Meta Tags

[Undo]

Hi, this might sound like a truly stupid question, but I'll ask it anyway! Do you put meta tags for keywords and description on every page of your site or just on the index page? Does it matter to the Search engines?

Thanks.

[matauri]

Best bet is to put them on every page of your site. Yes it does matter to some search engines, though some still argue that it doesn't with Google and the like. But you can take that up with those in the Search engine forums, because you will get a myriad of opinions on it. My opinion is, it doesn't hurt to have it there for other search engines, and there isn't difiniutive enough proof for not having them there for Google,etc.

There are also other meta tags available (some are more valuable than others)...

<meta name="distribution" content="Global" /> - Tells the search engine who the page is meant for and can be set to; global, for everyone, local, for regional sites, and UI, for Internal Use. This will always be "Global" in the context of web page promotion

<meta name="revisit-after" content="30 days" /> - Tells the search engine to revisit your site every 30 days. (can work against you if Google visits earlier)

<meta name="robots" content="all" /> - Tells the search engine to index all of the website pages linked.

<meta name="robots" content="index,follow" /> Index the page and follow all links from it. If this is what you want don't use the robot meta tag at all since by default search engine spiders do this anyway.

<meta name="robots" content="noindex,follow" /> - Don't index (cache) this page, but do follow the links.

<meta name="robots" content="index,nofollow" /> - Index this page, but don't follow the links.

<meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" /> - Don't index the page and don't follow the links.

<meta name="rating" content="General" /> - This is used to give the web page a rating for the appropriateness for kids. The ratings are, general, mature, restricted, and 14 years.

<meta name="resource-type" content="document" /> - The Resource-type tag identifies the type of content the file contains. This will always be "Document" in the context of web page promotion.

<meta name="author" content="?" /> - This is used to identify the author of the web page.

<meta name="copyright" content="?" /> - This one identifies any copyright information there is for the web page.

<meta name="expires" content="never" /> - This meta tag is used by responsible web masters to let the search engine know when the page expires and can be removed from the search engines directory. It can either be set to never, or a date in the format day, month, year, eg. 28 June 2003.

<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - sets the style language for inline styles to CSS

<meta http-equiv="Content-Script-Type" content="text/javascript" /> - sets the client-side scripting language for inline scripts to JavaScript.

<meta http-equiv=Refresh content="10; URL=?" /> - tells the browser to load http://? 10 seconds after the current document has finished loading. Not all browsers support this, so authors should provide an alternate means of moving to the new page where necessary. The Refresh header is sometimes used for "splash screens" or when a page has moved, but the technique is not very effective since users may not even be looking at the window that is to be refreshed and since it messes up the user's history on many browsers. Some search engines penalize pages that use a Refresh of a few seconds or less.



Cindy

[Undo]

Wow, thanks Matauri. That sure is a lot more tags then I knew about! I'll try some of those.

Cheers,

[brandblast]

Knowing what tags you can use is a good start, since every page contains different content, it's important to optimize every page and not just copy and paste the same tags throughout your entire site.

One of our articles titled "2004 Guide to Website Optimization" would be a good place for you to start learning about proper optimization techniques.

Read it at http://brandblast.com/webmaster/arti...imization.html

I wish you the best of luck,

[carbonize]

I have a meta tag generator I made on my site if you want to test it for me. It's at http://www.carbonize.co.uk/Webdesign/metagen.php

brandblast I'm curious as to why you have source=webproworld in the link to your site? Also I just visited it and I am getting about 2 pixels of horizontal scroll on IE6 at 800x600.

I notice that Cindy forgot to mention that /> is how you end single tags in XHTML and not HTML :p

[brandblast]

Carbonize,

Thanks for the tip on the pixels, the link http://brandblast.com/index.html?source=webproworld allows us to track visitors and to analyze navigation patterns and sales numbers stemming from WPW visits.

It also helps us to make the overall usability better for our visitors.

[carbonize]

Or you could just get the referer from them when the arrive using a simple php script.

[Undo]

Hi guys, thanks for your helpful tips. When I get a moment of free time, I will work on this some more. In the meantime Carbonize, I tried your Meta tag generator and it works great!! Thanks. I shall use this when I get minute to work on my other pages of my site.

Cheers,

[mikmik]

It is absolutely IMPORTANT to have a meta content="description" in your head because this is what search engines and directories use to display your 'listing' in most cases. If you check with an online simulater that shows how your page appears, you will see what I mean.
Do you want people trying to figure out what your pages are about from the text - usually about the first 60 - 150 characters - in your page, or do you want to provide them with a desription that is consice and inclusive?

Here is what my first page looks like:

Factor1 Web Design Development Building Maintenance Kelowna, BC
...Website development, design, and building for small business, personal, and special interest sites. Pick and choose from basic templates or specify your own ideas. Get started easily and without confusion, all aspects explained in simple language. /.

The thing is, people may not always be searching for just what your first page is about, and if you have relevant material on interior pages, it is to your benifit to let them know about it when they are doing the comparison with other listings.

[brandblast]

Carbonize,

Thanks for the tip but a simple php referrer script can't give me the level of detail I need.