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Meta tags were originally created to help search engines find out important information about web sites.
They are HTML code embedded in your web page which is not displayed in your browser, but are viewed and processed by servers in the internet.
What they look like:
Description Meta:
<META NAME="description" content="This would be your description of what is on your page. Your most important keyword phrases should appear in this description."> | |
Keywords Meta:
<META NAME="keywords" content="keywords phrase 1, keyword phrase 2, keyword phrase 3, etc."> | |
While meta tags are part of a well optimized web page they are not everything.
| Many people incorrectly believe that good meta tags are all that is needed to achieve good listings in the search engines, which is entirely incorrect. | | |
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Increasing competition for good search engine listings eventually led to many people spamming the search engines with keyword stuffed meta tags. The result is that the engines have changed what they look at when they rank a web page.
The search engines now usually look at a combination of several components to determine your listings, not just your meta tags. That being said, there are two meta tags that can help your search engine listings - meta keywords & meta description. |
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| Tag limits: |
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We recommend that your Keywords Meta not exceed 1024 characters including spaces. |
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We recommend that your Description Meta tag not exceed 250 characters including spaces. |
| Meta description tips: |
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Make sure you accurately describe the content of your page while trying to entice visitors to click on your listing. |
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Include 3-4 of your most important keyword phrases. Especially those used in your title tag and page copy. |
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Try to have your most important keywords appear at the beginning of your description. This often brings better results, and will help avoid having any search engine cut off your keywords if they limit the length of your description. |
| Meta keywords tips: |
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Don't forget plurals. For example, a travel site might have both "caribbean vacation" and "caribbean vacations" in their keyword meta tag to make sure they show up in both searches. |
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If you know of a common misspelling of a popular keyword that could be used to find your site you should enter it in your keywords meta tag. For example, a travel site might use "caribean " in their keyword meta since it is a common misspelling for "caribbean". |
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Watch out for repeats! You want to include your most important phrases, but when doing so it can be difficult not to repeat one word many times. For example, "caribbean vacation" and "caribbean vacations" are two different phrases, but the word "caribbean" appears twice. This is okay to do in order to make sure you get the phrases you need in there, but be careful not to repeat any one word excessively. There in no actual limit, but we recommend that no one word be repeated in the keyword meta more than 5 times. |
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If your site has content of interest to a specific geographic location be sure to include the actual location in your keyword meta. |
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Visibility
