By, JR
What are Meta Tags?
Meta Tags are HTML codes that are inserted into the header on a web page. Meta Tags basically describe the website and give search engines a glimpse as to what your website is about. Fortunately, most good website builders, allow you to fill in the Meta information in English and the Meta tag is created automatically in HTML.
Here is how the code looks in your HTML header.
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Title</TITLE>
<META name=”DESCRIPTION” content=”The text you want goes here.”>
<META name=”KEYWORDS” content=”KW 1, KW 2, KW 3, KW 4,”>
</HEAD>
There are some who say Google pays no attention to Meta Tags for Search Engine Optimization value, I say YES THEY DO! Meta Tags are an important facet of your SEO efforts and Meta Tags optimization should be a concern for every webmaster. In fact, Google Webmaster Tools suggest that you customize your Meta Tags and they actually analyze them for you within the Tools Dashboard.
Now, I am not saying that by filling in a few lines of Meta Tags you will instantly go to page one in Google, what I am saying is that Meta Tag optimization is an important part of SEO and they should be customized.
A huge and necessary benefit of Meta Tags is in allowing you control of how your website presents in search results for the attributes within Meta Tags of Title and Description. This way you have every opportunity to create interesting, relevant and clickable titles and descriptions that can greatly help your Internet Marketing efforts. DO NOT leave this to chance.
Again, some may say that Google generates their own descriptions and ignores the Meta, I SAY NOT!! Every single one of my sites, shows my title and my description from my Meta Tags, and not just for the home page BUT for every page of my site. And, I would NEVER leave this to search engines to generate on their own.
Meta Tags Optimization for every page of your website:
Your meta tags on every page of your website should be different. First of all, for every page of content, you should be doing keyword research and picking optimal keywords anyway, remember that you are striving for search engine exposure for EVERY page of your site as per what people are searching for and not just the home page. The more pages that are properly indexed in serps for your keywords the more exposure your website gets. And the Meta Tags should be optimized with this same concept in mind.
For example, my sitewide keyword is laptop computers, and that is one of the keywords that I want my site to show up in search results for. So, I will use that keyword for main site Meta Tag.
Then I write a page of content on “How-To Buy a Laptop”, so I will research that longtail keywords and find the best ones for that content page and use them in that content page Meta Tag. This process will repeat for every page of my website.
Meta Tag Optimization Attributes:
Title - Most Important! By far the most important tag is the title and it must have your keywords in it so that it shows up in those search results.
Also the title should be interesting because this is what searchers will see in the results and so you want the titles to be eye-catching, clickable and most important to the point! Be direct, searchers are looking for something specific, so give it to them.
For example, if my keyword is Buy Cheap Laptops, then my title should simply state, “Buy Cheap Laptops Here” or “Browse and Buy all Models of Cheap Laptops”, “Save Money and Buy Cheap Laptops at our e-store” and NOT “You can Buy Cheap Laptops” that is vague, and they may click on the next site on the list that tells them in the title that it has what their looking for.
Description - Most Important! Description should be no more than 200-250 characters. The description should include your keywords and elaborate on what you offer. Once again, this is your chance to hook a click-through, be precise and get to the point of what you are offering as related to your title keywords. Make it eye-catching and interesting.
Keywords - Least Important. This attribute is least important because whatever keyword you want to rank for and have Google relate your site to is best achieved through keyword density within content and backlink anchor text. However, there are some search engines that do crawl and utilize your KW in Meta Tags and you should still add your keywords as suggestions for Google, it can’t hurt.
Here are a couple of examples of good Meta Tags:
HOME PAGE:
Title: Buy Cheap Laptop Computers. Many Used Cheap Laptops Available.
Description: Browse and buy all brands and models of cheap laptop computers, including new and used cheap laptops.
KW: Cheap Laptop Computers, Used Cheap Laptops, Laptops,
CONTENT PAGE:
Title: Simple Laptop Buying Guide. How-to Buy a Laptop Made Easy.
Description: Not sure how-to buy a laptop? Please read this simple laptop buying guide that details all the features that are important in choosing the right laptop.
KW: laptop buying guide, how-to buy a laptop,
Happy Meta Tagging!
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July 5th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
[...] you a lot of information about the backlinks you have out there with a comprehensive report for Search Engine Optimization [...]
July 6th, 2008 at 3:40 am
[...] Squidoo, there is no “Meta Tags” section, but Squidoo lenses are automatically coded with Search Engine Optimization tags and so it [...]
July 11th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
I enjoyed your writing style and I’ve added you to my Reader. Keep these posts coming.
[Reply ]
JR reply on July 11th, 2008 5:56 pm:
Thank you SEO Boot Camp and welcome to my blog!
[Reply ]
July 18th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
sir nice information
can u please tell us about robot.txt ? is it important for seo?
is this included in metatags?
[Reply ]
JR reply on July 18th, 2008 6:04 pm:
@ Ram
Yes the robots.txt file is very important for SEO, and its contents should be personalized depending on the site or blog. It is NOT a part of Meta Tags but is created as a separate file and uploaded to the root of your web directory. Here is a link to a robots.txt guide straight from the Google Webmaster Blog and it will tell you everything you need to know to build the file: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/01/controlling-how-search-engines-access.html
[Reply ]
July 24th, 2008 at 8:43 am
[...] Customize for each page of your website. See the full guide here: Simple Guide to Meta Tag Optimization. [...]