. Over-stuffing the title with keywords makes the title difficult to read and may be seen as abuse by search engines. The website title is updated by changing the text located between the opening and closing title tags, in the header of the HTML code. The title length should be kept to handful of words. The website description allows more space for describing your products and services.
Website Description
As with the website title, the website description should also contain a variety of keywords. Unlike the website title, the website description is not visible on any part of the website itself. The description is the summary information you see in search engines results, displayed below the website title. The website description gives you a little more space to describe your website and your products and services. Again, be sure that your description is easily readable for your visitors, in order to attract them to click your site title. The website description can be updated by changing the text in the description meta tag, in the header of the HTML code.
Website Keywords
Along with the title and description entries in the HTML code, there is also an area to define a set of keywords that you’d like to associate to the page. This is called the keyword meta tag. Keywords are entered as a comma separated list. The industry consensus is that the keyword meta tag is currently of little or no use with today’s major search engines. However, search engines continue to recommend their usage.
Website Content
This brings us to the meat of our website, so to speak. Our chosen keywords should be used throughout the website content where it makes sense. Again, over-stuffing page content with keywords so that the message is unnatural can be detected by search engines. A good practice is to use the keywords to make the page content more descriptive. For example, a pet store may sell a variety of pet foods. This can be written in a descriptive manner, such as, ‘dog food and cat food’, instead of using ‘dog and cat food’. In this example the keyword ‘food’ is used twice.
Headings and Hyperlinks
Special attention should be given to the usage of heading tags and anchor tags. Keyword usage in page heading is more valuable than keywords used in a paragraph of text. The same can be said with anchor tags (a.k.a. hyperlinks). Using keywords as the clickable text of a hyperlink is very valuable.
Keyword Density
Keyword density refers to the percentage of occurrences of your keywords compared to the other text on the web page. Keyword density tools such as Webconfs.com’s Keyword Density Checker (http://webconfs.com/keyword-density-checker.php) provides a visualization of the main theme or message on a chosen page. This tool counts the number of times each word is repeated on the page, which is a good test of how you’ve done at inserting keywords to optimize the content. It is also a good representation of how search engines will see your page. ‘More is better’ is not the most effective keyword density goal. Although the optimum keyword density is much debated, having some balance is definitely in order. A density below 1% makes it difficult for a search engine to understand your main message, where a density over 5% will start to make the content appear unnatural. At this stage in website optimization, the page content can be continually edited while the keyword density is being re-checked. Continue this process until your keywords are among the words with the highest density.
Conclusion
Choosing the correct keywords for your website is a must. Website keyword optimization is not rocket science, but it must be implemented carefully. By using the correct keywords, not only will your site be positioned well in search results, but it will draw visitors to your website.
