Meta Tags

 

The Topic – Meta Tags

Those of us in the online world just love the name “meta tag.”  The very name implies all sorts of strange things and confuses the heck out of average folks with real jobs.  It’s arguably one of the most “thrown around” words in the SEO world.  And it is definitely one of the most misunderstood.

 

So People with Real Jobs Can Understand, Please

 

OK so what exactly is a “meta tag”?  Simply put, they are the labels on each website page which help make it easier to organize the internet.  Each website page can have its own set of meta tags which tell search engines like Google what the page is about. 

 

 

Think of it this way – if you are old enough to remember going to the library and sorting through rows of index cards; meta data works pretty much the same way.  First you look at the title of a volume, which in this case is the page title.  Then you see a description and key items.

Search engines function in a similar fashion as they try to make sense of billions of similar website pages.  The main difference is that it’s up to the website owner to tell Google what each page about, and really that’s where the fun starts.

 

The common meta tags are:

• Page Title – the actual “title” of the website page that appears in the top section of your web browser
• Description or Summary – the description of the page that sometimes appears in search results as the 2nd and 3rd lines, but also lives in the html code of the website
• Keywords – a grossly misused set of keywords that the page is about

 

Why Should You Care?

The bottom line for people with real jobs is that a properly done page title and meta description can have an ENOURMOUS impact on where your website shows up in search results.

I can’t think of any other way to say this so here goes – meta data such as Page Titles play a HUGE role in whether or not people find your website.  A page title is your best piece of web based real estate – your interstate billboard so to speak. It’s the loudest and fastest way to tell Google what your page is about.

The sad thing is that, for the most part, the meta data is often either neglected or abused.  Neglected by people who don’t know better and name their home page simply “Home” – or abused by people who once heard it was good to have keywords in the title so their home page reads “Dog food, dog treats, dog products, dog soap, dog shampoo, discount dog food, premium dog food” and anything else they can think of.

 

The Big Mystery…

The real mystery surrounding meta data is how to use it effectively without being an abuser – or “spammer” in the online world.  I see tons of websites with keywords jammed or stuffed in all over the place and some people think this passes for “optimization.”   They have no idea that stuffing their meta data full of words is causing search engines to discount the value of their page.

 

The Geek Angle

The truth is that you may actually need a Geek to solve this problem on your website (depending on how you manage it).  Some websites offer an easy spot to update meta tags.  However some websites require you to access the html directly and program it by hand.  If this is the case please be careful – this is definitely a job for a geek!

 

 

What Can You Do?

At this point if you are frustrated and confused that’s ok.  This is the part where we make it easy.  Here are a few simple rules to follow (non techy) that will generally help:

• Make sure each page has an accurate set of meta data to describe what the page is about.  The biggest sin is just leaving it blank.
• Don’t put anything in the page title, description or keywords that is NOT found on your page
• Don’t get crazy and try to put everything there.  Simple meta data does very well.
• Make it readable.  As silly as it sounds, you need to make people want to read your web page.
• Put your most important keywords first when possible.

 

Stay Tuned For More

Hopefully this explanation helps you to understand what meta data is all about and why you should care.  And for the “do it yourselfers” out there I hope the guidelines help.

However – meta data is just Installment 1 of our series – there’s lots more to go!

 

And When You’ve Had Enough!

For anyone else who is NOT INTERESTRED in trying to find the meta data on their website we can help!

Call WSI today for a free SEO consultation.  In addition to providing helpful, occasionally witty SEO advice, we actually do work on projects where people pay us money!

We will review your website or project and give you a realistic idea of the work needed to hit the marks you are shooting for.

So don’t wait – contact us today!