Are you looking to boost your website in the search rankings? Sure, building links and creating content are both important, but there’s something that you should do before that. You’ll want to make sure that your page’s meta data tags are properly filled out.
If your site is on WordPress, this is very easy. There’s a section at the bottom of the page in the back end, with your title, description and keywords. If you have a static html website, then the tags are within the actual files, and you would have to update them.
What Are Meta Tags Anyway?
Meta tags are behind-the-scenes directions for the search engines. They tell the search engines exactly what should be a priority. While some search engines value them in their algorithms more than others, they’re still a vital piece of on-page optimization.
Before you start linking to your website, or even producing the content, the meta tags should be the first piece of organization. If we use the analogy of a house, the meta tags would be the foundation. Sure you can find other ways to provide stability, but if the foundation is shaky, your efforts down the road are fruitless.
Title Tags
These tags indicate the title of the page to display when the search engine displays it in the results. Having the primary keyword in the title tag will help in ranking. Typically search engines will evaluate this tag up to 60 characters long.
Description
What do you want readers to know, from the small synopsis that will appear with your site in the results? Making this section keyword-rich also indicates importance. Typically search engines will evaluate this tag up to 160 characters long.
Keywords
These are the words that you want your website to be ranked for. Not all search engines prioritize this tag to the same degree, but it is still important to fill out. Typically search engines will evaluate the first 5-7 keywords placed in this tag.
Alt tags
When your website renders a picture, the search engines would like to know what to display, just in case the viewer’s web browser cannot load the picture. Hence, the alt tag. If you create an alt tag to go with every photo (and use keywords where appropriate) these can greatly benefit your efforts to rank the site.
Matt Brennan is a Chicago-area marketing writer and copy editor. He is also the author of Write Right-Sell Now.
The short and simple roaesn why meta tags are dead is spamming. Whensearch engines allowed webmasters to come up with their own keywords,keyphrase and descriptions it didn’t take long for them to notice thatkeyword spamming was taking place.For example, any web master could add free stuff as a meta tag keyword to their site even if nothing on their web site refers to anythingabout free stuff. This would make it possible for people to get visitors to find their page on search engines for phrases that are misleading in nature.Since meta tags are dead, search engines have algorithms to determinewhat your keywords, keyphrases and description will be. This means youcan’t really fake your keywords anymore. You can somewhat choose whatthey are but you really need the content to make them stand out. Without the right keyword densities you won’t easily fake the system. And since each search engine has their own algorithm you’ll rank differently ineach of them.That pretty much sums up why meta tags are a thing of the past. Too many webmasters were misusing keywords.VN:F [1.9.10_1130]please wait…VN:F [1.9.10_1130](from 1 vote)