Title:
* Keyword use in Title Tag
* Keyword use in Domain Name
* Keyword use in Anchor Tags
* Keyword use in Body Text
* Keyword use in Page URL
* Keyword use in H1 Tags
* Keyword use in H2, H3, H(x) Tags
* Keyword use in Images Alt and Title Attributes
* Keyword use in Description Meta Tag
* Keyword use in Bold/Strong Tags
* Keyword use in Keywords Meta Tag
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
1/
Keyword use in Title Tag
Utilizing the targeted search term or phrase in the title tag
Importance
Not only is the title tag a strongly weighted factor by Google, but having good titles is also very important for a high CTR in SERPS. And undoubtedly your best chance to catch a searcher attention and convert into a visitor. Another point is that people tend to link to pages using the title as anchor text. Always give attention to titles, just stuffing the title tag full with keywords is bad practice.
2/
Keyword use in Domain Name
Including the targeted keyword in the domain name (e.g. keyword.com)
Importance
If the domain name is an exact match and aged than it is strongly weighted by Google. Owners of keyword domains are blessed, not only because of the limited availability from keyword domains, but people also tend to link to pages using the URL as anchor text. In that case is the targeted keyword in every URL.
3/
Keyword use in Anchor Tags
Including the targeted keyword in the anchor tags
Importance
Keywords in anchor tags are for some years an important criterion of the Google algorithm. Links from the target site to the target page weight the same as an inbound link from another site to the target page. That's one reason why a good sites link structure is very important.
4/
Keyword use in Body Text
Using the targeted search term in the visible, HTML text of the page
Importance
It is important to use keyword phrases throughout the page where it makes sense, but never forget that body text is for visitors.
5/
Keyword use in Page URL
Including target terms in the webpage URL (e.g. example.com/keyword-phrase)
Importance
Including keywords in the page URL is not a strongly weighted search engine ranking factor, but the point is that people tend to link to pages using the URL as anchor text. Also having your keywords bolded in the listing URL from the search engines can catch a searcher attention.
6/
Keyword use in H1 Tags
Creating an H1 tag with the targeted search term/phrase
Importance
The use of H1 tags is very overrated and often abused.
Keyword use in H2, H3, H(x) Tags
Placing targeted terms in the H2, H3 headline HTML tags
Importance
see H1 tags
5/
Keyword use in Images Alt and Title Attributes
Using target keywords inside images alt and title attributes
Importance
When an image is used in place of anchor text, the alt acts as anchor text. Alt attributes for linked images do have some importance. It is an important ranking factor for Image search.
6/
Keyword use in Description Meta Tag
Utilizing keywords in the description meta tag in a webpages HTML header
Importance
Utilizing a description Meta tag is important for display purposes in the SERPS, and can influence users to click on a listing. The meta description is still used as the listing description for search engines. Having your keywords bolded in the listing description from the search engines can catch a searcher attention. Just stuffing the description Meta tag full with keywords is bad practice.
7/
Keyword use in Bold/Strong Tags
Positioning keywords in HTML text with strong/bold tags
Importance
Setting words apart from the rest of the text indicates that they are important, but I haven't seen real evidence to show this as being a real ranking factor.
8/
Keyword use in Keywords Meta Tag
Utilizing keywords in the keywords meta tag
Importance
The keywords Meta tag is not used, and has never been used by Google. There is no search engine left who uses the keywords Meta tag.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Search Engine Features For Webmasters
The search engine features chart below is designed primarily for webmasters who care about how crawler-based search engines index their sites. It provides a summary of important factors and features that can affect how sites are indexed and ranked. Full explanations of items can be found immediately below the comparison chart.
Human-powered search engines like the Open Directory are not listed on this chart because they do not crawl the web to create their listings. See the How Search Engines Work page for an explanation of the differences between crawler-based and human-powered services.
See the Search Engine Features For Searchers page for a summary of how search engines display their results and other information that may be of interest to searchers, rather than search engine marketers and site promoters.
The How Search Engines Work section available to Search Engine Watch members provides more detailed information about the crawlers listed below. This section is just one of the many benefits that Search Engine Watch members receive. To learn more about becoming a member, please visit the membership information page.
This chart covers the crawler of AllTheWeb, AltaVista, Google, Inktomi and Teoma. Some of these crawlers power other search engines, and the relationships are shown on the Search Engine Results page.
Deep Crawl
All crawlers will find pages to add to their web page indexes, even if those pages have never been submitted to them. However, some crawlers are better than others. This section of the chart shows which search engines are likely to do a "deep crawl" and gather many pages from your web site, even if these pages were never submitted. In general, the larger a search engine's index is, the more likely it will list many pages per site. See the Search Engine Sizes page for the latest index sizes at the major search engines.
Frames Support
This shows which search engines can follow frame links. Those that can't will probably miss listing much of your site. However, even for those that do, having individual frame links indexed can pose problem. Be sure to read the Search Engines And Frames page for tips on overcoming the problems with frames and search engines.
robots.txt
The robots.txt file is a means for webmasters to keep search engines out of their sites. Search Engine Watch members have access to the Blocking Crawlers With Robots.txt page, which covers the robots.txt file in more detail. The Web Robots Pages: The Robots Exclusion Protocolpage also provides official information about robots.txt.
Meta Robots Tag
This is a special meta tag that allows site owners to specify that a page shouldn't be indexed. It is explained more on the How HTML Meta Tags Work page and also on the Blocking Crawlers With The Meta Robots Tag page, available to Search Engine Watch members. The Web Robots Pages: The Robots META tagpage also provides official information about robots.txt.
Paid Inclusion
Shows whether a search engine offers a program where you can pay to be guaranteed that your pages will be included in its index. This is NOT the same as paid placement, which guarantees a particular position in relation to a particular search term. The Submitting To Crawlers page provides links to various paid inclusion programs.
Full Body Text
All of the major search engines say they index the full visible body text of a page, though some will not index stop words or exclude copy deemed to be spam (explained further below). Google generally does not index past the first 101K of long HTML pages.
Stop Words
Some search engines either leave out words when they index a page or may not search for these words during a query. These stop words are excluded as a way to save storage space or to speed searches.
Meta Description
All the major crawlers support the meta description tag, to some degree. The ones actually named on the chart are very consistent. If you have a meta description tag on your pages, you'll most likely see the content used in some way.
The How HTML Meta Tags Work page explains how to use the meta description tag, and the Search Engine Display Chart for Search Engine Watch members provides a more detailed breakdown of how crawler-based search engines form descriptions.
Meta Keywords
Shows which search engines support the meta keywords tags, as explained on the How HTML Meta Tags Work page.
Human-powered search engines like the Open Directory are not listed on this chart because they do not crawl the web to create their listings. See the How Search Engines Work page for an explanation of the differences between crawler-based and human-powered services.
See the Search Engine Features For Searchers page for a summary of how search engines display their results and other information that may be of interest to searchers, rather than search engine marketers and site promoters.
The How Search Engines Work section available to Search Engine Watch members provides more detailed information about the crawlers listed below. This section is just one of the many benefits that Search Engine Watch members receive. To learn more about becoming a member, please visit the membership information page.
This chart covers the crawler of AllTheWeb, AltaVista, Google, Inktomi and Teoma. Some of these crawlers power other search engines, and the relationships are shown on the Search Engine Results page.
Deep Crawl
All crawlers will find pages to add to their web page indexes, even if those pages have never been submitted to them. However, some crawlers are better than others. This section of the chart shows which search engines are likely to do a "deep crawl" and gather many pages from your web site, even if these pages were never submitted. In general, the larger a search engine's index is, the more likely it will list many pages per site. See the Search Engine Sizes page for the latest index sizes at the major search engines.
Frames Support
This shows which search engines can follow frame links. Those that can't will probably miss listing much of your site. However, even for those that do, having individual frame links indexed can pose problem. Be sure to read the Search Engines And Frames page for tips on overcoming the problems with frames and search engines.
robots.txt
The robots.txt file is a means for webmasters to keep search engines out of their sites. Search Engine Watch members have access to the Blocking Crawlers With Robots.txt page, which covers the robots.txt file in more detail. The Web Robots Pages: The Robots Exclusion Protocolpage also provides official information about robots.txt.
Meta Robots Tag
This is a special meta tag that allows site owners to specify that a page shouldn't be indexed. It is explained more on the How HTML Meta Tags Work page and also on the Blocking Crawlers With The Meta Robots Tag page, available to Search Engine Watch members. The Web Robots Pages: The Robots META tagpage also provides official information about robots.txt.
Paid Inclusion
Shows whether a search engine offers a program where you can pay to be guaranteed that your pages will be included in its index. This is NOT the same as paid placement, which guarantees a particular position in relation to a particular search term. The Submitting To Crawlers page provides links to various paid inclusion programs.
Full Body Text
All of the major search engines say they index the full visible body text of a page, though some will not index stop words or exclude copy deemed to be spam (explained further below). Google generally does not index past the first 101K of long HTML pages.
