SEO HouseCalls

Meta Tags and Title Tags

Meta tags are data written into the html for specific purposes. They are information inserted into the "head" area of your web pages. Other than the title tag, 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 content (Adult sites use this self-rating a lot).

Meta tags go in between the "opening" and "closing" HEAD tags. This is an example of the meta tags we recommended from the SEOSquid training:

<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<title>Your Title Goes Here</title>
<meta name="Description" content="Put Your Site Description Here">
<meta name="Keywords" content="List Your Keywords">
<meta name="owner" content="Your Most Reliable Email Goes Here">
<meta name="author" content="Your Name Goes Here">
<meta http-equiv="charset" content="ISO-8859-1">
<meta http-equiv="content-language" content="English">
<meta http-equiv="text/html" content="Document"> 
<meta name="rating" content="General">
<meta name="robots" content="index,follow">
<meta name="revisit-after" content="15 days"> 
<meta name="date" content="2-06-2007>
</head>
</html>
 

This is another form of Meta Tags which is recommended for this course

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<title>TITLE SHOULD BE RELEVANT TO PAGE CONTENT & CONTAIN KEYWORDS</title>
<meta name="description" content="DESCRIPTION SHOULD BE NO LONGER THAN 85-120 CHARACTERS">
<meta name="keywords" content="CHOOSE 3 COMMON KEYWORDS TO SITE, THEN CHOOSE ONLY KEYWORDS THAT WILL CREATE A LISTING IN THE MARKET RE GOOGLE YOU WANT TO REACH">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css">
<meta name="author" content="YOUR NAME">
<meta name="copyright" content="Copyright 2005 NAME/DOMAIN NAME">
<meta name="distribution" content="global">
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-us">
<meta name="revisit-after" content="15 days">
<meta name="date" content="2-06-2007>
</HEAD>
</HTML>

Blue type is what needs to be changed by you, everything else should be left just as it is and once you have made your changes, insert it at the very top of your source code page.

Title Tag

The Title Tag is one of the most important tags for a search engine.

The Title Tag is what is displayed in the browser title bar. The Title Tag should be no longer than 80 characters and should contain words and phrases that accurately describe the content of a page. Try to put your most important keywords at the beginning. Try to make the Title Tags located throughout your site unique and relevant. Every word in the Title should be contained somewhere in the page they are used for. Research has also shown that a call to action will usually produce more clicks than a basic description.

Here's a quick checklist to consider when writing tags:

Title:

  • Provides call to action - YES/NO?
  • Contains less than 80 characters - YES/NO?
  • Uses important keywords and phrases - YES/NO?
  • Describes what the page is about - YES/NO?
  • Consistent with other content components - YES/NO?

META Keywords:

  • Contains less than 250 characters - YES/NO?
  • Uses important keywords and phrases - YES/NO?
  • Minimal repetition of individual words - YES/NO?
  • Consistent with other content components - YES/NO?

META Description:

  • Provides call to action - YES/NO?
  • Contains less than 250 characters - YES/NO?
  • Uses important keywords and phrases - YES/NO?
  • Describes what the page is about - YES/NO?
  • Consistent with other content components - YES/NO?

Structural Problems

Structural problems include sites that use on-page flash, hotlinks, or large graphics that contain the title text in the image - the spiders want to see words, not images, and only words can raise your ranking. Fixing structural problems can have a significant impact on your keyword positions, especially if your site has good page rank, and is old. If the spiders are suddenly able to index your previously invisible, real content, your keyword associations will instantly improve.

Stop Words

Most Search Engines do not consider extremely common words in order to save disk space or to speed up search results. These filtered words are known as 'Stop Words'.

