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Should you even bother with Meta Description Tags?

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

This article is provided by Yesup SEO, an established SEO services.

Meta Description Tags are bits of HTML code placed in the “Head” section of a website page, usually before the Meta keywords tag but after the Title tag. These tags do not influence a page’s search engine rankings but they are worth doing since words may ultimately appear in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), given how unpreditable SERPs can be. Conducting tests on Google and Yahoo for keywords will confirm the validity of doing these tags properly.
meta description tags
Meta description tags are bits of HTML code that are placed in the “Head” section of a site page, usually before the Meta keywords tag but after the Title tag. They were long assumed to influence a page’s search engine rankings in two ways – by helping the page rank highly for words contained within the tag, and by providing a description in the search engine results pages (SERPs). The reality, however, is that the information placed in both Meta keyword and description tags is not accorded any importance or “weight” in Google’s ranking algorithms and very little in Yahoo’s. Including keyword phrases, then, really does little or nothing to improve your site’s position in the SERPs for words relevant to your online business.

SEO people are now debating whether or not it is worth all the effort needed to properly include Meta keywords and description tags. The reality, however, is that you cannot really predict what the engines will show in the SERPs, because results will also vary with the words that the searcher types into the engine. It might be prudent, then, to adjust your Meta tags to include certain keywords and/or phrases that you think might be used in searches, particularly if those words do not appear anywhere on the page other than in the Title tag.

Running test searches on Google and Yahoo for relevant keywords in your description tag confirm that an adequate tag is at least worth the effort with the latter engine, since those words may appear in the SERPS. Even running test searches on the two engines for irrelevant keywords in your tag, unrelated to your site and appearing nowhere else on the page, may generate something. Test pages for irrelevant words may be only partially displayed by these engines, or part of the description tag may only be shown, but at least they are engine results.

Tests on other search engines seem to also confirm the validity of including proper Meta description tags. MSN search seems to function much like Yahoo, but like Google offers only incomplete and/or partial results. Teoma actually finds the page where the words are located but does not necessarily show them.

You should not fret too much over Meta description tags, but it is probable worth the little effort and time needed to do these one and two sentence blurbs well. Description tags with relevant keywords complement strong keyword phrases already included on your Web pages, and will at least generate incomplete and/or partial engine results. When you also consider the way engines are always changing their search parameters, it also helps to cover all your bases.

If you have any questions about this article, or wish to offer suggestions, please contact us at Yesup SEO, an established SEO services.

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Title Tags: why they really are a good thing!

Sunday, September 20th, 2009

This article is provided by Yesup SEO, an established SEO services.

Appropriate and well-described title tags on each website page are essential to realizing better search engine rankings, since the title tags words are precisely what you see on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Changing them often can lead to more hits. Include your company name and add descriptive phrases to help increase brand recognition and engine rankings. Include location information to drive local search efforts and keep it all to 10 to 12 words (experiment!)

Just like the visible text copy on your site and the incoming links, having title tags on each site page is essential to realizing better engine rankings. This is because title tag words are precisely what you see on the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs), so changing them will probably lead to more hits.

It’s really important to make sure the company name is included in the tag, even placed at the start of it, particularly if your company is relatively unknown. Descriptive phrases should also be added, which will help augment brand recognition and engine rankings (for those who have never heard of you but are interested in your products/services).

Companies looking to drive local search to their sites would do well to include the names of the cities and provinces and/or states where they are located. SEO experts suggest using about 10 to 12 words in your title tags, which means you can experiment with a couple of different ways of doing it. This is not a bad thing because, as mentioned, new combinations are likely to noticed by engines. Using hyphens to separate distinct phrases is a neat trick, as it can make these phrases more easily identifiable to spiders.

There is no perfect title tag, so be encouraged to experiment and try different word and/or phrase combinations. Test different ones and discover which ones are more engine-noticeable and which ones engender higher conversions. Some tags might not rank as well, but might convert better.

It is probably a good idea to hold off on devising your tags until after the page has been written and optimized, since knowing how the keyword phrases have been positioned in the text may influence them. Select the most relevant keywords that the text was rooted in, and create your tag!

Try not to copy verbatim exact sentences from the text copy onto your title tag, since original and insightful sentences and wording are more engine-noticeable. There are Content Management Systems (CMS) and blog software (WordPress) which cull title tags directly from site information, so be wary of that. WordPress may employ, for example, the exact same information for the headline, the page navigation link and the page URL, which dilutes your engine rankings. Content Management Systems and blog software have recently enabled users to customize their title tags – and that is a good thing!

If you have any questions about this article, or wish to offer suggestions, please contact us at Yesup SEO, an established SEO services.

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