Do's and Donts of Meta tags

Author: Ian Velvet

Article source: http://www.selfseo.com/. Used with author's permission.

Meta What????

What is a Meta Tag? A meta tag is a hidden description about your site solely used for web crawlers to help catagorize and index your site in a search.

Do's and Don'ts for meta tag use.

Some dos and don'ts:

Do use keyword research tools like Overture's Search Suggestion tool and Wordtracker to find 2-3 word key phrases to target.

Do use 3-4 keywords or 2-3 keyword phrases in the Title Tag - the most critical tag for rankings. Remember the words farthest to the left have more "weight." You might want to move the company name to the end, unless it includes targeted keywords.

Do create keyword combinations specific to each page on your site based on the page text. Think in terms of themes or subcategories. Example, if you have a garden e-commerce site, for the "bulbs" page use specific keywords like: fall bulbs supplier, tulip bulbs, flowering bulbs.

Do change your meta tags seasonally to include holidays and seasonal changes. Start about 6 weeks before the targeted month or holiday to ensure time for the search engines to pick up the changes in time.

Don't stuff keywords into your tags. More is not always better and can get you banned.

Don't use the same word more than 3 times in the keyword meta tag, and avoid using the same word consecutively. By omitting commas, you can create more combinations and avoid overusing the same words.

Don't target generic, one-word keywords with extreme competition, for example, gardens or gardening.

Don't make your title tag one long string of keywords. Make it a readable sentence or phrase.

Meta tags can help you round out your rankings in addition to other factors like page content (important) and link popularity. Do your research and use them wisely. They may not be dead, but meta tags certainly are a part of the overall picture in SEO.