In your web pages, there are hidden areas of the page that the
casual browser doesn't see, but that the search engines sure do.
These are called tags, and come in two basic types: first the
header tags, which are found at the top of web pages, and second
the heading tags, which mark the parts of your text in the page
that will be used as titles and subtitles in articles. One other
form of tag, alternate text, should be filled out as well.
Header Tags
Most of the tags in your header are called metatags or meta
tags; they apply to the entire page and, in HTML, are at the top
of your document. In graphic web page design tools like
Frontpage or Dreamweaver, if you right-click and select page
properties, you'll find these in the first tab that opens.
When the web first opened to the public, metatags were a
critical tool enabling the primitive spiders and search engines
of that time to determine how to catalog a page. The idea was
that you'd tell the spiders where your page was supposed to be
catalogued by how you filled in your metatags, and they'd ensure
you were listed properly.
It took very little time indeed before this mechanism was used
to rank less-worthy pages higher in the search engines. Today,
metatags aren't as important as they were then because they're
so easy to manipulate; you should still, however, fill them out.
They can't hurt, and in many search engine constructs they're
useful for identifying what your keyword is intended to be.
Title Tags are the most important of the metatags. Whatever you
put here shows up in the header bar of your web page, at the top
of the window. It should always start with your keyword so it's
clear what you are targeting. Short titles are better, and a
very natural style is ideal - no spamming by repeating your
keywords over and over.
Description Tags are also important. Start with your keyword or
keyword phrase, and describe what your site is about. The
content of these tags is often pulled out in search engines and
directories to describe your site, so make it concise and
precise, and use complete sentences with good spelling and
grammar.
The keyword tag should list only keywords you actually mention
on your web page. If you use other keywords, some search engines
consider it spamming, and will downgrade your page.
Metatags should be focused specifically on the page, not on the
site as a whole. Consider each page when you design metatags.
Other Tags In Your Document
Image alternate text or image descriptions should always be
filled out; if you're using a graphic web design tool,
right-click on the image and answer the questions in the box.
Use your keywords in the alternate text, and if the image is
something you're selling be certain you give it a proper name.
This enables the specialized image search engines to find your
images.
The H1-H6 tags in your document should always contain your
keyword once. Search engine spiders pay special attention to
these containers, which hold your text titles and subtitles.
They may not give you a huge boost, but anything counts in the
search engine derby.
About the author:
Mark Lawson is the webmaster for
http://www.discountdomain
suk.com a leading
UK Web Design
Service Please feel free to republish this article together
with working hyperlinks.