Stop Words
Some search engines either leave out words when they index a page or may not search for these words during a query. These stop words are excluded as a way to save storage space or to speed searches.
Meta Description
All the major crawlers support the meta description tag, to some degree. The ones actually named on the chart are very consistent. If you have a meta description tag on your pages, you'll most likely see the content used in some way.
The How HTML Meta Tags Work page explains how to use the meta description tag, and the Search Engine Display Chart for Search Engine Watch members provides a more detailed breakdown of how crawler-based search engines form descriptions.
Meta Keywords
Shows which search engines support the meta keywords tags, as explained on the How HTML Meta Tags Work page.
How To Use HTML Meta Tags (5_End)
How To Use HTML Meta Tags
Want to get a top ranking in search engines? No problem! All you need to do is add a few magical "meta tags" to your web pages, and you'll skyrocket to the top of the listings.
If only it were so easy. Let's make it clear:
* Meta tags are not a magic solution.
* Meta tags are not a magic solution.
* Meta tags are not a magic solution.
Meta tags have never been a guaranteed way to gain a top ranking on crawler-based search engines. Today, the most valuable feature they offer the web site owner is the ability to control to some degree how their web pages are described by some search engines. They also offer the ability to prevent pages from being indexed at all. This page explores these and other meta tag-related features in more depth.
Meta Tag Overview
What are meta tags? They are information inserted into the "head" area of your web pages. Other than the title tag (explained below), information in the head area of your web pages is not seen by those viewing your pages in browsers. Instead, meta information in this area is used to communicate information that a human visitor may not be concerned with. Meta tags, for example, can tell a browser what "character set" to use or whether a web page has self-rated itself in terms of adult content.
Let's see two common types of meta tags, then we'll discuss exactly how they are used in more depth:
In the example above, you can see the beginning of the page's "head" area as noted by the tag -- it ends at the portion shown as .
Meta tags go in between the "opening" and "closing" HEAD tags. Shown in the example is a TITLE tag, then a META DESCRIPTION tag, then a META KEYWORDS tag. Let's talk about what these do.
The Title Tag
The HTML title tag isn't really a meta tag, but it's worth discussing in relation to them. Whatever text you place in the title tag (between the and portions as shown in the example) will appear in the reverse bar of someone's browser when they view the web page. For instance, within the title tag of this page that you are reading is this text:
How To Use HTML Meta Tags
If you look at the reverse bar in your browser, then you should see that text being used, similar to this:
Some browsers also supplement whatever you put in the title tag by adding their own name, as you can see Microsoft's Internet Explorer doing in the picture above.
The title tag is also used as the words to describe your page when someone adds it to their "Favorites" or "Bookmarks" lists. For instance, if you added this page to your Favorites in Internet Explorer, it would show up like this:
How did that little Search Engine Watch logo also show up? Everyone always asks. The article below provides more help:
Creating Your Own Favicon.ico Icon For IE5
Web Developer's Journal, March 7, 2000
http://www.webdevelopersjournal.com/articles/favicon.html
But what about search engines! The title tag is crucial for them. The text you use in the title tag is one of the most important factors in how a search engine may decide to rank your web page (see the Search Engine Placement Tips section for more details). In addition, all major crawlers will use the text of your title tag as the text they use for the title of your page in your listings.
For example, this is how Teoma lists the page you are reading:
You can see that the text "How To Use HTML Meta Tags" is used as the hyperlinked title of this page's listed in Teoma's results.
In review, think about the key terms you'd like your page to be found for in crawler-based search engines, then incorporate those terms into your title tag in a short, descriptive fashion. That text will then be used as your title in crawler-based search engines, as well as the title in bookmarks and in browser reverse bars.
The Meta Description Tag
The meta description tag allows you to influence the description of your page in the crawlers that support the tag (these are listed on the Search Engine Features page).
Look back at the example of a meta tag. See the first meta tag shown, the one that says "name=description"? That's the meta description tag. The text you want to be shown as your description goes between the quotation marks after the "content=" portion of the tag (generally, 200 to 250 characters may be indexed, though only a smaller portion of this amount may be displayed).
For this page you are reading, I would like it described in a search engine's listings like this:
This tutorial explains how to use HTML meta tags, with links
to meta tag generators and builders. From SearchEngineWatch.com,
a guide to search engine submission and registration.
Will this happen? Not with every search engine. For example, Google ignores the meta description tag and instead will automatically generate its own description for this page. Others may support it partially. For instance, let's see again how this page is listed in Teoma:
You can see that the first portion of the page's description comes from the meta description tag, then there's an ellipse (.), and the remaining portion is drawn from the body copy of the page itself.
In review, it is worthwhile to use the meta description tag for your pages, because it gives you some degree of control with various crawlers. An easy way to do this often is to take the first sentence or two of body copy from your web page and use that for the meta description content.
The Meta Keywords Tag
The meta keywords tag allows you to provide additional text for crawler-based search engines to index along with your body copy. How does this help you? Well, for most major crawlers, it doesn't. That's because most crawlers now ignore the tag. The few supporting it can be found on the Search Engine Features page).
The meta keywords tag is sometimes useful as a way to reinforce the terms you think a page is important for ON THE FEW CRAWLERS THAT SUPPORT IT. For instance, if you had a page about stamp collecting -- AND you say the words stamp collecting at various places in your body copy -- then mentioning the words "stamp collecting" in the meta keywords tag MIGHT help boost your page a bit higher for those words.
Remember, if you don't use the words "stamp collecting" on the page at all, then just adding them to the meta keywords tag is extremely unlikely to help the page do well for the term. The text in the meta keywords tag, FOR THE FEW CRAWLERS THAT SUPPORT IT, works in conjunction with the text in your body copy.
The meta keyword tag is also sometimes useful as a way to help your page come up for synonyms or unusual words that don't appear on the page itself. For instance, let's say you had a page all about the "Penny Black" stamp. You never actually say the word "collecting" on this page. By having the word in your meta keywords tag, then you may help increase the odds of coming up if someone searched for "penny black stamp collecting." Of course you would greater increase the odds if you just used the word "collecting" in the body copy of the page itself.
Here's another example. Let's say you have a page about horseback riding, and you've written your page using "horseback" as a single word. You realize that some people may instead search for "horse back riding," with "horse back" in their searches being two separate words. If you listed these words separately in your meta keywords tag, THEN MAYBE FOR THE FEW CRAWLERS THAT SUPPORT IT, your page might rank better for "horse back" riding. Sadly, the best way to ensure this would be to write your pages using both "horseback riding" and "horse back riding" in the text -- or perhaps on some of your pages, use the single word version and on others, the two word version.
I'm using all these capital letters on purpose. Far too many people new to search engine optimization obsess with the meta keywords tag. FEW crawlers support it. For those that do, it MIGHT! MAYBE! PERHAPS! POSSIBLY! BUT WITH NO GUARANTEE! help improve the ranking of your page. It also may very well do nothing for your page at all. In fact, repeat a particular word too often in a meta keywords tag and you could actually harm your page's chances of ranking well. Because of this, I strongly suggest that those new to search engine optimization not even worry about the tag at all.
Even those who are experienced in search engine optimization may decide it is no longer worth using the tags. Search Engine Watch doesn't. Any meta keywords tags you find in the site were written in the past, when the keywords tag was more important. There's no harm in leaving up existing tags you may have written, but going forward, writing new tags probably isn't worth the trouble.
Still want to use the meta keywords tag? OK. Look back at the opening example. See the second meta tag shown, the one that says "name=keywords"? That's the meta keywords tag. The keywords you want associated with your page go between the quotation marks after the "content=" portion of the tag.
Inktomi says that you should include up to 25 words or phrases, with each word or phrase separated by commas.
FYI, in the past, when the tag was supported by other search engines, they generally indexed up to 1,000 characters of text and commas were not required.
Meta Robots Tag
One other meta tag worth mentioning is the robots tag. This lets you specify that a particular page should NOT be indexed by a search engine. To keep spiders out, simply add this text between your head tags on each page you don't want indexed. The format is shown below (click on the picture if you want to copy and past the HTML for your own use):
You do NOT need to use variations of the meta robots tag to help your pages get indexed. They are unnecessary. By default, a crawler will try to index all your web pages and will try to follow links from one page to another.
Most major search engines support the meta robots tag. However, the robots.txt convention of blocking indexing is more efficient, as you don't need to add tags to each and every page. See the Search Engines Features page for more about the robots.txt file. If you use do a robots.txt file to block indexing, there is no need to also use meta robots tags.
The meta robots tag also has some extensions offered by particular search engines to prevent indexing of multimedia content. The article below talks about this in more depth and provides some links to help files. Search Engine Watch members should follow the link from the article to the members-only edition for extended help on the subject.
