Perhaps I will find consensus if I just say that Meta Tags are not nearly
as important as they used to be, and are actually somewhere between
dangerous and merely ineffective when aggressively used.
There was a link posted earlier to what is described as an SEO browser,
this is what your website looks like in that browser:
For comparison, here is one of mine,
You might want to use it to look at your competitors sites and try to
establish any meaningful correlation. Then, forget what they’ve done and
try to imagine yourself as a curious user of your site - who can also read
page code, meta tags, and has a healthy distrust of marketing-speak (aka,
bullcrap). What will your experience be like? What I find is less is often
more, like with your wordy page titles. Search engines only display the
first little bit of page titles (and real people only scan so far ahead) so
why not ditch all the scattershot and concentrate on a focused human
description geared toward a human attention span?
I know, because you want to be found in search results. Even with good
keywords - that is, keywords that match actual content of your page while
matching the words used by people searching for you - that can be very
difficult. Add to that the growing sophistication of search engines and the
desire of their masters to “humanize” the web experience. You have to start
thinking of your website not as something that serves your needs, but
something that serves the needs of the users who will visit it. In theory,
if it’s serving their needs, they will be able to find it.
Keywords and Descriptions for each page should be reflective of the content
of each page… (just as the content to be reflective of what your users are
looking for) Especially as search engines will find more than just your
home page and you should rightly expect the home page won’t necessarily be
the point of introduction to your site. A website is less of a linear,
book-like thing and more of a sculpture - that you can approach from many
angles. A page on how people can find you (contact page) can have all the
information about the communities you serve, and how people in those areas
can find you.
Getting links to your site from other sites in those communities will help
too. Meta Tags won’t fool anyone if you’re not part of those communities.
Find out who is publishing in these communities and see what you can do to
get noticed by them. Sponsor a community event or group that gets you press
and links, and be strategic about publishing endorsements, press releases,
and case studies for your own client work… not just portfolio shots but
inspiring bits that reveal your process and how you serve clients in those
communities you want to be noticed in.
There, that should give you something to think about.
–
Ernie Simpson
On Sat, Dec 29, 2012 at 9:28 AM, Mike Thornley email@hiddenwrote:
Hi All
Can someone explain to me the use of meta tags and how they are indexed
etc by the search bots.
I have launched a new site for my business, we are a graphic design,
print, web design, property marketing and sign business. After doing lots
of research regarding SEO, I am going through the site and making it as SEO
friendly as can be.
I have looked at my competitors tags and have a question.
Listed below are the home page tags of a competitor:
“graphic design, design agency, web designers, printers, printing,
worksop, retford”
I understand that words within commas are one keyword phrase, the last two
on the list are town names.
My question is, do the search bots link two keyword phrases from one meta
tag list when indexing and searching
ie from the competitors list above, if I searched for “graphic design
worksop” would the search engine see that within their list.
Or would I need a tag of “graphic design worksop” in one phrase.
The reason for the question is that we are in the centre of several large
towns, all within 20 miles, so would like to be seen if searched in each
town etc.
I realise ranking is not just about meta tags.
Thanks
Mike
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