eg: UK or Brides UK or Classical Art or Buy Music or Spirituality
 
eg: UK or Brides UK or Classical Art or Buy Music or Spirituality
 

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[W382]What Are Meta Tags
by Kathryn Lively, Kat
Confused yet? Depending upon what you read about search engine optimization, Meta tags are either the be-all, end-all of good SEO practices, or an irrelevant exercise overshadowed by more important things, namely site content and link popularity. Over the years, the question of Meta tags has been discussed and debated by people in the SEO game, and in some cases sites have been taken to task to using certain words in Meta data not appropriate for the site's material. Whatever you choose to believe about Meta and such HTML tags, let it be clear that if you are going to implement such code on your site, it is best to do so correctly and in a way that will enhance rather than harm your site.

A quick survey of Meta tags

When one thinks of Meta tags, more than likely two types come to mind. In actuality, there are a number of Meta tags that may be applied to the code of a webpage. The more popular ones include:

* KEYWORDS - A repository for placing keywords relevant to the website in one place, to allow search engines to find and therefore cache the site appropriately
* DESCRIPTION - Working on the same principal of the KEYWORD tag, the DESCRIPTION tag allows the website owner to summarize the purpose of the site
* ROBOTS - This tag gives instruction to the search engine spiders that visit the site, either allowing or forbidding them to cache the information on the page
* COPYRIGHT - Affirms the ownership of the site, handy if copyrighted material is used
* GENERATOR - Confirms the type of publishing tool used to create the page. HTML editors like Dreamweaver or FrontPage may automatically insert this tag when a new page is created
* REVISIT - Instructs search engine spiders to visit the site at specific intervals, handy if you update often, though the validity of this tag has been debated

DESCRIPTION

For the website owner who wishes to keep specific information properly indexed, Meta tags can prove useful in that respect. From an SEO standpoint, it is argued that the most important of these tags is the DESCRIPTION tag, more so than KEYWORDS and ROBOTS. Among the major search engines, often the data used in the Meta DESCRIPTION tag is used as the site's description in search results.

Therefore, it is important to make sure that the content of this tag provides enough information in so many words to entice visitors to click-through. As search engines may truncate descriptions after so many characters or words, it is important to use this tag for a descriptive site summary without being too wordy.

Authors, in particular those with multiple books, may wish to use the DESCRIPTION tag to summarize the site in its entirety. Elements in the tag should definitely include name, the primary genre written, and what incentives the site offers - not just the books.

EXAMPLE ONE: Browse Jane Doe's site of award-winning mystery novels for sample chapters of her latest works, her personal writing diary, and a chance to win a free signed book.

EXAMPLE TWO: Mary Roe writes engaging historical romance. Read sample chapters of To Marry a Thief, her latest in the Regency London series, and sign up for Jane's free newsletter for contest and release information.

In the above samples the Meta description defines the purpose of each website. Each specifies the author and genre and offers calls to action - one to enter a free book giveaway and the other to opt-into a free newsletter with the promise of contest wins. Both emphasize the reading samples on the site, allowing visitors to try before they buy. In just two short sentences, the entire scope of each site is outlined, and this is what the search engines will pick up as they cache the site for further information.

Bottom line, be concise in your description tag and offer incentive for a user to click-through to your site.

KEYWORDS

The debate over whether or not Meta keywords are important may rage for years to come. In the early days of SEO it was common practice to use this tag to repeat main keywords ad nauseam or "stuff" the tag with popular search phrases unrelated to the site's topic. As expected, search engines have become wise to such black hat practices and may even penalize a site for trying underhanded tricks to get top results. These days, SEO experts may advise novice webmasters to focus more on Meta description, site content, and organic inbound linking. At best, Meta keywords may serve as a guide for search engines to the the focus of your site.

Should you choose to use this tag, choose keywords that are most relevant to your site and content. The mystery author may use his/her name as a search point and other relevant terms: mystery novels, mystery books, mystery fiction, thrillers, detective stories, virginia authors, murder mysteries, and so forth. There is no set rule for minimum and maximum word counts in this tag - some websites rank high with three words in the Meta keyword tag, while others with 100 words may not do as well, and vice versa. Quality always trumps quantity where this tag is concerned.

Bottom line: relevance is key, but don't spend too much time on this tag. Save your energy for building a concise, user-friendly website. Once you have crafted the HTML code of your site, make sure what you have to offer visitors is relevant and useful, informative enough to inspire organic linkbacks. A good SEO balance can help bring the traffic, and sales.

There is a hidden element in your webpage that can help your marketing efforts considerably. Although many webmasters tend to ignore these little gems, the fact of the matter is that they can help you to outdo your competition in many cases. I'm talking about meta tags and the proper use of them. Of course, along with the proper use of these tags comes a cautionary statements as well. Meta tags optimization needs to be approached properly or else you run the risk of being dropped from the search engines or being buried so deep that nobody is ever going to find you at all.

The most important element as far as meta tags optimization is concerned is the title of the webpage itself. This is something that you should take a considerable amount of time optimizing and writing. First of all, you should always be including your target keyword or keyword phrase within the title tag itself. After all, this is what people are going to see whenever they are searching on Google and other search engines. If you use the target keyword phrase and people search for that phrase, it will become bold whenever they are viewing it in the search engines. This can increase your click through rate considerably.

Another important part of meta tags optimization is making sure that you put a compelling line in the title tag as well. Although it may be enough for you to simply to include the keyword phrase that you are targeting, adding a few additional words which will entice the people to click on the link to your website can be quite beneficial. For example, if your keyword phrase was "dog training" you would want to use something enticing in the title tag that included the keyword phrase, such as "Dog Training Tips and Tricks".

Another important part of meta tags optimization is the description tag. Although many people consider this to be a dead tag, the search engines still use it, at the very least for text in the search engine results. Even Google from time to time will still use the description tag although for some reason or another they will, at times, simply pull random text off of the webpage. Make sure that you include your target keyword phrase in the description tag as well as a call to action. It may give you a little boost in the search engines but if you use the tag correctly, you will see a jump in your visitors from the search engines.

The only other meta tag that really should be looked at is the keyword tag. This is not as important of an element in meta tags optimization as it used to be but it is still worth including. Use your target keywords as well as a view related keyword phrases that are included on the webpage. Be careful not to overdo it or it may be considered spamming by the search engines and you could receive a penalty.

Article Source : Pg. 17

About Author
Both Kathryn Lively & Guido Nussbaum are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Kathryn Lively has sinced written about articles on various topics from Lose Weight, Laptops and Advertising Guide. Kathryn Lively writes for CINIVA Systems, , and for FlowCushion, the air pressure. Kathryn Lively's top article generates over 673000 views. to your Favourites.

Guido Nussbaum has sinced written about articles on various topics from Cooking Tips, Finances and Cooking Tips. Another great way to drive traffic to your website is to take advantage of . Guido Nussbaum's top article generates over 90500 views. to your Favourites.
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