Text Component: Meta Tags Optimization
Meta tags page titles
The page title is the single most vital piece of information
on your page when it comes to Meta tags optimization and achieving
good rankings in search engines. The words you use in your title carry
much more weight than anything else on your page. So use this limited
space cleverly.
Page titles are written this way in HTML code:
< title>Your page title here</title>
The page title Meta tag is placed inside the header tag in
top of the HTML page:
< head>
< title>Your page title here</title>
< /head>
Limit your page titles
Limit your page titles to 50-60 characters as most search
engines do not read or list more than this. Use our Meta-tag
tool to write html good title tags.
See also the Get Visited section for more information on how
to write good titles.
Introduction to Meta tags optimization
Meta tags are pieces of text located in the header
of your web pages. Text in a Meta tag is used to
describe
the page. Meta tags often are referred to as META-data,
which means "data about data",
or in this case, data about your page.
Meta tags can help search engines better understand
and present links to your web site. Thus, it is highly
recommended that
you fill out the Meta tags on ALL of your web
pages.
Meta tags that are important to use
There are many kinds of Meta tags and standards,
but the only two you need when optimizing a web site are
META-description
tag and the META-keywords tag.
The two Meta tags are written this way in HTML
code:
< META NAME="DESCRIPTION" CONTENT="Put
your description here ….">
< META NAME="KEYWORDS" CONTENT="Put your keywords here ….">
The Meta tags are placed inside the header tag at the top
of the HTML code and just below the page title:
< head>
< title>Page title here</title>
< META NAME="DESCRIPTION" CONTENT="Put your description
here ….">
< META NAME="KEYWORDS" CONTENT="Put your keywords here ….">
< /head> Adding Meta tags to your web pages
How to add Meta tags to your web pages depends on how you
maintain your web site. You should refer to
the manual of the editor or content management system you are using for
further detailed instructions.
In most cases, there will be a simple box
somewhere with two fields to fill out: The META-description and the META-keywords,
or just "description" and "keywords".
Your program will usually take care of inserting
the necessary HTML code in the right place
for you.
If you are coding your web pages by hand or in
a simple HTML editor, make sure you do not
make any syntax errors. If the
Meta tags have not been coded correctly search
engines will not be able to read
and use them.
Writing good META-keywords
META-keywords are very often misunderstood and
misused. Some webmasters put hundreds of keywords
in this tag in the completely
unrealistic hope of receiving good rankings
for everything listed. Some webmasters
even include keywords that have absolutely
nothing to do with the actual web page or web site. This
action has forced the search
engines to
lower the META-keywords importance in the
determination of what a web page is about. However, some search
engines still read and
use the
META-keywords. Thus, remember to write relevant
META-keywords for all your web pages.
Tip — Meta tag optimization:
Write a unique set of keywords for each web page.
NEVER copy the same set of keywords for all
your web pages. Do not add
keywords that are not 100% directly related
to each web page. To be safe, only
use keywords that are found in the visual
text of your web pages.
Commas
It is often discussed whether or not to use commas
between keywords. Most search engines will
not care as they remove
the commas before reading the keywords, but
some search engines might still use
the comma to find exact keyword and keyword
phrase matches. In any case, the META-keyword tag does
not carry much weight in the
overall
ranking algorithm for any of the major search
engines and you will never get penalized for
either using or not using commas.
Some people
use commas because it makes it easier to read
in the raw code. This can be helpful if you
want to edit the Meta tags by hand at a
later
time.
Tip: Meta tag optimization
The limit for the META-keyword tag is 1000 characters
but you should never add that many keywords.
Insert the 3 to 5
most important keywords for each given web
page in the META-keywords tag - no more!
The more keywords you use, the less weight
they each carry.
Will Meta tags optimization give me top rankings?
No, Meta tags are not magic bullets. You will
not achieve top rankings on keywords if you
only use them in your Meta
tags. However, we still recommend you fill
out your Meta tags as some search engines
do read and use the data. In those search
engines, it will give you a better chance of receiving
relevant visitors if you have
{ShowGlossar:301}
optimization. That is to say, correct, optimized,
and relevant Meta tags on all your pages.
Remember, only those words that appear
in the
main body of the page should be in the Meta
tags.
Read
more about your SEO Effect Meta tag analyzer
and generator to Optimize your Meta tags
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