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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 |
"-//W3C//DTD
HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN""http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> |
| |
|
| META Tags |
Title and META Tags
>
"META
Tags search engine optimization website promotion HTML"> |
|
| Body |
Introduction to Title and META Tags |
| |
|
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:
This is My
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.
The Description Tag
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. - Web Content Writer/ ...
... 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 web pages |
The description belongs inside of a Meta tag with the following syntax:
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.
The Keywords Tag
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:
"keyword1 keyword2 keyword3 keyword4 keyword5">
OR
"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
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. |
Positioning 
