Meta tags

[handcrafted]

On mr site there are 10 words you can put in as meta tags. If you put in the same word 10 times is that more effective?

Silly question, sorry.

[buffybaskey]

im not 100% sure but i think meta tags are what is used for searching so i think the more varied words would be better, anything that might bring people to your site, please feel free to correct me if im wrong though xx

[MrSwirl]

No - and some search engines might not like the same tag repeated over and over in the list.

The more ways to describe the site, the better - although to limit you to ten words is a bit tight IMHO :)

[handcrafted]

Yeah well im finding the whole thing a little stingy, but you got to start somewhere i spose!

Iv verified the site with google and im putting in all sorts of tags but i never appear within the first 5 pages of google!! Then i get sick of looking so i give up.

[matt.chatterley]

On mr site there are 10 words you can put in as meta tags. If you put in the same word 10 times is that more effective?

Silly question, sorry.

Nope. As MrSwirl said - you might even get penalised for this. Google Webmaster Central (sign up if you haven't already!) will point this out as an error for sure.

Meta keywords are not vitally important, but they do help add to the overall SEO picture. What sort of content and items are you going to be putting on your site?

Give us some info and we can all put ours heads together to come up with the right words!

Out of interest, does it count short phrases as more than one word? Often some of the most powerful keywords are combinations e.g. "glass beads" instead of just "beads" - both will have a good search volume, but the former is more specific!

[ElaineJ]

Search engines also go by the number of times your keywords are in the body text of the page - but particularly where the keywords appear as headings or have emphasis.

[handcrafted]

Yeah iv signed up for the google thing as i had to to verify my site with them.

Its mainly jewellery. Wire work and such. So far iv got wire, jewellery, earrings, pendants, bracelets, necklaces, crafts, handmade, scottish and one more i cant think of lol.

They only take one word, not phrases!!

[Lomond Soap]

I found this too. Make sure the key search words appear either in your name or at the top of your home page.
It takes time to move up the rankings, "Rome wasn't built in a day" springs to mind! The more visitors you get the higher importance SE's put on your site (so I've heard) it can take months to get anywhere close to the first page if you are in a competitive market.
Stick in there :)

[MrSwirl]

Search engines also go by the number of times your keywords are in the body text of the page - but particularly where the keywords appear as headings or have emphasis.

Not necessarily.

It used to be the vogue to include a whole load of key words in white text on a white background. The theory was that then you got your keywords on lots of pages, but they weren't part of the page really and weren't visible to the user.

Google will hammer your site listing if you try that these days - include the words in the description etc. is fine. Deliberately trying to force in lots of key words to try and boost your rating is not.

[ElaineJ]

I din't mean that lacing your body text with keywords was the way to go - but if you've put keywords in the meta tags then they should be used in the body text and if they're a heading then they're more effective

My site doesn't come anywhere in googles "Page Ranking" - but put in certain search phrases when searching and it makes it onto the first or second page.

[matt.chatterley]

I din't mean that lacing your body text with keywords was the way to go - but if you've put keywords in the meta tags then they should be used in the body text and if they're a heading then they're more effective

My site doesn't come anywhere in googles "Page Ranking" - but put in certain search phrases when searching and it makes it onto the first or second page.

Elaine - we Geeks call what you are talking about "keyword density" - and you're right. To a point, the quantity of keyword repetition is significant (there are tools available to analyse your site and tell you what the scores are).

Basically if you have a page about "cake baking", and this is one of your meta keywords, you will do better if the words "cake" and "baking", and ideally the pair "cake baking" are in the content a few times. So yup. :)

And it's totally possible to be #1 in google for a given search, but have a naff PageRank - PR is inferred based on the quality of your links (e.g. the page rank of the sites which link to you). It's one measure you can use to assess how well you will fare in google - but by no means the most important one!

Hope this helps clarify a little!

[Ashbee]

Some of the earlier suggestions are good. I would say have a look at this site - it routinely tops the google 'chart', analyse this site and it should give you some ideas. 0103 media is pretty savvy at getting the info he needs out of us all. (Don't think we hadn't noticed!)

