Question re: meta tags

rverk47 · #1 2008-07-20, 4:41pm

can somebody explain to me how to add meta tags..i mean in layman's terms cuz i can't figure it out..i made my website myself but i called tech help an awful lot..any help would be greatly appreciated..thx

Hayley · #2 2008-07-20, 5:01pm

Here you go - this is the beginning of your website home page html with the bold part being where the metatags will go . . . just add the bold part to your html after you replace the red text with your info.

Hope this helps.

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="enter company name and description">
<meta name="keywords" content="enter any descriptive keywords for search engine">
<title>index.html</title>
<style type="text/css">

rverk47 · #3 2008-07-21, 3:54am

i tried it once and tried to save it but it didn't work..should the bold black words be just what you typed or do i change it to my website info..if so i'm not sure what to type in..i can figure out the keywords but i know nothing about html..i really appreciate you help!!!

Cosmo · #4 2008-07-21, 5:31am

Meta tags don't do anything, unfortunately. It used to be that they were used for searching, but these days they don't matter. I think some search engines like Yahoo and Ask may still use them, but Google doesn't use them.

SteveWright · #5 2008-07-21, 11:12am

Google likes words within the body of the page and they also look at the title of the page, supposedly. I've also read that what they really like are one-way links back to your page.

I still use meta tags. Typically, of referrals to my sites via search engines, only 35 to 40% of my page visits result from Google searches. The majority of visits results from a combination of MSN and Yahoo searches, go figure. I've read that they still look at the meta tags, but things are changing all of the time.

I've done a lot recently on Search Engine Optimization, there is a lot of conflicting and outdated information available, making it an unsatisfying pursuit.

My position is, do both, it couldn't hurt.

Renee, here is a starting point, paste the tags below into a text editor like Notepad or notepad++ and add keyword or delete the ones that don't apply. Edit the description to suit you.

Then paste it into the head of your page, right below: <title>index.html</title>. BTW, rename the title of the page to something meaningful. when someone bookmarks your page, the title is what gets added to their Favorites.

Copy This:
<meta name="description" content="Welcome to Simon Sews Etc. I am a lampwork artist and have been making lampwork beads and jewelry for over 5 years. All my beads are made in my studio. I strive to create unique one of a kind beads that delight the senses.">

<meta name="keywords" content="lampwork,jewelry,focal beads,flamework,beads,beadmaking,beadmakers,etsy," >

email or PM me if you have trouble.

Steve

SteveWright · #6 2008-07-27, 12:49pm

Renee,
Lunarpages is running a series of articles about search engine optimization. It is a good read for web site owners.

http://tinyurl.com/54vw2w

Steve

Jgiovacchini · #7 2008-09-12, 8:31am

Meta tags are not as important as they used to be because people were putting unrelated tags to trick search engines into pulling up their site, however they are not useless. I do web design/production for a company in NYC and our clients pay huge amounts of money for search engine optimization consulting so I have worked with several and not one of them has said you don't need meta tags. Google still uses meta tag but they now compare the tags you have written to the text on the page. If the tags are not relevant to the content you get a lower rank.