Seopt.com: Optimizing Title Tags, Description and Keyword Meta Tags

»» Meta Tag Optimization

An HTML document contains three sections. The first is a Document Declaration Statement which tells the requesting agent what version of HTML the web page is using. The second is the HEAD element which contains the TITLE and META Tags. The HEAD section is meant to give requesting agents general information about the web page. The third section is the body, which is what is translated by your browser into a viewable web page.

For example, part of the HTML for this web page looks like this:

Document Declaration

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN""http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

<HTML>

META Tags

<HEAD>

<TITLE>Title and META Tags</TITLE>
<meta name="description" content=" Describes the use of Titles and META Tags to those interested in doing their own search engine optimization (SEO)." >
<meta name="keywords" content= "META Tags search engine optimization website promotion HTML" >

</HEAD>

Body

<BODY> Introduction to Title and META Tags </BODY>

</HTML>

Although META tags were once an important tool, their abuse by search engine optimizers, website designers, and Internet marketers has diminished their effectiveness in web site promotion. Search engines used to trust us (at least in part) to tell them what a web page was about, what type of content it had, and under what keyphrases it should be appear. Unfortunately, those days are long over.

Even so, META tags certainly don't hurt, they may sometimes count toward your keyword density, and they are still recognized by some major search engines.

Here's the tricky part: Although the standards for HTML are defined by the W3C Consortium, the standards for META tags aren't. In fact, there are no standards. That is, any search engine, browser, directory, or exuberant webmaster can choose or promote their own META tags--and they have. For example GigaBlast accepts META tags such as "zipcode" and "country", and Google accepts a "Googlebot" tag that will allow you to remove web pages from its index. Many of the creators of META tags no longer use them themselves, but the tags continue to hang around in old documents. And new optimizers sometimes think they've found the Holy Grail when they discover a "hidden" META tags such as the GeoCities "mytopic" tag that allowed you to classify your web site under the category of your choice.

Today, there are only a few META tags that are worth your optimizing. Luckily, the list is short:

Title
Keywords
Description
Robots

»» The Title Tag

Title belongs in the HEAD section between an opening and closing Title Tag, like so:

<TITLE>This is My Title</TITLE>

A search-engine friendly web page Title will follow three rules:

The Title should be less than 64 characters in length (W3C). That's exactly the character-length of this sentence with spaces.
A Title should be informative about the web page content. It should be understandable outside of context. For example, "Introduction" is not a good page Title, but "Introduction to Search Engines" is a good Title. Important: The Title of a page appears as the link to your site in search engine results. Make it something your customers will be likely to click on!
A Title should be keyword rich, but should not repeat keywords. That is, a Title such as "Optimization for Websites, Optimization for Search Engines, Optimization for Good Ranking," is considered spam by search engines. A Title such as "SEO Optimization and Search Engine Ranking by Company X" is informative and appropriately keyword-rich.

Of all elements in the HEAD section, the Title is the most important and is the only one still routinely used by almost all search engines.

Description Tags

The description is the second most important element of the HEAD section. Although it is most often not used to determine search engine rankings, the Meta description is sometimes used as the description under your link in search engine results. A good web page description can mean the difference between someone clicking on your link or skimming down to your next competitor.

SEO Search Engine Listing Using Good Title & Description

Website Content Writer, Houston Writers for Hire!
Houston based professional website content writer for hire, specializing in the creation of promotional, informational web site material, and e-commerce web site ...
www.thewriterforhire.com - 16k - Cached - Similar pages

SEO Search Engine Listing Using Poor or Absent Title & Description

John Doe Systems, Inc.
... Experience working within a web content organization, preferably an ... competition hosted by the Houston Press Club ... OH: Second Place - Ohio's Best Website; Ohio AP ...
www.johndoe.com/writers.htm - 17k - Cached - Similar pages

The description belongs inside of a Meta tag with the following syntax:

<meta name="description" content="This is Where I write My Eye-Catching Description.">

It doesn't hurt to throw a few keywords into the description, but write your description with the consumer in mind. Most search engines won't display more than 150-200 characters in a description. (Google displays about 160.) So, the best description is a concise summary of your web page written in just one or two short sentences.

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»» Keyword Tags

Keywords have been so badly abused, that many search engine optimizers have declared them dead. Still, even if only a few search engines still use the keyword META tag, every lit bit helps. Keep them short and sweet. Don't repeat a keyword more than twice (some say don't ever repeat a keyword), and don't overstuff your keyword META tags. A good keyword tag has 5-20 well-chosen, succinct phrases that may or may not be separated by commas.

The keyword tag appears inside of a META tag with the following syntax:

<meta name="keywords" content="keyword1 keyword2 keyword3 keyword4 keyword5" >

<meta name="keywords" content="keyword1, keyword2, keyword3, keyword4, keyword5">

The only major search engine that still advertises the use of keywords is Inktomi. Following is their keyword Meta tag policy:

This line is not as important as is commonly believed. Put phrases that relate to this page in the Keywords line, separated by commas. Don't bother including very common phrases, such as "expert" or "rock and roll". The Keywords line should always be tailored for the particular web page; if it's the same for every page on your web site, you are really better off not using the Keywords line at all. Don't overload the Keywords line; as a rule of thumb, if you're putting things in the Keywords line that aren't in the rest of the page, you're probably putting too much in." Inktomi Content Policy

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»» The Robots Tag

A robots Meta tag is meant to instruct search engine spiders or 'bots' in how to index--or not to index--your web site. The default is "index, follow", which means that without a robots META tag, the search engine spiders should assume you want them to index your site and follow its links.

The robots tag has six possible attributes: index, follow, noindex, nofollow, all and none. With the noindex, nofollow, index and follow tags there are four possible combinations:

www.robotstxt.org describes their usage as follows:

INDEX means that robots are welcome to include this page in search services. FOLLOW means that robots are welcome to follow links from this page to find other pages. So a value of "NOINDEX" allows the subsidiary links to be explored, even though the page is not indexed. A value of "NOFOLLOW" allows the page to be indexed, but no links from the page are explored. This may be useful if the page is a free entry point into pay-per-view content, for example.

If you use only one attribute such as "noindex", the search engine will assume that the second attribute was at its default value, "follow".

The "all" and "none" tags are meant to be used alone as follows:

Using "all" is identical to "index, follow". "None" is identical to "noindex, nofollow", and tells the search engines to ignore the web page.

The robots tag is accepted by most all search engines. However, a robots.txt file is the preferred standard. Although neither one will ensure that search engines will index your site, it can't hurt to have both. Think of them as search-engine welcome-mats.

For More on META Tags see the following article on Advanced META Tags

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»» About the Author

Sean Odom runs a Houston, Texas based SEO Consulting firm specializing in search
engine marketing and Social Media Optimization.

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