Other Meta Tags
There are many other meta tags that exist beyond those explored in this article. For example, if you were to view the source code of this web page, you would find "author," "channel" and "date" meta tags. These mean nothing to web-wide crawlers such as Google. They are specifically for an internal search engine used by Search Engine Watch to index its own content.
There are also "Dublin Core" meta tags. The intent is that these can be used for both "internal" search engines and web-wide ones. However, no major web-wide search engine supports these tags.
How about the meta revisit tag? This tag is not recognized by the major search engines as a method of telling them how often to automatically return. They have never supported it.
In Conclusion
Overall, just remember this. Of all the meta tags you may see out there:
* Meta Robots: This tag enjoys full support, but you only need it if you DO
NOT want your pages indexed.
* Meta Description: This tag enjoys much support, and it is well worth using.
* Meta Keywords: This tag is only supported by some major crawlers and probably
isn't worth the time to implement.
* Meta Everything Else: Any other meta tag you see is ignored by the major
crawlers, though they may be used by specialized search engines.
More Resources
At the bottom of this page are more resources about meta tags, including tutorials and meta tag building applications. But first.
If you've been following the "Next" buttons to read the numbered sections of the Search Engine Submission Tips guide in order, you've now reached the last page. Congratulations!
There's still more information you might find helpful, however. Please review the pages listed under the Optional But Helpful section for additional assistance with search engine marketing issues.
In addition, do consider becoming a Search Engine Watch member, for access to even more information on search engine marketing issues.
Just started learning from this page? Don't worry -- click here to go to the beginning of the guide.
Now, here are those additional meta tag resources and articles.
Meta Tag Generators, Builders and Evaluators
SiteUp's Meta-Tag Generator
This is a software-based package for Windows that creates meta tags. It is a freeware package -- no registration fee required.
Meta Tag Builder
This form allows you to create very complicated meta tags using much more than the keywords and description tags, if you wish. Note that it will place a commented credit line into the tag. This can easily be removed, if you wish.
Articles About Meta Tags
Discusses a new idea for allowing small and medium sized businesses to describe themselves to search engines through meta data in XML files. Given the bad history search engines have with meta data, I think it's unlikely you'll see this be accepted.
Are search engines dead?
A look at the RDF meta data structure and how search engines aren't using it. Why not? Experience has taught them that meta data often cannot be trusted.
The proposed Resource Description Framework, or RDF, would provide a new way of describing web pages via meta data. There are high hopes for what it may accomplish, but support by the search engines isn't certain. Also learn more about the Dublin Core meta tags, which may be incorporated into the system.
Previous - Beginning
Want to get a top ranking in search engines? No problem! All you need to do is add a few magical "meta tags" to your web pages, and you'll skyrocket to the top of the listings.
If only it were so easy. Let's make it clear:
* Meta tags are not a magic solution.
* Meta tags are not a magic solution.
* Meta tags are not a magic solution.
Meta tags have never been a guaranteed way to gain a top ranking on crawler-based search engines. Today, the most valuable feature they offer the web site owner is the ability to control to some degree how their web pages are described by some search engines. They also offer the ability to prevent pages from being indexed at all. This page explores these and other meta tag-related features in more depth.
Meta Tag Overview
What are meta tags? They are information inserted into the "head" area of your web pages. Other than the title tag (explained below), information in the head area of your web pages is not seen by those viewing your pages in browsers. Instead, meta information in this area is used to communicate information that a human visitor may not be concerned with. Meta tags, for example, can tell a browser what "character set" to use or whether a web page has self-rated itself in terms of adult content.
Let's see two common types of meta tags, then we'll discuss exactly how they are used in more depth:
In the example above, you can see the beginning of the page's "head" area as noted by the tag -- it ends at the portion shown as .
Meta tags go in between the "opening" and "closing" HEAD tags. Shown in the example is a TITLE tag, then a META DESCRIPTION tag, then a META KEYWORDS tag. Let's talk about what these do.
The Title Tag
The HTML title tag isn't really a meta tag, but it's worth discussing in relation to them. Whatever text you place in the title tag (between the
How To Use HTML Meta Tags
If you look at the reverse bar in your browser, then you should see that text being used, similar to this:
Some browsers also supplement whatever you put in the title tag by adding their own name, as you can see Microsoft's Internet Explorer doing in the picture above.
The title tag is also used as the words to describe your page when someone adds it to their "Favorites" or "Bookmarks" lists. For instance, if you added this page to your Favorites in Internet Explorer, it would show up like this:
How did that little Search Engine Watch logo also show up? Everyone always asks. The article below provides more help:
Creating Your Own Favicon.ico Icon For IE5
Web Developer's Journal, March 7, 2000
http://www.webdevelopersjournal.com/articles/favicon.html
But what about search engines! The title tag is crucial for them. The text you use in the title tag is one of the most important factors in how a search engine may decide to rank your web page (see the Search Engine Placement Tips section for more details). In addition, all major crawlers will use the text of your title tag as the text they use for the title of your page in your listings.
For example, this is how Teoma lists the page you are reading:
You can see that the text "How To Use HTML Meta Tags" is used as the hyperlinked title of this page's listed in Teoma's results.
In review, think about the key terms you'd like your page to be found for in crawler-based search engines, then incorporate those terms into your title tag in a short, descriptive fashion. That text will then be used as your title in crawler-based search engines, as well as the title in bookmarks and in browser reverse bars.
The Meta Description Tag
The meta description tag allows you to influence the description of your page in the crawlers that support the tag (these are listed on the Search Engine Features page).
Look back at the example of a meta tag. See the first meta tag shown, the one that says "name=description"? That's the meta description tag. The text you want to be shown as your description goes between the quotation marks after the "content=" portion of the tag (generally, 200 to 250 characters may be indexed, though only a smaller portion of this amount may be displayed).
For this page you are reading, I would like it described in a search engine's listings like this:
This tutorial explains how to use HTML meta tags, with links
to meta tag generators and builders. From SearchEngineWatch.com,
a guide to search engine submission and registration.
Will this happen? Not with every search engine. For example, Google ignores the meta description tag and instead will automatically generate its own description for this page. Others may support it partially. For instance, let's see again how this page is listed in Teoma:
You can see that the first portion of the page's description comes from the meta description tag, then there's an ellipse (.), and the remaining portion is drawn from the body copy of the page itself.
In review, it is worthwhile to use the meta description tag for your pages, because it gives you some degree of control with various crawlers. An easy way to do this often is to take the first sentence or two of body copy from your web page and use that for the meta description content.
The Meta Keywords Tag
The meta keywords tag allows you to provide additional text for crawler-based search engines to index along with your body copy. How does this help you? Well, for most major crawlers, it doesn't. That's because most crawlers now ignore the tag. The few supporting it can be found on the Search Engine Features page).
The meta keywords tag is sometimes useful as a way to reinforce the terms you think a page is important for ON THE FEW CRAWLERS THAT SUPPORT IT. For instance, if you had a page about stamp collecting -- AND you say the words stamp collecting at various places in your body copy -- then mentioning the words "stamp collecting" in the meta keywords tag MIGHT help boost your page a bit higher for those words.
Remember, if you don't use the words "stamp collecting" on the page at all, then just adding them to the meta keywords tag is extremely unlikely to help the page do well for the term. The text in the meta keywords tag, FOR THE FEW CRAWLERS THAT SUPPORT IT, works in conjunction with the text in your body copy.
The meta keyword tag is also sometimes useful as a way to help your page come up for synonyms or unusual words that don't appear on the page itself. For instance, let's say you had a page all about the "Penny Black" stamp. You never actually say the word "collecting" on this page. By having the word in your meta keywords tag, then you may help increase the odds of coming up if someone searched for "penny black stamp collecting." Of course you would greater increase the odds if you just used the word "collecting" in the body copy of the page itself.
Here's another example. Let's say you have a page about horseback riding, and you've written your page using "horseback" as a single word. You realize that some people may instead search for "horse back riding," with "horse back" in their searches being two separate words. If you listed these words separately in your meta keywords tag, THEN MAYBE FOR THE FEW CRAWLERS THAT SUPPORT IT, your page might rank better for "horse back" riding. Sadly, the best way to ensure this would be to write your pages using both "horseback riding" and "horse back riding" in the text -- or perhaps on some of your pages, use the single word version and on others, the two word version.
I'm using all these capital letters on purpose. Far too many people new to search engine optimization obsess with the meta keywords tag. FEW crawlers support it. For those that do, it MIGHT! MAYBE! PERHAPS! POSSIBLY! BUT WITH NO GUARANTEE! help improve the ranking of your page. It also may very well do nothing for your page at all. In fact, repeat a particular word too often in a meta keywords tag and you could actually harm your page's chances of ranking well. Because of this, I strongly suggest that those new to search engine optimization not even worry about the tag at all.
Even those who are experienced in search engine optimization may decide it is no longer worth using the tags. Search Engine Watch doesn't. Any meta keywords tags you find in the site were written in the past, when the keywords tag was more important. There's no harm in leaving up existing tags you may have written, but going forward, writing new tags probably isn't worth the trouble.
