Meta
Tags are HTML codes which provide information
on content of a webpage. They pass right information
on the web-page to search engines so that the
page is indexed under right category. We discussed
the basics of meta tags in last issue. In this
issue, we discuss how to create most important
meta tags.
There are a number of meta tags that
you can use in a HTML page. These are inserted
between <title> and </title> tags
of your HTML page. Following is a list of most
important meta tags that you must use in your
web-page, with examples, tips and tricks.
Title
Tag
Strictly, Title tag is not considered
a meta tag, but it has very strong bearing on
search engine ranking. Browsers display Title
tag at the top of screen.
Example:
<TITLE>Indian Handicraft - Marble
Statues from Jaipur</TITLE>
Tips
1. Use top keyword first followed
by subject description with more keywords.
2. Avoid hype (e.g. greatest, top,
best etc.) Pack as many of your top keywords as
possible into title tag.
Tricks
1. To be considered spider-friendly,
maximum length of title tag should not exceed
60 characters
Description
Meta Tag
The Description Meta Tag is a summary
of the content of the web-page.
Example:
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="A
description of your website that has lots of keywords
in it, and is about this long in length.">
Tips
Search engines often display the
Description meta tag along with your title in
their results. As the display space in search
result is limited, make sure the first sentence
of description tag is capable of capturing user
attention and use the rest of the tag to elaborate
further.
Tricks
Insert important keywords from Title.
To be considered spider-friendly, maximum length
should not exceed 150 characters.
Keywords
Meta Tag
The Keywords Meta Tag is a series
of keywords that represents the content of your
site. Search engines use the keywords found in
Keyword tag as well in the text to categorize
the web-page in search engine database. The algorithms
used are proprietary and closely guarded secret.
Example
<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="keyword
keyword keyword">
Tips
1. Ensure your chosen keywords are
relevant to your site and avoid excessive repetition
as many search engines will penalize your rankings
for attempting to abuse their system. Similar
to the Description meta Tag, search engines give
priority to the first few keywords. So focus on
your main keywords and then elaborate further
by using synonyms or other related words.
2. Arrange the keywords in decreasing
sequence of importance, (i.e. put the most important
keyword first, the least important last).
3. Use only keywords that you think
people will type in to find your website. Remember
to offer various ways of spelling your top keywords
if there are several.
Tricks
To be considered spider-friendly,
make sure total length of keywords does not exceed
850 characters.
Robots
META Tag
The Robots Meta Tag informs the spider
pages to be indexed.
Example
<META NAME="robots" CONTENT="index,
follow">
Tips
If you like search engine spiders
to follow your text links to other pages at your
site, add this meta tag. If you prefer to prevent
crawling and indexing of pages, simply type in
"noindex" instead of "index, follow".
Normally you would like the spider
to index as many pages of your web-site as possible
- so use this meta tag wherever possible.
Traps in
Meta Tags
Meta Tag
Lawsuits
Can you get sued for your meta tags
? Danny Sullivan, editor of Searchenginewatch.com
has listed the lawsuits in this context and precautions
one needs to take. Here's one example.
Playboy sued two adult web site operators
who spammed their pages with the word Playboy
and Playmate hundreds of times. This helped them
rise to the top of some search engine results
for a search on "Playboy." The defendants were
also using the terms Playboy and Playmate in the
site names, the domain names and in their slogans.
The San Francisco federal judge issued
a preliminary injunction against the operators,
deciding that trademark infringement and false
representation could be proven trial.
Selection
of Keywords
As you can see, selection of keywords
is one of the most important factor for favourable
search engine ranking. Hundreds of articles, books
and journals have been published on this subject,
so much so that some consider this as a new discipline.
This page is too short to discuss all that. Nevertheless,
we shall examine a few important features in next
issue. lp you set out on the right course.
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