Care And Feeding of Major Search Engines

Meta tags tell search engine's spiders/robots what kind of a page you have, what is on your page, and how you think your page should be categorized in the search engine database. Meta tags can also tell robots where to go next.

Many search engines will just "take your word" for what is on your page (with a few routine automated validity checks). This means you yourself can write the words the public will probably see when they find your page in a search engine. This is good, assuming you know what you want to say, and have something to say that others may want to hear.

So, what, exactly, is a Meta tag?

Meta tags are an invisible place to store information "behind" a visible Web page. Meta Tags are for use by any visiting search engine spider. Here are three ordinary uses for meta tags:

1. To cause an "automatic" event, for example to attempt to play a midi-music file or to automatically re-direct incoming traffic another page.
2. To provide your preferred information about the document, for example to name the author of the page or to say when the page expires.
3. To attempt to "force feed" search spiders the exact information you want them to index about your page.

Validate Your HTML

First, make sure your HTML code is up to snuff. The best current standard to use is HTML 4.0, a bit more than I learned when I first began doing Web pages. Now I must re-write all my pages in HTML 4.0. Try telling that to your Webmistress!

Links to decent HTML validators:

W3C HTML Validation Service

HTMLHelp Web Design Group Validator

CSE HTML Validator

Bobbie Accessibility Checker

Search Engine World HTML Validation Service

 

Write Your Meta Tags

It's really easy to write your own meta tags.

Collect potential keywords from your competitor's sites, and from searching directories for your site's main topics. After you generate a long list of keywords that people might use to "ask for" your site, then find synonyms for all the important ideas. If you intend to invite international attention, use keywords in several languages.

Also, don't forget to liberally use the IMG ALT= tag to place additional, relevant synonyms on your page.

Remember that the ALT= tag pops up when the cursor passes over its base IMG in most modern browsers -- this means that you can deliver an extra message when particular images are scanned by your readers. We know that some search engines also use these tags, probably in their relevance weighting algorithms. Although this tag is most useful for blind Net surfers, the ALT tag can help you sate the search engines, too.

Don't forget that search engines typically give weight to words, clauses or phrases inside of H1, H2, and H3 "headlines." All headlines should be active, strong, good, and attract attention to your lead reward for your primary audience.

Focus your efforts on writing the best possible TITLE, headlines, description, and keywords for your page. After these crucial jobs are implemented, then polish your page with ideas below.

Here are some links to places that tell you how to create your very own meta tags, all by yourself, with examples:

Magic With Meta-tags

META Tagging for Search Engines by Alan Richmond

Back to Basics: META Tags by Scott Clark

Do you need META Tags?

A Dictionary of HTML Meta Tags

Increasing Traffic to Your Web Page by Vernon Regional Junior College

Keyword research

Keyword Density & Prominence

DMOZ: Online Tools: Keywords

HTML Guide by Dr. Clue

Have you heard about META tags?

Visibility Tips

How To Use Meta Tags

A Guide to Meta Tags

META information

Meta-Tags.Com

Meta Tag Generator

Meta Tags and Search Engines

META tag builder 2

META - Meta-information

Meta Tags 101 - How most Search Engines work

Meta tags - what, where, when, why?

Writing Meta Tags for Higher Search Engine Placement and Good Descriptions

Using Meta-Tags

Play a sound: Using Meta tags

 

Validate Your Meta Tags

Once you've got your meta tags drafted, check your tags with these Meta Tag tools:

ScrubtheWeb Meta Tag Analyzer

Meta Medic

Enter URL :

*

Software For Meta Tags You can also spend money to buy software to help you to do the same work, in about the same amount of time. To evaluate these software programs, ask yourself:

Does this software

• Parse all text on a WWW page like a search engine?
• Create all five essential Meta Tags for you?
1. "resource-type" CONTENT="document"
2. "description" CONTENT="Write your best invitation here"
3. "keywords" CONTENT="keywords, synonyms, mispellings,"
4. "distribution" CONTENT="global"
5. "language" CONTENT="english"
• Offer a thesaurus for the generation of suitable keywords?
• Mark repetitious keywords?
• Supply common misspellings for a few important keywords?
• Estimate the grade level or difficulty of each page?
• Provide or suggest an appropriate TITLE for each page?
• Suggest grammar and or structure changes for clarity?
• Provide scales for comparisons between HTML drafts?

Search Engine Tutorial

SubmissionTool

TagGen

Free Trial of WebPosition Gold

 

Announce and Register Your Own Site

Use one of these free sites to locate and register in the search engines you want to be found in.

Add Me!

Exploit Submission Wizard Free Demo

Submission Engines

WebPosition Gold

Eureka! Quick URL Submission Page

AutoSubmit Free Submission Form

Web Submit By Echo Online Internet Inc.

Search Engine Submit Links

 

Evaluate Your Site's Registrations

Use this site to see how well you did when you registered you site.

Higher-Hits.Com Free Registration Evaluation Service

AutoSubmit Free Position Checking Service

Check your own URLs with Danny Sullivan's help

 

Or you can just pay someone else to do all this stuff for you:

Search Engine Placement Services

AceBasic Site Promotion

Submit-url.net

Submit Wolf

 

Is Someone Eliminating "Robots" From your Web Site?

The robots meta tag, along with the robots.txt file, can prevent some robots from entering and indexing your Web page. Ask your Internet Service Provider if others at their site have been allowed to prevent access with the robots.txt file. They could also be preventing your page from being indexed!

General ROBOTS.TXT Information

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Navigate Back to the Top

Validate HTML

Write Meta Tags

Validate Meta Tags

Software For Meta Tags

Announce/Register Site

Evaluate Site Registrations

Contract Services

Eliminating Robots?

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For more information, please contact:
"Dave Kinnaman" (kinnaman@World.Std.Com)

 

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