Still want to use the meta keywords tag? OK. Look back at the opening example. See the second meta tag shown, the one that says "name=keywords"? That's the meta keywords tag. The keywords you want associated with your page go between the quotation marks after the "content=" portion of the tag.
Inktomi says that you should include up to 25 words or phrases, with each word or phrase separated by commas.
FYI, in the past, when the tag was supported by other search engines, they generally indexed up to 1,000 characters of text and commas were not required.
Meta Robots Tag
One other meta tag worth mentioning is the robots tag. This lets you specify that a particular page should NOT be indexed by a search engine. To keep spiders out, simply add this text between your head tags on each page you don't want indexed. The format is shown below (click on the picture if you want to copy and past the HTML for your own use):
You do NOT need to use variations of the meta robots tag to help your pages get indexed. They are unnecessary. By default, a crawler will try to index all your web pages and will try to follow links from one page to another.
Most major search engines support the meta robots tag. However, the robots.txt convention of blocking indexing is more efficient, as you don't need to add tags to each and every page. See the Search Engines Features page for more about the robots.txt file. If you use do a robots.txt file to block indexing, there is no need to also use meta robots tags.
The meta robots tag also has some extensions offered by particular search engines to prevent indexing of multimedia content. The article below talks about this in more depth and provides some links to help files. Search Engine Watch members should follow the link from the article to the members-only edition for extended help on the subject.
Other Meta Tags
There are many other meta tags that exist beyond those explored in this article. For example, if you were to view the source code of this web page, you would find "author," "channel" and "date" meta tags. These mean nothing to web-wide crawlers such as Google. They are specifically for an internal search engine used by Search Engine Watch to index its own content.
There are also "Dublin Core" meta tags. The intent is that these can be used for both "internal" search engines and web-wide ones. However, no major web-wide search engine supports these tags.
How about the meta revisit tag? This tag is not recognized by the major search engines as a method of telling them how often to automatically return. They have never supported it.
In Conclusion
Overall, just remember this. Of all the meta tags you may see out there:
* Meta Robots: This tag enjoys full support, but you only need it if you DO
NOT want your pages indexed.
* Meta Description: This tag enjoys much support, and it is well worth using.
* Meta Keywords: This tag is only supported by some major crawlers and probably
isn't worth the time to implement.
* Meta Everything Else: Any other meta tag you see is ignored by the major
crawlers, though they may be used by specialized search engines.
More Resources
At the bottom of this page are more resources about meta tags, including tutorials and meta tag building applications. But first.
If you've been following the "Next" buttons to read the numbered sections of the Search Engine Submission Tips guide in order, you've now reached the last page. Congratulations!
There's still more information you might find helpful, however. Please review the pages listed under the Optional But Helpful section for additional assistance with search engine marketing issues.
In addition, do consider becoming a Search Engine Watch member, for access to even more information on search engine marketing issues.
Just started learning from this page? Don't worry -- click here to go to the beginning of the guide.
Now, here are those additional meta tag resources and articles.
Meta Tag Generators, Builders and Evaluators
SiteUp's Meta-Tag Generator
This is a software-based package for Windows that creates meta tags. It is a freeware package -- no registration fee required.
Meta Tag Builder
This form allows you to create very complicated meta tags using much more than the keywords and description tags, if you wish. Note that it will place a commented credit line into the tag. This can easily be removed, if you wish.
Articles About Meta Tags
Discusses a new idea for allowing small and medium sized businesses to describe themselves to search engines through meta data in XML files. Given the bad history search engines have with meta data, I think it's unlikely you'll see this be accepted.
Are search engines dead?
A look at the RDF meta data structure and how search engines aren't using it. Why not? Experience has taught them that meta data often cannot be trusted.
The proposed Resource Description Framework, or RDF, would provide a new way of describing web pages via meta data. There are high hopes for what it may accomplish, but support by the search engines isn't certain. Also learn more about the Dublin Core meta tags, which may be incorporated into the system.
Previous - Beginning
Search Engine Placement Tips (4)
A query on a crawler-based search engine often turns up thousands or even millions of matching web pages. In many cases, only the ten most "relevant" matches are displayed on the first page.
Naturally, anyone who runs a web site wants to be in the "top ten" results. This is because most users will find a result they like in the top ten. Being listed 11 or beyond means that many people may miss your web site.
The tips below will help you come closer to this goal, both for the keywords you think are important, and for phrases you may not even be anticipating.
Pick Your Target Keywords
How do you think people will search for your web page? The words you imagine them typing into the search box are your target keywords.
For example, say you have a page devoted to stamp collecting. Anytime someone types "stamp collecting," you want your page to be in the top ten results. Accordingly, these are your target keywords for that page.
Each page in your web site will have different target keywords that reflect the page's content. For example, say you have another page about the history of stamps. Then "stamp history" might be your keywords for that page.
Your target keywords should always be at least two or more words long. Usually, too many sites will be relevant for a single word, such as "stamps." This "competition" means your odds of success are lower. Don't waste your time fighting the odds. Pick phrases of two or more words, and you'll have a better shot at success.
Position Your Keywords
Make sure your target keywords appear in the crucial locations on your web pages. The page's HTML title tag is most important. Failure to put target keywords in the title tag is the main reason why perfectly relevant web pages may be poorly ranked. More about the title tag can be found on the How To Use HTML Meta Tags page.
Build your titles around the top two or three phrases that you would like the page to be found for. The titles should be relatively short and attractive. Think of newspaper headlines. With a few words, they make you want to read a story. Similarly, your page titles are like headlines for your pages. They appear in search engine listings, and a short, attractive title may help encourage users to click through to your site.
Search engines also like pages where keywords appear "high" on the page, as described more fully on the Search Engine Ranking page. To accommodate them, use your target keywords for your page headline, if possible. Have them also appear in the first paragraphs of your web page.
Keep in mind that tables can "push" your text further down the page, making keywords less relevant because they appear lower on the page. This is because tables break apart when search engines read them. For example, picture a typical two-column page, where the first column has navigational links, while the second column has the keyword loaded text. Humans see such a page like this:
Home Stamp Collecting
Page 1
Page 2 Stamp collection is worldwide experience.
Page 3 Thousands enjoy it everyday, and millions
Page 4 can be made from this hobby/business.
Search engines (and those with old browsers) see the page like this:
Home
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Stamp Collecting
Stamp collection is worldwide experience.
Thousands enjoy it everyday, and millions
can be made from this hobby/business.
See how the keywords have moved down the page? There is no easy way around this, other than to simplifying your table structure. Consider how tables might affect your page, but don't necessarily stop using them. I like tables, and I'll continue to use them.
Large sections of JavaScript can also have the same effect as tables. The search engine reads this information first, which causes the normal HTML text to appear lower on the page. Place your script further down on the page, if possible.
Create Relevant Content
Changing your page titles is not necessarily going to help your page do well for your target keywords if the page has nothing to do with the topic. Your keywords need to be reflected in the page content.
In particular, that means you need HTML text on your page. Sometimes, sites present large sections of copy via graphics. It looks pretty, but search engines can't read those graphics. That means they miss out on text that might make your site more relevant. Some of the search engines will index ALT text and comment information. But to be safe, use HTML text whenever possible. Some of your human visitors will appreciate it, also.
Be sure that your HTML text is "visible." Some designers try to spam search engines by repeating keywords in a tiny font or in the same color as the background color to make the text invisible to browsers. Search engines are well aware of these and other tricks. Expect that if the text is not visible in a browser, then a search engine may not index it.
Finally, consider "expanding" your text references, where appropriate. For example, a stamp collecting page might have references to "collectors" and "collecting." Expanding these references to "stamp collectors" and "stamp collecting" reinforces your strategic keywords in a legitimate and natural manner. Your page really is about stamp collecting, but edits may have reduced its relevancy unintentionally.
Avoid Search Engine Stumbling Blocks
Some search engines see the web the way someone using a very old browser might. They may not read image maps. They may not read frames. You need to anticipate these problems, or a search engine may not index any or all of your web pages.
Create HTML links
Often, designers create only image map links from the home page to inside pages. A search engine that can't follow these links won't be able to get "inside" the site. Unfortunately, the most descriptive, relevant pages are often inside pages rather than the home page.
Solve this problem by adding some HTML hyperlinks to the home page that lead to major inside pages or sections of your web site. This is something that will help some of your human visitors, also. Put these hyperlinks down at the bottom of the page. The search engine will find and follow them.
Also consider creating a site map page with text links to every page within your site. You can submit this page, which will help the search engines locate pages within your web site.
Finally, be sure you do a good job of linking internally between your pages. If you naturally point to different pages from within your site, you increase the odds that search engines will follow links and find more of your web site.
