How to Use Meta Tags For SEO
Meta tags are what goes into the heading area of a web page's source code.
Although not as important in over all rankings as they used to be, they still play a part in on page SEO.
Again, that's the meta description and the meta keyword tags.
Now the meta keyword tag is not used at all by Google.
We know that for certain, and probably not for Yahoo.
However, the meta keyword tag is used by some of the secondary search engines, so it's important to put that in, but remember, never spam keywords in the meta tag keyword area.
Even though Google does not give any relevance to the meta keywords listed there, they may look at spamming as a negative, so to prevent keyword spamming in the meta keyword area, only put in the keywords that are relative to that specific page.
Many people make the mistake of inserting keywords in the meta keyword space that the entire site is about.
So if you sell dog supplies and you sell dog beds, and dog leashes, and dog collars, and dog training videos, and all of those things, you probably have one page for each one of those topics, so in each one of those pages, the meta tag keyword area should only have the keywords for that specific area.
Don't put the keyword that the entire site is about, so each meta keyword area should be unique and specifically for that page.
Normally, my meta keyword area is very short.
I always have the exact keyword that the page is optimized for or some version in it.
Sometimes I may add a few other things that are relevant to that page, but remember only for that page.
Now the meta description is used by Google and the other search engines as a way of gaining more information as to what the site is about, and often times, the meta description tag, that tag is used in description in the search engine results, so it's important to make a good meta tag description, so that if the search engine does show your website for a given search and people see your title tag at the top, which is bolded, and then the search engine will supply a short snippet or sentence of what your site is about.
If you don't have a meta description tag, they will simply use a piece of your content, their choice.
They may still do that anyway, in fact.
But supply them with a good sentence or two that describes that specific page.
Here again, each meta description tag must absolutely be unique.
Do not duplicate meta description tags across multiple pages on your site.
Although not as important in over all rankings as they used to be, they still play a part in on page SEO.
Again, that's the meta description and the meta keyword tags.
Now the meta keyword tag is not used at all by Google.
We know that for certain, and probably not for Yahoo.
However, the meta keyword tag is used by some of the secondary search engines, so it's important to put that in, but remember, never spam keywords in the meta tag keyword area.
Even though Google does not give any relevance to the meta keywords listed there, they may look at spamming as a negative, so to prevent keyword spamming in the meta keyword area, only put in the keywords that are relative to that specific page.
Many people make the mistake of inserting keywords in the meta keyword space that the entire site is about.
So if you sell dog supplies and you sell dog beds, and dog leashes, and dog collars, and dog training videos, and all of those things, you probably have one page for each one of those topics, so in each one of those pages, the meta tag keyword area should only have the keywords for that specific area.
Don't put the keyword that the entire site is about, so each meta keyword area should be unique and specifically for that page.
Normally, my meta keyword area is very short.
I always have the exact keyword that the page is optimized for or some version in it.
Sometimes I may add a few other things that are relevant to that page, but remember only for that page.
Now the meta description is used by Google and the other search engines as a way of gaining more information as to what the site is about, and often times, the meta description tag, that tag is used in description in the search engine results, so it's important to make a good meta tag description, so that if the search engine does show your website for a given search and people see your title tag at the top, which is bolded, and then the search engine will supply a short snippet or sentence of what your site is about.
If you don't have a meta description tag, they will simply use a piece of your content, their choice.
They may still do that anyway, in fact.
But supply them with a good sentence or two that describes that specific page.
Here again, each meta description tag must absolutely be unique.
Do not duplicate meta description tags across multiple pages on your site.
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