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Search Engine
Optimization 101
Titles and Meta Tags
In the early days of search engine
optimization, marketers focused on meta-tags as the
primary way to attract search engine traffic. Meta-tags
are HTML tags that help describe the document they
are located within. Today we know that search engines
not only look at meta-tags, but a sites
content, internal
link structure and link
popularity.
Meta-tags are still an important tool
for successful search engine marketing. Search engines
focus on three primary tags to help them determine
the relevance of a website for a particular search
phrase.
The Title Tag is one of the most important
tags for a search engine. The Title Tag should
describe exactly what the document contains. It should
contain keywords, but not repeats, of terms you hope
to be found for. It should also be as readable as
possible. You must consider that the Title Tag will
be the first thing someone sees if you appear in a
search result.
Too often, companies or individuals
focus on making sure their company name or proper
name appears in every Title Tag on their website.
Imagine walking into an immense library that contained
millions of books all with the same title. You would
go crazy and never find what you were looking for.
The Title Tag should be no longer
than 80 characters and should contain words and phrases
that accurately describe the content of a page. Try
to make the Title Tags located throughout your site
unique and relevant. Every word in the Title should
be contained somewhere in the page they are used for.
Research has also shown that a call to action will
usually produce more clicks than a basic description.
Example for this page:
<TITLE>Title Tags, Meta Keywords,
and Descriptions - Marketleap Guidelines</TITLE>
Remember to look at the log files
of your website, with a tool like WebTrends, and determine
the top keywords that people are finding your site
with today. You can then fine tune your Title Tags
throughout your website to reflect popular terms that
you are highly relevant for. This will only show you
the keywords you are performing well for today. There
are likely many terms that won't show up in
your log files. You'll want to research those
using tools from Overture or WordTracker.
The next tag that search engines use
to determine relevance is the Description Tag. The
description for a website is a 250 character explanation
of the page and its contents. It should contain keywords
and phrases you hope to be found for, but it should
also read like an introductory lead-in for the topic
or service you are highlighting. The Description Tag
is another call to action.
Example for this page:
<META name="description"
content="Visit Marketleap today to learn the
basic guidelines for writing great title tags, META
keywords and descriptions for your web pages.">
Your Description and Title Tag together
should be compelling enough to generate a click through
from a search result. You have to put yourself in
the search engine visitor's position. They are
looking for something very specific. The description
you provide for your page has to convince the person
that you are providing exactly what they are looking
for. If a user comes to your site and the Title and
Description Tags don't accurately match the
content they actually find, you are less likely to
be considered a reputable source of information.
The last meta-tag that is important
to search engines is the Keyword Tags. Keyword Tags
should contain less than 250 characters including
spaces and use important keywords and phrases consistent
with the HTML Body Text and Page Title. No single
word should be used more than twice.
Keyword Tags should contain realistic
keyword terms that you hope to compete for. The more
generic the term you include in your keywords, the
more likely you are to be swimming in an ocean of
7 million other documents. Being specific and accurate
are the ingredients to success with keywords. It's
important that any keywords you use in your meta-tags
actually exist in the pages they are used for.
Example:
<META name="keywords"
content="title tags meta keywords descriptions
marketleap guidelines">
Titles and Description tags are the
most important tags that search engines consider
to determine relevancy. Search engines also need to
be able to successfully crawl your website so that
they can include them in their database. That's
where your link architecture becomes very important.
Read more about link architecture here.
Here's a quick checklist
to consider when writing tags:
Title:
- Provides call to action
- YES/NO?
- Contains less than 80
characters - YES/NO?
- Uses important keywords
and phrases - YES/NO?
- Describes what the page
is about - YES/NO?
- Consistent with other
content components - YES/NO?
META Keywords:
- Contains less than 250
characters - YES/NO?
- Uses important keywords
and phrases - YES/NO?
- Minimal repetition of
individual words - YES/NO?
- Consistent with other
content components - YES/NO?
META Description:
- Provides call to action
- YES/NO?
- Contains less than 250
characters - YES/NO?
- Uses important keywords
and phrases - YES/NO?
- Describes what the page
is about - YES/NO?
- Consistent with other
content components - YES/NO?
Resources:
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