Frames Can Kill
Some of the major search engines cannot follow frame links. Make sure there is an alternative method for them to enter and index your site, either through meta tags or smart design. For more information, see the tips on using frames.
Dynamic Doorblocks
Are you generating pages via CGI or database-delivery? Expect that some of the search engines won't be able to index them. Consider creating static pages whenever possible, perhaps using the database to update the pages, not to generate them on the fly. Also, avoid symbols in your URLs, especially the ? symbol. Search engines tend to choke on it.
Build Inbound Links
Every major search engine uses link analysis as part of its ranking algorithm. This is done because it is very difficult for webmasters to "fake" good links, in the way they might try to spam search engines by manipulating the words on their web pages. As a result, link analysis gives search engines a useful means of determining which pages are good for particular topics.
By building links, you can help improve how well your pages perform in link analysis systems. The key is understanding that link analysis is not about "popularity." In other words, it's not an issue of getting lots of links from anywhere. Instead, you want links from good web pages that are related to the topics you want to be found for.
Here's one simple means to find those good links. Go to the major search engines. Search for your target keywords. Look at the pages that appear in the top results. Now visit those pages and ask the site owners if they will link to you. Not everyone will, especially sites that are extremely competitive with yours. However, there will be non-competitive sites that will link to you -- especially if you offer to link back.
Why is this system good? By searching for your target keywords, you'll find the pages that the search engines deem authoritative, evidenced by the fact that they rank well. Hence, links from these pages are more important (and important for the terms you are interested in) than links from other pages. In addition, if these pages are top ranked, then they are likely to be receiving many visitors. Thus, if you can gain links from them, you might receive some of the visitors who initially go to those pages.
There are also other ways to attract quality links. One that has recently gained traction is linkbaiting. Linkbaiting refers to a variety of techniques used on a web site to attract links from other web sites. This can include content, online tools, downloads, or anything else that other site owners might find compelling enough to link to.
The originators of linkbaiting techniques were Aaron Wall and Andy Hagans. The post on SEO Book, “101 Ways to Build Link Popularity in 2006,” can give you an idea of how to use linkbaiting to attract quality links.
Just Say No to Search Engine Spamming
For one thing, spamming doesn't always work with search engines. It can also backfire. Search engines may detect your spamming attempt and penalize or ban your page from their listings.
Search engine spamming attempts usually center around being top ranked for extremely popular keywords. You can try and fight that battle against other sites, but then be prepared to spend a lot of time each week, if not each day, defending your ranking. That effort usually would be better spent on networking and alternative forms of publicity, described below.
If the practical reasons aren't enough, how about some ethical ones? The content of most web pages ought to be enough for search engines to determine relevancy without webmasters having to resort to repeating keywords for no reason other than to try and "beat" other web pages. The stakes will simply keep rising, and users will also begin to hate sites that undertake these measures.
Consider search engine spamming against spam email. No one likes spam email, and sites that use spam email services often face a backlash from those on the receiving end. Sites that spam search engines degrade the value of search engine listings. As the problem has grown, these sites now face the same backlash that spam email generates.
Submit Your Key Pages
Most search engines will index the other pages from your web site by following links from a page you submit to them. But sometimes they miss, so it's good to submit the top two or three pages that best summarize your web site.
Don't trust the submission process to automated programs and services. Some of them are excellent, but the major search engines are too important. There aren't that many. Submit manually, so that you can see if there are any problems reported.
Also, don't bother submitting more than the top two or three pages. It doesn't speed up the process to submit more. Submitting alternative pages is only insurance. In case the search engine has trouble reaching one of the pages, you've covered yourself by giving it another page from which to begin its crawl of your site.
Be patient. It can take up to a month to two months for your "non-submitted" pages to appear in a search engine. Additionally, some search engines may not list every page from your site.
Verify and Maintain Your Listing
Check on your pages and ensure they get listed, in the ways described on the Check URL page. Once your pages are listed in a search engine, monitor your listing every week or two. Strange things happen. Pages disappear from catalogs. Links go screwy. Watch for trouble, and resubmit if you spot problems.
Resubmit your site any time you make significant changes. Search engines should revisit on a regular schedule. However, some search engines have grown smart enough to realize some sites only change content once or twice a year, so they may visit less often. Resubmitting after major changes will help ensure that your site's content is kept current.
Beyond Search Engines
It's worth taking the time to make your site more search engine friendly because some simple changes may pay off with big results. Even if you don't come up in the top ten for your target keywords, you may find an improvement for target keywords you aren't anticipating. The addition of just one extra word can suddenly make a site appear more relevant, and it can be impossible to guess what that word will be.
Also, remember that while search engines are a primary way people look for web sites, they are not the only way. People also find sites through word-of-mouth, traditional advertising, traditional media, blog posts, web directories, and links from other sites. Since the advent of Web 2.0 applications, people are finding sites through feeds, blogs, podcasts, vlogs and many other means. Sometimes, these alternative forms can be more effective draws than search engines. The most effective marketing strategy is to combine search marketing with other online and offline media.
Finally, know when it's time to call it quits. A few changes may be enough to achieve top rankings in one or two search engines. But that's not enough for some people, and they will invest days creating special pages and changing their sites to try and do better. This time could usually be put to better use pursuing non-search engine publicity methods.
Don't obsess over your ranking. Even if you follow every tip and find no improvement, you still have gained something. You will know that search engines are not the way you'll be attracting traffic. You can concentrate your efforts in more productive areas, rather than wasting your valuable time.
Next: How To Use HTML Meta Tags
Naturally, anyone who runs a web site wants to be in the "top ten" results. This is because most users will find a result they like in the top ten. Being listed 11 or beyond means that many people may miss your web site.
The tips below will help you come closer to this goal, both for the keywords you think are important, and for phrases you may not even be anticipating.
Pick Your Target Keywords
How do you think people will search for your web page? The words you imagine them typing into the search box are your target keywords.
For example, say you have a page devoted to stamp collecting. Anytime someone types "stamp collecting," you want your page to be in the top ten results. Accordingly, these are your target keywords for that page.
Each page in your web site will have different target keywords that reflect the page's content. For example, say you have another page about the history of stamps. Then "stamp history" might be your keywords for that page.
Your target keywords should always be at least two or more words long. Usually, too many sites will be relevant for a single word, such as "stamps." This "competition" means your odds of success are lower. Don't waste your time fighting the odds. Pick phrases of two or more words, and you'll have a better shot at success.
Position Your Keywords
Make sure your target keywords appear in the crucial locations on your web pages. The page's HTML title tag is most important. Failure to put target keywords in the title tag is the main reason why perfectly relevant web pages may be poorly ranked. More about the title tag can be found on the How To Use HTML Meta Tags page.
Build your titles around the top two or three phrases that you would like the page to be found for. The titles should be relatively short and attractive. Think of newspaper headlines. With a few words, they make you want to read a story. Similarly, your page titles are like headlines for your pages. They appear in search engine listings, and a short, attractive title may help encourage users to click through to your site.
Search engines also like pages where keywords appear "high" on the page, as described more fully on the Search Engine Ranking page. To accommodate them, use your target keywords for your page headline, if possible. Have them also appear in the first paragraphs of your web page.
Keep in mind that tables can "push" your text further down the page, making keywords less relevant because they appear lower on the page. This is because tables break apart when search engines read them. For example, picture a typical two-column page, where the first column has navigational links, while the second column has the keyword loaded text. Humans see such a page like this:
Home Stamp Collecting
Page 1
Page 2 Stamp collection is worldwide experience.
Page 3 Thousands enjoy it everyday, and millions
Page 4 can be made from this hobby/business.
Search engines (and those with old browsers) see the page like this:
Home
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Stamp Collecting
Stamp collection is worldwide experience.
Thousands enjoy it everyday, and millions
can be made from this hobby/business.
See how the keywords have moved down the page? There is no easy way around this, other than to simplifying your table structure. Consider how tables might affect your page, but don't necessarily stop using them. I like tables, and I'll continue to use them.
Large sections of JavaScript can also have the same effect as tables. The search engine reads this information first, which causes the normal HTML text to appear lower on the page. Place your script further down on the page, if possible.
Create Relevant Content
Changing your page titles is not necessarily going to help your page do well for your target keywords if the page has nothing to do with the topic. Your keywords need to be reflected in the page content.
In particular, that means you need HTML text on your page. Sometimes, sites present large sections of copy via graphics. It looks pretty, but search engines can't read those graphics. That means they miss out on text that might make your site more relevant. Some of the search engines will index ALT text and comment information. But to be safe, use HTML text whenever possible. Some of your human visitors will appreciate it, also.
Be sure that your HTML text is "visible." Some designers try to spam search engines by repeating keywords in a tiny font or in the same color as the background color to make the text invisible to browsers. Search engines are well aware of these and other tricks. Expect that if the text is not visible in a browser, then a search engine may not index it.
