Anyone who is unfamiliar with web site development, search engine optimization, and all the technical terms and usage surrounding HTML and computer language is apt to be very confused by the existence of meta-tags and all the varied opinions about them.
What are they? Why are they important? How do you properly construct, place, and use them?
I am not an expert in this science by any means. In fact, I am one of the people that probably discount meta-tag usage to some extent.
I see so much differing and conflicting advice and suggestion about what is important and what isn't - that it makes me wonder if anyone really knows the truth about the underground art of getting high search engine placement results. Who truthfully understands meta-tag importance?
I read an article recently by a search engine expert that expressed some of the same concern for mystery and false information floating around. I don't have a copy of the article or the author's name, unfortunately, so I can't quote what he had to say. But he did an excellent job of getting to the core of the issue and explaining what seemed to be a very simple but logical approach to developing good meta-tags.
So I will give you a few points that I remember from the article in hopes that it will at least give you some slight insight into this mysterious realm.
Meta-tags, he said, are "information packets" that are located at the head of every web page. You don't see them when you view a page on the Internet, but they're nonetheless there. You can see them in Internet Explorer by clicking on "View" then "Source."
There are a number of possible meta-tags that can be used, but the three that he suggests are of most importance are outlined below:
1. Title Tag. The title tag is possibly the most important. It should contain the key word that you hope the search engines will focus on when indexing your site and subsequently displaying the results in someone else's search on that term. If you search on a term and study the search engine results, chances are excellent that all the top results will have this key word somewhere in the title.
The author suggested that it helps to put your key word at the beginning or near the beginning of your title. You may also want to add other information, especially if your brand is well-known or important. Include additional terms that viewers might search on, like the company name, possibly the product name, or the business location.
The title tag is best left relatively short, like around 70 words total (including spaces.) There is no published standard, and the big search engines have long been mum about their preferences for the length of the tag.
We'll discuss the other two important meta-tags in Part 2. Stay tuned . . .
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