So What's the Big Deal About Meta Tags?

When anyone publishes a web page, it really doesn't matter if it's a Business related site or just your own personal page, it's not much fun if you don't have any visitors, right?

Of course someone who is trying to build an income online is very much more interested in this than one who is only playing with a "home page".

According to some industry reports, better than 50% of visitors find your site by doing a "Search" with the Search Engine they like the best.

Every one of these Search Engines have unique ways of handling the additions of new sites. Some utilize Meta Tags and some do not, but here's the catch - They can change the way they do any or all of this at any time they decide to, without any prior notice.

In my opinion, you can drive yourself nuts trying to make sure you are in the "top" whatever.

There are a whole bunch of services out there loudly proclaiming a "guaranteed" listing in the "top 10" by using their service. Let's get real here, there can only be 10 sites in any "top 10" with any Search Engine. If you multiply that by the number of Search Engines, then maybe... you might be listed in the top ten with one. And that's a very BIG MAYBE!

The best thing you can do is try to make your site as Search Engine (SE) friendly as possible. One of the ways to do this is by the use of Meta Tags.

The first time I heard about Meta Tags, I knew that this was most decidedly something I needed to do, but not one of these references told me what the danged things were supposed to look like, what the proper format was, what all I should include, and on and on went the questions in my mind.

So for your information here is the proper format to use for your Meta Tags:- First, of course you'll have the beginning of your web document. Doesn't matter if you do this yourself or use a WYSIWYG editor.

Right after that is where the Meta Tags go. Here is the complete format for these...

(if you've developed a good title, that describes your site well, insert the very same thing in between the quote marks where I've inserted "your info" Do leave the quote marks in place.)

this is an HTML document,
you request they visit every 30 days to update the changes you've made,
your information is to be classified as "Consumer" information.

You can repeat your title info here, again if it's a complete title that really targets what your site is about. However, here you can elaborate more, up to 150 characters.

This one is really important! What would YOU search for using a SE and trying to find your site? What is the main focus of your site? Do you offer some free stuff? Information? What kind? Sell something? - What?

Spend some time deciding what the real key words should be for your site, up to 1000 characters.

Really this should be what you do first. Then build your "Title", and other information around these. Do NOT repeat key words more that 1 to 3 times.

Many search engines will consider this "Keyword Stuffing" and will not list your site at all.

This tag is asking the robot to list all of your site. Some engines list each page and some only list your entry or index page. But, if this tag is present, the "robot" will list the maximum it's been programmed to list.

This tag tells the robot that your site is of interest to the whole world and not just "regional" or "limited" in some other way.

This tag rates your site. Similar to the Movie or TV rating of programs. If your site is an "Adult" site, you'd better rate it that way.

If your site is intended for children you can check out these locations and register it for a better rating:- Register with SafeSurf, Weburbia or RSAC. I believe there is also an "icon" they'll allow you to include on your site.

This is of course self explanatory. I've left my info in place because I've been on the internet with copyright material since 1998. If your site is new this year, delete the 1998.

Did you create your site, or did someone else do it for you? That's what will decide what goes here.

All of this information should be included between the </title> tag and the </head> tag.

After that comes the <body> tag and then of course all the great information you've lovingly gathered together for your visitors.

Hope this helps to explain the importance of Meta Tags. Every page you develop should include these tags formatted with relevance to the page they're on.

Next time we'll take a look at some of the major NO NO's with regard to Meta Tags.

One biggie I want to mention here - Don't copy and use these tags from other sites! Remember, everything you see on someone else's site is copyright material even if you don't see the symbol or any reference to copyright.

It's an unwritten law and you can be sued for using their information without prior permission. I do as much "peeking" at source codes as anyone out there does. I even save some I see on my desktop, but all the code I save is for studying only. It's a great way to learn more about what I'm trying to do.

Often, I'll send an email thanking the webmaster for the help I received by studying their source code. I usually get a really nice reply for my effort, and I've made a new friend.

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So What's the Big Deal About Meta Tags?

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