META Tags , META Keywords

META Tags

<meta name="description" content="The description of your website goes here.">

Same rules hold true here about varying the basics.

My basic here is about 24 words. I like to make it very readable and also have the keywords in it. This is where the description of your site is going to come from on all the META Search Engines out there. So make it descriptive and make it so the reader wants to visit your site.

META Keywords

<meta name="keywords" content="keyword1 keyword2 keyword3 keyword4 keyword5">

Again, use different character and word counts in this tag. For starters keep it to around 25 words or thereabouts. Sometimes use commas, sometimes don't. Google has a way of stemming keywords so insure can become insurance. Always include both insure and insurance in your keyword tag though. Don't take Google for granted.

Don't repeat keywords in the keywords tag. Use ONLY very relevant keywords. Don't use keywords in the tag that don't show up in the content of the page. Let me say this again, do not use keywords in the title and meta tags that don't show up on that page.

It's worth mentioning at this point that Google doesn't even pay attention to these META tags (description, keywords). Or at least that is what most optimizers think. But let's cover all bases anyway, and besides we do want the traffic from those META engines out there!

Maybe however Google will pay attention to them tomorrow!

As a matter of fact lately Google has been using the description meta tag for the description within the SERPs. Proof that we really need to keep our meta tags intact.

Always include these two tags to tell the robots to follow the links and index your site. I also use the special googlebot tag too. I like to let Googlebot know that I'm watching it.

<meta name="robots" content="index,follow">
<meta name="googlebot" content="index,follow">

I have taken this two steps further since I first wrote this. Here are the follow tags that I always use today:

<meta name="robots" content="index,follow">
<meta name="googlebot" content="index,follow">
<meta name="msnbot" content="index,follow">
<meta name="Slurp" content="index,follow">

META Robots, NOODP -
No Open Directory Project Descriptions

Here is a good one to use as well. The Open Directory Project, http://www.dmoz.org, is sometimes used for the description of your site, in the SERPs. Google does this.

Why use this tag? Well DMOZ is a highly respected directory, and being listed there, by-the-way, will help your listings in any other search engine. It's great to be listed there. But, they are not refreshed, they don't spider, they are quite frankly ... old. If you are listed there, the description that was used back then is still there.

I will assume that your are keeping your site updated and fresh and timely. Why have an old stale description in the SERPs. Add this meta tag into the mix and the robots will not use the ODP description, at for Google, for sure

<meta name="robots" content="noodp">

or specifically for Google:

<meta name="googlebot" content="noodp">

or specifically for Yahoo! Slurp:

<meta name="slurp" content="noodp">

There are a lot more meta tags, but you are better off not using them. I'll tell you to definitely not use the revist meta tag. This tag is telling the robot to come and visit every X number of days. Well, when initially thought about, this sounds good. You can tell the robot to come back and visit you every 14 days because you put up new content on a bi-weekly basis, or whatever. But in fact, it is a bad code to use. I see the Gooblebot visiting my sites on a regular schedule. Generally every two to three days. If I am going to tell it not too do that ... sheesh ... I would have to have poop for brains. If you find that Googlebot is not coming around to visit often enough work on reciprocal linking to make sure it is finding your URL in enough places to make it to it's task list.

There are copyright, generator, author meta tags and more. All kinds of information can be put into these meta tags. A good portion of it, basically all of it, is never seen by anyone nor used as information by any robot or spider. For this reason, they really do nothing but bloat your pages. Remember, the smaller the overall code of your page is, the easier it is to get the spiders to find and digest your content.

Here is the way I want you to use your meta tags. Always put them in this order, title, description, keywords.

<title>Title Goes Here</title>
<meta name="description" content="Description Goes Here">
<meta name="keywords" content="Keywords Go Here">

You can include the four robots tags shown above after these if you wish. It's entirely up to you.