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SEO & Your Page Titles | SEO & Meta Name Descriptions | SEO & Keywords
Search Engine Optimisation is the method of using techniques within the construction of your web pages that will improve where your website shows up in search engines.
SEO, as it is often referred to, can be utilised to generate more relevant hits on your web pages and make your website more successful.
Over the course of time, I’ll be adding a number of hints and tips in this section of Hitmaker, which you can use in the construction of your own web pages. I’ll be dispelling the myth that there is some dark art, or close guarded secret - known only to the gifted few.
I’ll be magnifying what is in fact to thoughtful techies, quite often only straight forward common sense and generally good practice by anyone building web pages. So I’ll kick off with the top three issues. Titles, Meta Name Descriptions and Keywords.
SEO & Your Page Titles
When your web pages appear in the results of search engines, the title of the pages will usually be the first line of the search results and will be the text used by the search engine to create the link to that / your web page/s. This text is often bolded and is the first line of information that the user is likely to see about that page of your website.
It is important to make sure the title of the page reflects the content to be found on that page
Example: If you're dealing with property in London and you are an estate agent called Bloggs & Co. Start with the name of your business, followed by the content of the page.
Good example: Bloggs & Co Estate Agents - Property London
Bad Example: London Property
If your ‘Home Page’ - You can actually consider just using the title: Bloggs & Co Estate Agents - London
Then elaborating via the meta name description: See Hot Tip (2) below.
Change the titles of the pages throughout your website, to reflect their true content. Try to stick within about 12 words and avoid using any word that does not reflect the content. Where possible, cut out common or unnecessary words.
SEO & Your Page Titles | SEO & Meta Name Descriptions | SEO & Keywords
SEO & Meta Name Descriptions
<head>
<meta name="description" content="Your Meta Name Description Goes Here." />
</head>
OK, meta name descriptions. Some so called informed people claim that search engines pay little or no attention to meta name descriptions. How wrong they are, on the contrary - search engines use meta data, specifically meta name descriptions to detect the contents of what is expected to be offered for viewing on a web page.
They often refer to this information as ‘Snippets’ - it’s the text you see under the title link.
I just keyed: ODP into Google.co.uk and this is the result:
Title and link: ODP - Open Directory Project
Snippet: Help build the most comprehensive human-reviewed directory of the web.
When we take a look at the source code in the header of the ODP we see:
<title>ODP - Open Directory Project</title>
<meta name="description" content="Help build the most comprehensive human-reviewed directory of the web">
See it for yourself: Click the linky to search Google for: ODP
So the bottom line here is very simple. Those so called informed people who are claiming that meta name descriptions are not important - well... they are just plain wrong. Not only are they used by search engines in their search results, they are used by search engines to engineer their own websites.
That said, it is a clear opportunity to boast a little, add a bit of artistic flair to your description. Make it informative, but also use it to promote your business. A Slogan that is specific to the content of the web page. If your name is Joe Cloggs and you sell oranges in Amsterdam, you might use something like this example: Joe Cloggs, I sell the best oranges in Amsterdam!
Beyond this, try to repeat the same technique on each page of your website. If Joe Cloggs provides door to door delivery, and has a page about deliveries. This would be a good example: Joe Cloggs, I sell the best oranges in Amsterdam, delivered door to door. It’s heel goed!
SEO & Your Page Titles | SEO & Meta Name Descriptions | SEO & Keywords
SEO & Keywords
Putting aside scams and criminality. Key words are the most abused SEO technique on a page per page basis that I have come across. What possesses people to add key words with no relevance to their subject is a complete mystery to me, but it is something I encounter every week.
In short: 5 keywords focussed on the product or subject, are more valuable than 500 keywords that include every word in your Thesaurus. Avoid words which are never likely to be used. But equally try to think what the user is likely to key into a search engine. In the UK we take holidays, almost universally (not entirely), in the rest of the world, people take vacations. If you are designing a web page for a Hotel or Holiday business, it’s food for thought.
Do use plurals where it is likely to be used.
Example: If you are providing holiday accommodation in Scarborough. You might use: Holiday, Holidays, Vacation, Accommodation...
Do not repeat the same word several times, it’s not big, it’s not clever. It might even be considered deceitful and could land you with a ban.
SEO & Your Page Titles | SEO & Meta Name Descriptions | SEO & Keywords