Below is a comprehensive list of words Ignored by Search Engines.
A: able, about, above, abroad, according, accordingly, across, actually, adj, after, afterwards, again, against, ago, ahead, ain't, all, allow, allows, almost, alone, along, alongside, already, also, although, always, am, amid, amidst, among, amongst, an, and, another, any, anybody, anyhow, anyone, anything, anyway, anyways, anywhere, apart, appear, appreciate, appropriate, are, aren't, around, as, a's, aside, ask, asking, associated, at, available, away, awfully, B: back, backward, backwards, be, became, because, become, becomes, becoming, been, before, beforehand, begin, behind, being, believe, below, beside, besides, best, better, between, beyond, both, brief, but, by, C: came, can, cannot, cant, can't, caption, cause, causes, certain, certainly, changes, clearly, c'mon, co, co., com, come, comes, concerning, consequently, consider, considering, contain, containing, contains, corresponding, could, couldn't, course, c's, currently, D: dare, daren't, definitely, described, despite, did, didn't, different, directly, do, does, doesn't, doing, done, don't, down, downwards, during, E: each, edu, eg, eight, eighty, either, else, elsewhere, end, ending, enough, entirely, especially, et, etc, even, ever, evermore, every, everybody, everyone, everything, everywhere, ex, exactly, example, except, F: fairly, far, farther, few, fewer, fifth, first, five, followed, following, follows, for, forever, former, formerly, forth, forward, found, four, from, further, furthermore, G: get, gets, getting, given, gives, go, goes, going, gone, got, gotten, greetings, H: had, hadn't, half, happens, hardly, has, hasn't, have, haven't, having, he, he'd, he'll, hello, help, hence, her, here, hereafter, hereby, herein, here's, hereupon, hers, herself, he's, hi, him, himself, his, hither, hopefully, how, howbeit, however, hundred, I: i'd, ie, if, ignored, i'll, i'm, immediate, in, inasmuch, inc, inc., indeed, indicate, indicated, indicates, inner, inside, insofar, instead, into, inward, is, isn't, it, it'd, it'll, its, it's, itself, i've, J: just, K: keep, keeps, kept, know, known, knows, L: last, lately, later, latter, latterly, least, less, lest, let, let's, like, liked, likely, likewise, little, look, looking, looks, low, lower, ltd, M: made, mainly, make, makes, many, may, maybe, mayn't, me, mean, meantime, meanwhile, merely, might, mightn't, mine, minus, miss, more, moreover, most, mostly, mr, mrs, much, must, mustn't, my, myself, N: name, namely, nd, near, nearly, necessary, need, needn't, needs, neither, never, neverf, neverless, nevertheless, new, next, nine, ninety, no, nobody, non, none, nonetheless, noone, no-one, nor, normally, not, nothing, notwithstanding, novel, now, nowhere, O: obviously, of, off, often, oh, ok, okay, old, on, once, one, ones, one's, only, onto, opposite, or, other, others, otherwise, ought, oughtn't, our, ours, ourselves, out, outside, over, overall, own, P: particular, particularly, past, per, perhaps, placed, please, plus, possible, presumably, probably, provided, provides, Q: que, quite, qv, R: rather, rd, re, really, reasonably, recent, recently, regarding, regardless, regards, relatively, respectively, right, round, S: said, same, saw, say, saying, says, second, secondly, see, seeing, seem, seemed, seeming, seems, seen, self, selves, sensible, sent, serious, seriously, seven, several, shall, shan't, she, she'd, she'll, she's, should, shouldn't, since, six, so, some, somebody, someday, somehow, someone, something, sometime, sometimes, somewhat, somewhere, soon, sorry, specified, specify, specifying, still, sub, such, sup, sure, T: take, taken, taking, tell, tends, th, than, thank, thanks, thanx, that, that'll, thats, that's, that've, the, their, theirs, them, themselves, then, thence, there, thereafter, thereby, there'd, therefore, therein, there'll, there're, theres, there's, thereupon, there've, these, they, they'd, they'll, they're, they've, thing, things, think, third, thirty, this, thorough, thoroughly, those, though, three, through, throughout, thru, thus, till, to, together, too, took, toward, towards, tried, tries, truly, try, trying, t's, twice, two, U: un, under, underneath, undoing, unfortunately, unless, unlike, unlikely, until, unto, up, upon, upwards, us, use, used, useful, uses, using, usually, V: value, various, versus, very, via, viz, vs, W: want, wants, was, wasn't, way, we, we'd, welcome, well, we'll, went, were, we're, weren't, we've, what, whatever, what'll, what's, what've, when, whence, whenever, where, whereafter, whereas, whereby, wherein, where's, whereupon, wherever, whether, which, whichever, while, whilst, whither, who, who'd, whoever, whole, who'll, whom, whomever, who's, whose, why, will, willing, wish, with, within, without, wonder, won't, would, wouldn't, X: Y: yes, yet, you, you'd, you'll, your, you're, yours, yourself, yourselves, you've, Z: zero

©2007 Toni Shrader