The META tags

There are two META tags that appear to be of use by most of the search spiders: META keywords and META description. If you use any other META tags, place them after these two.

The META Keywords

Syntax:

<meta name=”keywords” content=”keyword 1, keyword 2, keyword 3, …” />

Its initial purpose was to give search engine robots an idea of what the page is about to help with rankings. Unfortunately, as soon as this became evident, so many spammers started abusing it that spiders now have discounted the importance of this tag by at least half of its original ranking value. Most experts tend to think this tag has lower weight than the META description tag.

The best way to handle the META keywords is to use your main keyword phrase, a secondary keyword phrase, and a few synonyms of your keyword phrase in your keyword META tag. Make sure to focus the words in your keyword tag on that one page only, not on every single keyword that could possibly be associated with your entire website. Focus your tags on that page only.

Remember if you use many of the same words in your different keyword phrases, it could look as if you’re spamming the engine, so be careful.

The META Description

Syntax:

<meta name=”description” content=”a short description of your site” />

The contents of the META description tag is what most search engines and directories will show under your title in the search result list. If you have not provided any META Description Tag to your Web page, the search engines try to make one for you, often using the first few words of your Web page or a text selection where the keyword phrases searched by the users appear. If the Search Engine makes up a description by picking up text from your page, the generated description may not do you Web page justice.

The Meta Description Tag needs to be kept brief yet informative. A description of about 25-30 words should be fine. Keywords and key phrases should be included in the Meta Description Tag, though care should be taken not to repeat them too often. Like the title tag, the META Description tag should be customized for each page depending on the content theme and target keywords of this page.

Remember that even though Google doesn’t consider the META description tag when determining relevancy, it often uses the contents of this tag in the snippet description of your page in the search results. So, make your description captivating and designed to attract traffic. The Meta Description Tag should be appealing to users, tempting them to click on the link to your site and visit your Web estate.

Below is a nice example of an informative description optimized for “weather forecast software”:

“The only weather forecast software that brings long-range weather forecasts, daily horoscopes, biorhythm calculator, Web cams, and weather maps to your desktop.”

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