Finally, consider "expanding" your text references, where appropriate. For example, a stamp collecting page might have references to "collectors" and "collecting." Expanding these references to "stamp collectors" and "stamp collecting" reinforces your strategic keywords in a legitimate and natural manner. Your page really is about stamp collecting, but edits may have reduced its relevancy unintentionally.
Avoid Search Engine Stumbling Blocks
Some search engines see the web the way someone using a very old browser might. They may not read image maps. They may not read frames. You need to anticipate these problems, or a search engine may not index any or all of your web pages.
Create HTML links
Often, designers create only image map links from the home page to inside pages. A search engine that can't follow these links won't be able to get "inside" the site. Unfortunately, the most descriptive, relevant pages are often inside pages rather than the home page.
Solve this problem by adding some HTML hyperlinks to the home page that lead to major inside pages or sections of your web site. This is something that will help some of your human visitors, also. Put these hyperlinks down at the bottom of the page. The search engine will find and follow them.
Also consider creating a site map page with text links to every page within your site. You can submit this page, which will help the search engines locate pages within your web site.
Finally, be sure you do a good job of linking internally between your pages. If you naturally point to different pages from within your site, you increase the odds that search engines will follow links and find more of your web site.
Frames Can Kill
Some of the major search engines cannot follow frame links. Make sure there is an alternative method for them to enter and index your site, either through meta tags or smart design. For more information, see the tips on using frames.
Dynamic Doorblocks
Are you generating pages via CGI or database-delivery? Expect that some of the search engines won't be able to index them. Consider creating static pages whenever possible, perhaps using the database to update the pages, not to generate them on the fly. Also, avoid symbols in your URLs, especially the ? symbol. Search engines tend to choke on it.
Build Inbound Links
Every major search engine uses link analysis as part of its ranking algorithm. This is done because it is very difficult for webmasters to "fake" good links, in the way they might try to spam search engines by manipulating the words on their web pages. As a result, link analysis gives search engines a useful means of determining which pages are good for particular topics.
By building links, you can help improve how well your pages perform in link analysis systems. The key is understanding that link analysis is not about "popularity." In other words, it's not an issue of getting lots of links from anywhere. Instead, you want links from good web pages that are related to the topics you want to be found for.
Here's one simple means to find those good links. Go to the major search engines. Search for your target keywords. Look at the pages that appear in the top results. Now visit those pages and ask the site owners if they will link to you. Not everyone will, especially sites that are extremely competitive with yours. However, there will be non-competitive sites that will link to you -- especially if you offer to link back.
Why is this system good? By searching for your target keywords, you'll find the pages that the search engines deem authoritative, evidenced by the fact that they rank well. Hence, links from these pages are more important (and important for the terms you are interested in) than links from other pages. In addition, if these pages are top ranked, then they are likely to be receiving many visitors. Thus, if you can gain links from them, you might receive some of the visitors who initially go to those pages.
There are also other ways to attract quality links. One that has recently gained traction is linkbaiting. Linkbaiting refers to a variety of techniques used on a web site to attract links from other web sites. This can include content, online tools, downloads, or anything else that other site owners might find compelling enough to link to.
The originators of linkbaiting techniques were Aaron Wall and Andy Hagans. The post on SEO Book, “101 Ways to Build Link Popularity in 2006,” can give you an idea of how to use linkbaiting to attract quality links.
Just Say No to Search Engine Spamming
For one thing, spamming doesn't always work with search engines. It can also backfire. Search engines may detect your spamming attempt and penalize or ban your page from their listings.
Search engine spamming attempts usually center around being top ranked for extremely popular keywords. You can try and fight that battle against other sites, but then be prepared to spend a lot of time each week, if not each day, defending your ranking. That effort usually would be better spent on networking and alternative forms of publicity, described below.
If the practical reasons aren't enough, how about some ethical ones? The content of most web pages ought to be enough for search engines to determine relevancy without webmasters having to resort to repeating keywords for no reason other than to try and "beat" other web pages. The stakes will simply keep rising, and users will also begin to hate sites that undertake these measures.
Consider search engine spamming against spam email. No one likes spam email, and sites that use spam email services often face a backlash from those on the receiving end. Sites that spam search engines degrade the value of search engine listings. As the problem has grown, these sites now face the same backlash that spam email generates.
Submit Your Key Pages
Most search engines will index the other pages from your web site by following links from a page you submit to them. But sometimes they miss, so it's good to submit the top two or three pages that best summarize your web site.
Don't trust the submission process to automated programs and services. Some of them are excellent, but the major search engines are too important. There aren't that many. Submit manually, so that you can see if there are any problems reported.
Also, don't bother submitting more than the top two or three pages. It doesn't speed up the process to submit more. Submitting alternative pages is only insurance. In case the search engine has trouble reaching one of the pages, you've covered yourself by giving it another page from which to begin its crawl of your site.
Be patient. It can take up to a month to two months for your "non-submitted" pages to appear in a search engine. Additionally, some search engines may not list every page from your site.
Verify and Maintain Your Listing
Check on your pages and ensure they get listed, in the ways described on the Check URL page. Once your pages are listed in a search engine, monitor your listing every week or two. Strange things happen. Pages disappear from catalogs. Links go screwy. Watch for trouble, and resubmit if you spot problems.
Resubmit your site any time you make significant changes. Search engines should revisit on a regular schedule. However, some search engines have grown smart enough to realize some sites only change content once or twice a year, so they may visit less often. Resubmitting after major changes will help ensure that your site's content is kept current.
Beyond Search Engines
It's worth taking the time to make your site more search engine friendly because some simple changes may pay off with big results. Even if you don't come up in the top ten for your target keywords, you may find an improvement for target keywords you aren't anticipating. The addition of just one extra word can suddenly make a site appear more relevant, and it can be impossible to guess what that word will be.
Also, remember that while search engines are a primary way people look for web sites, they are not the only way. People also find sites through word-of-mouth, traditional advertising, traditional media, blog posts, web directories, and links from other sites. Since the advent of Web 2.0 applications, people are finding sites through feeds, blogs, podcasts, vlogs and many other means. Sometimes, these alternative forms can be more effective draws than search engines. The most effective marketing strategy is to combine search marketing with other online and offline media.
Finally, know when it's time to call it quits. A few changes may be enough to achieve top rankings in one or two search engines. But that's not enough for some people, and they will invest days creating special pages and changing their sites to try and do better. This time could usually be put to better use pursuing non-search engine publicity methods.
Don't obsess over your ranking. Even if you follow every tip and find no improvement, you still have gained something. You will know that search engines are not the way you'll be attracting traffic. You can concentrate your efforts in more productive areas, rather than wasting your valuable time.
Next: How To Use HTML Meta Tags
How Search Engines Rank Web Pages (3)
Search for anything using your favorite crawler-based search engine. Nearly instantly, the search engine will sort through the millions of pages it knows about and present you with ones that match your topic. The matches will even be ranked, so that the most relevant ones come first.
Of course, the search engines don't always get it right. Non-relevant pages make it through, and sometimes it may take a little more digging to find what you are looking for. But, by and large, search engines do an amazing job.
As WebCrawler founder Brian Pinkerton puts it, "Imagine walking up to a librarian and saying, 'travel.' They’re going to look at you with a blank face."
OK -- a librarian's not really going to stare at you with a vacant expression. Instead, they're going to ask you questions to better understand what you are looking for.
Unfortunately, search engines don't have the ability to ask a few questions to focus your search, as a librarian can. They also can't rely on judgment and past experience to rank web pages, in the way humans can.
So, how do crawler-based search engines go about determining relevancy, when confronted with hundreds of millions of web pages to sort through? They follow a set of rules, known as an algorithm. Exactly how a particular search engine's algorithm works is a closely-kept trade secret. However, all major search engines follow the general rules below.
Location, Location, Location...and Frequency
One of the the main rules in a ranking algorithm involves the location and frequency of keywords on a web page. Call it the location/frequency method, for short.
Remember the librarian mentioned above? They need to find books to match your request of "travel," so it makes sense that they first look at books with travel in the title. Search engines operate the same way. Pages with the search terms appearing in the HTML title tag are often assumed to be more relevant than others to the topic.
Search engines will also check to see if the search keywords appear near the top of a web page, such as in the headline or in the first few paragraphs of text. They assume that any page relevant to the topic will mention those words right from the beginning.
Frequency is the other major factor in how search engines determine relevancy. A search engine will analyze how often keywords appear in relation to other words in a web page. Those with a higher frequency are often deemed more relevant than other web pages.
Spice In The Recipe
Now it's time to qualify the location/frequency method described above. All the major search engines follow it to some degree, in the same way cooks may follow a standard chili recipe. But cooks like to add their own secret ingredients. In the same way, search engines add spice to the location/frequency method. Nobody does it exactly the same, which is one reason why the same search on different search engines produces different results.
To begin with, some search engines index more web pages than others. Some search engines also index web pages more often than others. The result is that no search engine has the exact same collection of web pages to search through. That naturally produces differences, when comparing their results.
