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What are Meta Tags?

Meta tags are HTML tags that help you control how some search engines may index your site, by using the keywords and descriptions you provide.

The keyword and description meta tags that you include in the html of your pages, provide information to search engines that will not be displayed by web browsers. Before you submit your pages to the search engines, it is crucial that you make sure they are search engine friendly. Here are some basic tips on what to do.

Keywords are the search terms your visitor enters into the search box when trying to find your site. It is very difficult to get high rankings based on keywords, so don't get too involved with keywords. Instead, you need to think about KEYPHRASES.

The easiest way to do this is to ask yourself, friends and family, what words they would give a search engine when looking for your site and by searching for sites with similar content to what you have.

If your business is geographically restricted, then your keyphrases should reflect this. For example, if you are an accountancy firm in Dallas, Texas, then include this in your keyphrase as by just putting "accountants" will not likely get you targeted traffic.

You should then choose at least 3 main keyphrases which suit the content of your site and include these keyphrases in your description, title and body text. This is important so let us say it again. Include your keyphrases in your description, page title and in your body text.

Here are a few more tips.

  • Keep your title no more than 6 to 10 words long.
  • Keep your keywords meta-tag length between 200 and 500 characters.
  • Your description should be no more than 200 characters long.
  • You should have different meta tags on every page of your site.

The first paragraph

The first paragraph of your page is very important and should reflect and expand upon everything in your title and meta tags. You need to have all those keyphrases in it.

Try to put this first paragraph as close to the <BODY> tag as possible. Avoid putting graphics or other HTML in front of your first paragraph as much as you can and where you do, for the sake of asthetic design, make use of the alt tag to place keyphrases.

You can also get a good idea of what keyphrases and page design techniques work well, by looking at other pages that do rate high with the major search engines.
 

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