Looking at the top of the page you see 4 references to crafts linked with the words forum, directory and articles and that's before you get to the individual forum breakdowns.

Check out the top sites and look for commonalities, I'm sure you'll start to see them once you look carefully - all that remains then is to copy the idea for your site.:)

[ElaineJ]

we Geeks call what you are talking about "keyword density"


Thanks Matt - I knew there was a "proper" term - but it escaped me.

[MrSwirl]

And it's totally possible to be #1 in google for a given search, but have a naff PageRank - PR is inferred based on the quality of your links (e.g. the page rank of the sites which link to you). It's one measure you can use to assess how well you will fare in google - but by no means the most important one!

They also mark you down if you use competing technology, e.g. an alternative advert provider instead of Google adverts http://forums.contractoruk.com/images/smilies/mad2.gif http://forums.contractoruk.com/images/smilies/extras/tantrum.gif

[nikkisnoveltygifts]

I am with Mr site and initially thought it wasn't working because I wasn't on google's first page of listings LOL.
I have found that my site has moved up the rankings by posting in forums, posting on craftjuice etc. I also take up some paid advertising on virtual wedding fairs. Sometimes the advertising doesn't pay off in terms of sales but if you get lots of footfall then that boosts your visibility on search engines. Hope that helps :)

[AnnieAnna]

Can I second what Lomond Soap said? Be patient. Allegedly, search engines tend to ignore new sites (you can of course pay them loadsomoney to get noticed) until they have been around for a while, looking as if they are serious and mean business and are not fly by nights.
I was getting really frustrated with my new site. I made it last March and I couldn't get it to appear even when I put its name in. Low and behold, yesterday it came up on page 2 of Google and when I did the name and a meta tag (what I'm selling) it was at the top of the first page. So that's taken 9 months!
The other thing you should do is link with other websites but I have read the crawly spider botty things are now ignoring reciprical linking.
I've come up with a cunning plan. As I have more than one one site I've been linking friends on one site in exchange for them putting a link to my other site on their's. So it's like a circle that links us with three points on it and the spider bots won't be able to see the connection.

I do think limiting you to 10 meta tags is mean, though. I got cross when my host brought their limit down from 250 to 30.

Anyway, don't depair - keep plugging away and have patience. :playball:
AnnieAnna

[matt.chatterley]

The other thing you should do is link with other websites but I have read the crawly spider botty things are now ignoring reciprical linking.
I've come up with a cunning plan. As I have more than one one site I've been linking friends on one site in exchange for them putting a link to my other site on their's. So it's like a circle that links us with three points on it and the spider bots won't be able to see the connection.

I do think limiting you to 10 meta tags is mean, though. I got cross when my host brought their limit down from 250 to 30.

Hiya, just wanted to pop a bit more info in here!

What you say about reciprocal linking is largely true - they value much less than what are called "back links" (one directional links), although context is very important - if the words which are linked are strongly associated to your site (e.g. the title tag of the site contains "Amazing shoes" and the link text is "Amazing shoes", you get more 'points') - it is worth much more, than in any other case.

Circular linking (building webs, or wheels of links, as it is called) can be quite effective, but do bear in mind context. There is an argument (no evidence either way, really), that links in paragraphs of text can be more effective than if they are floating on their own. Arguably, the number of external links on a page also factors in (so 'links' pages confer very little value - because they have loads of links leaving the current site).

Meta tags - recommendation is generally to aim for 10-20 (maximum) really strongly linked keywords or phrases -and to tie these in with the meta description - gives a lot more oopmh than hundreds of loosely associated words!

Hope this is helpful :D

[Autumn Faerie]

Oh gawd, my brain hurts!

All of this talk is flying way above my head, luckily I've got DH who knows a bit and you wonderful guys on here to help.

I'd never even heard of metatags, never mind everything else that is involved :pc:

Ah well, off to work out some meta-tags (I'm on MrSite too so only get 10)