Search engines may also penalize pages or exclude them from the index, if they detect search engine "spamming." An example is when a word is repeated hundreds of times on a page, to increase the frequency and propel the page higher in the listings. Search engines watch for common spamming methods in a variety of ways, including following up on complaints from their users.
Off The Page Factors
Crawler-based search engines have plenty of experience now with webmasters who constantly rewrite their web pages in an attempt to gain better rankings. Some sophisticated webmasters may even go to great lengths to "reverse engineer" the location/frequency systems used by a particular search engine. Because of this, all major search engines now also make use of "off the page" ranking criteria.
Off the page factors are those that a webmasters cannot easily influence. Chief among these is link analysis. By analyzing how pages link to each other, a search engine can both determine what a page is about and whether that page is deemed to be "important" and thus deserving of a ranking boost. In addition, sophisticated techniques are used to screen out attempts by webmasters to build "artificial" links designed to boost their rankings.
Another off the page factor is clickthrough measurement. In short, this means that a search engine may watch what results someone selects for a particular search, then eventually drop high-ranking pages that aren't attracting clicks, while promoting lower-ranking pages that do pull in visitors. As with link analysis, systems are used to compensate for artificial links generated by eager webmasters.
Next: Search Engine Placement Tips
Previous - Beginning
Of course, the search engines don't always get it right. Non-relevant pages make it through, and sometimes it may take a little more digging to find what you are looking for. But, by and large, search engines do an amazing job.
As WebCrawler founder Brian Pinkerton puts it, "Imagine walking up to a librarian and saying, 'travel.' They’re going to look at you with a blank face."
OK -- a librarian's not really going to stare at you with a vacant expression. Instead, they're going to ask you questions to better understand what you are looking for.
Unfortunately, search engines don't have the ability to ask a few questions to focus your search, as a librarian can. They also can't rely on judgment and past experience to rank web pages, in the way humans can.
So, how do crawler-based search engines go about determining relevancy, when confronted with hundreds of millions of web pages to sort through? They follow a set of rules, known as an algorithm. Exactly how a particular search engine's algorithm works is a closely-kept trade secret. However, all major search engines follow the general rules below.
Location, Location, Location...and Frequency
One of the the main rules in a ranking algorithm involves the location and frequency of keywords on a web page. Call it the location/frequency method, for short.
Remember the librarian mentioned above? They need to find books to match your request of "travel," so it makes sense that they first look at books with travel in the title. Search engines operate the same way. Pages with the search terms appearing in the HTML title tag are often assumed to be more relevant than others to the topic.
Search engines will also check to see if the search keywords appear near the top of a web page, such as in the headline or in the first few paragraphs of text. They assume that any page relevant to the topic will mention those words right from the beginning.
Frequency is the other major factor in how search engines determine relevancy. A search engine will analyze how often keywords appear in relation to other words in a web page. Those with a higher frequency are often deemed more relevant than other web pages.
Spice In The Recipe
Now it's time to qualify the location/frequency method described above. All the major search engines follow it to some degree, in the same way cooks may follow a standard chili recipe. But cooks like to add their own secret ingredients. In the same way, search engines add spice to the location/frequency method. Nobody does it exactly the same, which is one reason why the same search on different search engines produces different results.
To begin with, some search engines index more web pages than others. Some search engines also index web pages more often than others. The result is that no search engine has the exact same collection of web pages to search through. That naturally produces differences, when comparing their results.
Search engines may also penalize pages or exclude them from the index, if they detect search engine "spamming." An example is when a word is repeated hundreds of times on a page, to increase the frequency and propel the page higher in the listings. Search engines watch for common spamming methods in a variety of ways, including following up on complaints from their users.
Off The Page Factors
Crawler-based search engines have plenty of experience now with webmasters who constantly rewrite their web pages in an attempt to gain better rankings. Some sophisticated webmasters may even go to great lengths to "reverse engineer" the location/frequency systems used by a particular search engine. Because of this, all major search engines now also make use of "off the page" ranking criteria.
Off the page factors are those that a webmasters cannot easily influence. Chief among these is link analysis. By analyzing how pages link to each other, a search engine can both determine what a page is about and whether that page is deemed to be "important" and thus deserving of a ranking boost. In addition, sophisticated techniques are used to screen out attempts by webmasters to build "artificial" links designed to boost their rankings.
Another off the page factor is clickthrough measurement. In short, this means that a search engine may watch what results someone selects for a particular search, then eventually drop high-ranking pages that aren't attracting clicks, while promoting lower-ranking pages that do pull in visitors. As with link analysis, systems are used to compensate for artificial links generated by eager webmasters.
Next: Search Engine Placement Tips
Previous - Beginning
How Search Engines Work (2)
The term "search engine" is often used generically to describe both crawler-based search engines and human-powered directories. These two types of search engines gather their listings in radically different ways.
Crawler-Based Search Engines
Crawler-based search engines, such as Google, create their listings automatically. They "crawl" or "spider" the web, then people search through what they have found.
If you change your web pages, crawler-based search engines eventually find these changes, and that can affect how you are listed. Page titles, body copy and other elements all play a role.
Human-Powered Directories
A human-powered directory, such as the Open Directory, depends on humans for its listings. You submit a short description to the directory for your entire site, or editors write one for sites they review. A search looks for matches only in the descriptions submitted.
Changing your web pages has no effect on your listing. Things that are useful for improving a listing with a search engine have nothing to do with improving a listing in a directory. The only exception is that a good site, with good content, might be more likely to get reviewed for free than a poor site.
"Hybrid Search Engines" Or Mixed Results
In the web's early days, it used to be that a search engine either presented crawler-based results or human-powered listings. Today, it extremely common for both types of results to be presented. Usually, a hybrid search engine will favor one type of listings over another. For example, MSN Search is more likely to present human-powered listings from LookSmart. However, it does also present crawler-based results (as provided by Inktomi), especially for more obscure queries.
Search Engine Watch Members have access to in-depth information and get extra benefits.
Learn more about becoming a Member.
The Parts Of A Crawler-Based Search Engine
Crawler-based search engines have three major elements. First is the spider, also called the crawler. The spider visits a web page, reads it, and then follows links to other pages within the site. This is what it means when someone refers to a site being "spidered" or "crawled." The spider returns to the site on a regular basis, such as every month or two, to look for changes.
Everything the spider finds goes into the second part of the search engine, the index. The index, sometimes called the catalog, is like a giant book containing a copy of every web page that the spider finds. If a web page changes, then this book is updated with new information.
Sometimes it can take a while for new pages or changes that the spider finds to be added to the index. Thus, a web page may have been "spidered" but not yet "indexed." Until it is indexed -- added to the index -- it is not available to those searching with the search engine.
Search engine software is the third part of a search engine. This is the program that sifts through the millions of pages recorded in the index to find matches to a search and rank them in order of what it believes is most relevant. You can learn more about how search engine software ranks web pages on the aptly-named How Search Engines Rank Web Pages page.
Major Search Engines: The Same, But Different
All crawler-based search engines have the basic parts described above, but there are differences in how these parts are tuned. That is why the same search on different search engines often produces different results. Some of the significant differences between the major crawler-based search engines are summarized on the Search Engine Features Page. Information on this page has been drawn from the help pages of each search engine, along with knowledge gained from articles, reviews, books, independent research, tips from others and additional information received directly from the various search engines.
Now let's look more about how crawler-based search engine rank the listings that they gather.
Next: How Search Engines Rank Web Pages
Previous - Beginning
Crawler-Based Search Engines
Crawler-based search engines, such as Google, create their listings automatically. They "crawl" or "spider" the web, then people search through what they have found.
If you change your web pages, crawler-based search engines eventually find these changes, and that can affect how you are listed. Page titles, body copy and other elements all play a role.
Human-Powered Directories
A human-powered directory, such as the Open Directory, depends on humans for its listings. You submit a short description to the directory for your entire site, or editors write one for sites they review. A search looks for matches only in the descriptions submitted.
Changing your web pages has no effect on your listing. Things that are useful for improving a listing with a search engine have nothing to do with improving a listing in a directory. The only exception is that a good site, with good content, might be more likely to get reviewed for free than a poor site.
"Hybrid Search Engines" Or Mixed Results
In the web's early days, it used to be that a search engine either presented crawler-based results or human-powered listings. Today, it extremely common for both types of results to be presented. Usually, a hybrid search engine will favor one type of listings over another. For example, MSN Search is more likely to present human-powered listings from LookSmart. However, it does also present crawler-based results (as provided by Inktomi), especially for more obscure queries.
Search Engine Watch Members have access to in-depth information and get extra benefits.
Learn more about becoming a Member.
The Parts Of A Crawler-Based Search Engine
Crawler-based search engines have three major elements. First is the spider, also called the crawler. The spider visits a web page, reads it, and then follows links to other pages within the site. This is what it means when someone refers to a site being "spidered" or "crawled." The spider returns to the site on a regular basis, such as every month or two, to look for changes.
