Meta Tag / Key Word Help... Help!

glenmike · #1 10-03-2006, 03:50 AM

Hi Folks! Please feel free to redirect me to another forum if this subject belongs eslewhere.

Meta Tags / Key Words... The whole business is perplexing. Can anyone describe how one goes about selecting the appropriate words and phrases that will be used to improve the website search results? There seems to be a direct relationship in choosing meta tags on the basis of general subject, page content, and what exists in the page titles. There also seems to be a level of finesse required in creating the chemistry of the mix; something beyond the hamfisted approach of stringing together a bunch likely word candidates and hoping for the best. I've used the 'digger' but quite frankly don't really know what to do with the results.

This one baffles me... at least for the moment.

Enlightenment sought!

Poppi
www.newmexicorides.com

bill2006 · #2 10-03-2006, 04:05 AM

Just choose words that best describe your site, example "motorcycles" over "tourism" and title your pages with easy to recall words. Meta tags alone aren't going to do the trick, search engines look for other tags, links and common sense in designing your site.

LadyEye · #3 10-03-2006, 04:06 AM

http://www.vodahost.com/vodatalk/sea...-vodahits.html

there is lots of expert advice in this section here ....

Bethers · #4 10-03-2006, 05:27 AM

You need to use tools to determine what keywords people are using to target the areas YOU want to have them find you in. For example, I just queried the term "New Mexico motorcycles" and found this:

Searches done in August 2006CountSearch Term 231 motorcycle santa fe new mexico 186 motorcycle service santa fe new mexico 90 new mexico motorcycle rally 73 new mexico motorcycle 44 ruidoso new mexico motorcycle rally 40 motorcycle rental new mexico 29 new mexico motorcycle license

This would be a start for you - obviously you are targeting people in New Mexico with motorcycles - rally is another word you probably want to target from this.

Use the words in your titles, descriptions and on the page. Base the meta keywords on words ON that specific page! Do not stuff the meta keywords - and do not put words there that are not on the page.

Do your research - and you'll find the words you need to use. (My guess is the word "bike" should also be used.)

glenmike · #5 10-03-2006, 03:05 PM

I'll get to work. Thanks, as always, for the good advice Bill, LadyEye, and Bethers.

Poppi
www.newmexicorides.com

naghosthunter · #6 10-04-2006, 08:08 PM

here ya go glenmike hope this info will help you out i made a post...let me know if it helped...
http://www.vodahost.com/vodatalk/sea...at-i-used.html

glenmike · #7 10-05-2006, 01:30 AM

Hey, Jim, thank you very much! I'll follow your recipe along with the spice advice from the other BV chefs this weekend and see if I can cook up a batch of tasty keywords, etc. I don't mind the effort it it produces what works.

Have a great week!

Poppi
www.newmexicorides.com

zigzag · #8 10-06-2006, 07:59 PM

Hi Poppi,
There are some other things to bear in mind with keywords. Some guys get a bit devious. They want to include a certain word in there keywords, so a search engine can find them. But this word is not in the page content. Let's use "Harley" for sake of example.

The devious bit is that you hide the word "Harley" behind one of your pictures or something. I believe Google gets very upset about this, and won't list you. You don't want to upset Google, because Google is god.

The next thing to bear in mind, is that your page title must relect the page content, to keep search engines happy. Obvious.

Then there is the point that your keywords, must ideally be repeated a few times in your page content. This gives your marks in the 'relevancy' stakes in a SE. My home page doesn't score well in this area, because I wanted to keep the text to a minimum. Perhaps I should change.

The other thing that improves your SE score, is how many other sites, have links to your site. So swop links. And the more hits the "other" site has, the better for your score. So try and get a link to your site on the pages of a local or state authority, as an example, that might be feasible in your case.

Then, don't pay anyone to submit your site to Google etc (as I did). You can do it yourself. I used Submit Express, and I got plenty of spam from tiny SE organizations that I have not heard of, wanting me to pay to place ads on their pages.

Happy touring,

LadyEye · #9 10-06-2006, 09:59 PM

Another thing that I heard from someone today is say if your site is about "Bowling" you should also use the word "Boling" ... mispelling it, then if a user searches and misspells it you are likely to come to the top ... I guess I should also ask the experts at this time, if this is a good policy or not? Can someone give us an opinion on doing this??

Bethers · #10 10-06-2006, 10:12 PM

NEVER put misspelled words on your website - NEVER - and also never use bad grammar.

That will send your potential customers running as an unprofessional site and will even lose you points with the se's - who also check your site for grammar and spelling.

Also, you don't even have to submit your site to any se's - they will find it naturally if you are doing your job correctly. And if you do want to submit - use the Voda service of one free submit to all se's.

You do NOT design your site for the se's - you design it to be the absolutely BEST it can be for who your targeted viewer/customer is. If you are doing this properly - you'll also be making the se's happy.

That said, there are ways to use what the se's are looking for to help yourself - like the use of h1 tags, for example. Today, you can probably not use h1 tags, but use headlines without them and most se's will be able to recognize them. However, it doesn't hurt to use the tools that are provided.

LadyEye · #11 10-06-2006, 10:27 PM

Oh sorry Bethers I didn't mean putting misspelled words on your website or bad grammar or anything, sorry if I didn't make myself clear, what I was asking an opinion about was the words in the background of your website, the words that are not visible to the viewers on your page, those were the words I was referring to .... can you let me know if that is different than what you just mentioned .... thanks

Bethers · #12 10-06-2006, 10:42 PM

If you put words in the background that visitors can't see - you'll end up banned by the se's. Unless you are taking about the meta keywords - and you should never have anything in the meta keywords that isn't on your page.

LadyEye · #13 10-06-2006, 10:48 PM

Ooh, wow, so this would not have been a good idea then, hmmm ... kinda funny cause this guy has been building websites for like twenty years, glad I put that out there and asked ... thanks Bethers ... very good to know not to do that then ... wouldn't want that to happen ...

Thanks again!!

choco777 · #14 10-06-2006, 10:53 PM

LadyEye,
If you are referring to using wrong spellings in your keywords, I was told and have read he same thing many times.

Bethers · #15 10-06-2006, 10:55 PM

Things have changed over the years. You used to be able to buy misspellings in PPC - and might still be able to in some - but the se's find all the things that are "black hat" and eventually penalize for them. People only get away with cheating for so long - just like in person.