Everything the spider finds goes into the second part of the search engine, the index. The index, sometimes called the catalog, is like a giant book containing a copy of every web page that the spider finds. If a web page changes, then this book is updated with new information.
Sometimes it can take a while for new pages or changes that the spider finds to be added to the index. Thus, a web page may have been "spidered" but not yet "indexed." Until it is indexed -- added to the index -- it is not available to those searching with the search engine.
Search engine software is the third part of a search engine. This is the program that sifts through the millions of pages recorded in the index to find matches to a search and rank them in order of what it believes is most relevant. You can learn more about how search engine software ranks web pages on the aptly-named How Search Engines Rank Web Pages page.
Major Search Engines: The Same, But Different
All crawler-based search engines have the basic parts described above, but there are differences in how these parts are tuned. That is why the same search on different search engines often produces different results. Some of the significant differences between the major crawler-based search engines are summarized on the Search Engine Features Page. Information on this page has been drawn from the help pages of each search engine, along with knowledge gained from articles, reviews, books, independent research, tips from others and additional information received directly from the various search engines.
Now let's look more about how crawler-based search engine rank the listings that they gather.
Next: How Search Engines Rank Web Pages
Previous - Beginning
Intro to Search Engine Optimization (1)
Intro to Search Engine Optimization
Search engines are one of the primary ways that Internet users find Web sites. That's why a Web site with good search engine listings may see a dramatic increase in traffic.
Everyone wants those good listings. Unfortunately, many Web sites appear poorly in search engine rankings or may not be listed at all because they fail to consider how search engines work.
In particular, submitting to search engines (as covered in the Essentials section) is only part of the challenge of getting good search engine positioning. It's also important to prepare a Web site through "search engine optimization."
Search engine optimization means ensuring that your Web pages are accessible to search engines and are focused in ways that help improve the chances they will be found.
Search Engine Watch Members have access to in-depth information and get extra benefits.
Learn more about becoming a Member.
This next section provides information, techniques and a good grounding in the basics of search engine optimization. By using this information where appropriate, you may tap into visitors who previously missed your site.
The guide is not a primer on ways to trick or "spam" the search engines. In fact, there are not any "search engine secrets" that will guarantee a top listing. But there are a number of small changes you can make to your site that can sometimes produce big results.
Let's go forward and first explore the two major ways search engines get their listings; then you will see how search engine optimization can especially help with crawler-based search engines.
Next: How Search Engines Work
Previous - Beginning
Search engines are one of the primary ways that Internet users find Web sites. That's why a Web site with good search engine listings may see a dramatic increase in traffic.
Everyone wants those good listings. Unfortunately, many Web sites appear poorly in search engine rankings or may not be listed at all because they fail to consider how search engines work.
In particular, submitting to search engines (as covered in the Essentials section) is only part of the challenge of getting good search engine positioning. It's also important to prepare a Web site through "search engine optimization."
Search engine optimization means ensuring that your Web pages are accessible to search engines and are focused in ways that help improve the chances they will be found.
Search Engine Watch Members have access to in-depth information and get extra benefits.
Learn more about becoming a Member.
This next section provides information, techniques and a good grounding in the basics of search engine optimization. By using this information where appropriate, you may tap into visitors who previously missed your site.
The guide is not a primer on ways to trick or "spam" the search engines. In fact, there are not any "search engine secrets" that will guarantee a top listing. But there are a number of small changes you can make to your site that can sometimes produce big results.
Let's go forward and first explore the two major ways search engines get their listings; then you will see how search engine optimization can especially help with crawler-based search engines.
Next: How Search Engines Work
Previous - Beginning
What is Search Engine Optimization?
What is Search Engine Optimization ?
If you ask 100 Internet marketing advisors to define search engine optimization, you’re likely to get 100 different interpretations of a search engine optimization definition. The reason for this is: Very few Internet marketing advisors can offer their clients a comprehensive approach to SEO. They usually focus on one or two aspects of SEO and provide their clients with incomplete search engine optimization information to cover for the gaps in their expertise.
At Brick Marketing, we get calls everyday from people that have been provided only a narrow portion of the full spectrum of search engine optimization services and want a straight answer about SEO. To that end, we offer this page to explain what search engine optimization is in plain language because the more informed that our clients are, the easier it will be for us to help them achieve their goals.
What is Search Engine Optimization?
Simply put, search engine optimization is the process of improving the quality and volume of web traffic to a website by employing a series of proven SEO techniques that help a website achieve a higher ranking with the major search engines when certain keywords and phrases are put in the search field.
To put this into context, consider your own Internet search habits. When you want to find information, your first instinct is to use a search engine because it is the fastest and easiest way to get it. Once the search results are posted, you’re far more likely to explore the links on the first page of results because they are the most relevant to what you are looking for and allow you to find what you’re looking for easily.
That is the goal of search engine optimization. To optimize your website so that the major search engines rank your site as highly as possible which, in turn, leads to a greater volume of qualified traffic. SEO can level the playing field for your business whether your business is a Fortune 500 company or a brand new business venture trying to get noticed in a competitive field. Done properly, SEO puts your site on the left side of the page where it gains instant credibility with the very people that you wish to reach.
How does Search Engine Marketing Achieve this?
This is where SEO can be a bit confusing as there is no single, comprehensive approach that works for every website. Just as every company is unique, success with SEO requires that an Internet marketing solutions company draft a unique strategy for each client. There are no shortcuts and better rankings are achieved in weeks not days but if done properly, SEO will transform a website into a powerful web presence that creates an energy about your goods and services and engages your target audience.
To achieve this, an Internet marketing advisor will employ a combination of the following SEO practices and more:
* An SEO Strategy – SEO analysis of your site conducted by an experienced SEO advisor to identify opportunities for improvement and devise a comprehensive approach that will get results.
* Keyword Research – Thorough research of your industry and identification of which keywords and phrases will achieve the best results.
* SEO Copywriting – Content optimization using your keywords and phrases in the pages of your site to achieve higher ranking.
* Link Building – The process of creating inbound links to your website which allows your site to achieve a higher ranking.
These are the main aspects of an effective SEO strategy but there are several more methods that can be employed to help your site achieve a higher ranking. For a more thorough explanation of these and other search engine optimization definitions including:
If you ask 100 Internet marketing advisors to define search engine optimization, you’re likely to get 100 different interpretations of a search engine optimization definition. The reason for this is: Very few Internet marketing advisors can offer their clients a comprehensive approach to SEO. They usually focus on one or two aspects of SEO and provide their clients with incomplete search engine optimization information to cover for the gaps in their expertise.
At Brick Marketing, we get calls everyday from people that have been provided only a narrow portion of the full spectrum of search engine optimization services and want a straight answer about SEO. To that end, we offer this page to explain what search engine optimization is in plain language because the more informed that our clients are, the easier it will be for us to help them achieve their goals.
What is Search Engine Optimization?
Simply put, search engine optimization is the process of improving the quality and volume of web traffic to a website by employing a series of proven SEO techniques that help a website achieve a higher ranking with the major search engines when certain keywords and phrases are put in the search field.
To put this into context, consider your own Internet search habits. When you want to find information, your first instinct is to use a search engine because it is the fastest and easiest way to get it. Once the search results are posted, you’re far more likely to explore the links on the first page of results because they are the most relevant to what you are looking for and allow you to find what you’re looking for easily.
That is the goal of search engine optimization. To optimize your website so that the major search engines rank your site as highly as possible which, in turn, leads to a greater volume of qualified traffic. SEO can level the playing field for your business whether your business is a Fortune 500 company or a brand new business venture trying to get noticed in a competitive field. Done properly, SEO puts your site on the left side of the page where it gains instant credibility with the very people that you wish to reach.
How does Search Engine Marketing Achieve this?
This is where SEO can be a bit confusing as there is no single, comprehensive approach that works for every website. Just as every company is unique, success with SEO requires that an Internet marketing solutions company draft a unique strategy for each client. There are no shortcuts and better rankings are achieved in weeks not days but if done properly, SEO will transform a website into a powerful web presence that creates an energy about your goods and services and engages your target audience.
To achieve this, an Internet marketing advisor will employ a combination of the following SEO practices and more:
* An SEO Strategy – SEO analysis of your site conducted by an experienced SEO advisor to identify opportunities for improvement and devise a comprehensive approach that will get results.
* Keyword Research – Thorough research of your industry and identification of which keywords and phrases will achieve the best results.
* SEO Copywriting – Content optimization using your keywords and phrases in the pages of your site to achieve higher ranking.
* Link Building – The process of creating inbound links to your website which allows your site to achieve a higher ranking.
These are the main aspects of an effective SEO strategy but there are several more methods that can be employed to help your site achieve a higher ranking. For a more thorough explanation of these and other search engine optimization definitions including:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)