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Stripping For Hits
I have to admit - I was very shy about doing it at first because
I'd never done anything like it before. But desperate times
calls for desperate measures, so I mustered up all my courage
and started stripping. Little did I know just how rewarding it
would be. From top to bottom, I stripped away my description
tags, keyword tags and even some that never seemed to have a
purpose anyways. Hey, what did you think this article was about?
I hadn't really done much with my meta tags in a long time
because I never had a reason to... until I looked around and
suddenly realized I wasn't the only niche in town anymore. It
was only in the past few years that I really had to start wooing
the search engines and actively started building some new
websites. I certainly did not look forward to using ppc
advertising which I had used since the heydays of Goto.com. (For
those who don't know - it's called Overture today)
So search engines were my target, but I needed a plan. I started
researching search results looking for patterns in high
rankings. Wordtracker research was another angle in terms of
finding low-competing keywords and keyphrases. Three sticky-note
pads and two pens later I knew what I had to do.
Title Tag & Filename - Using Wordtracker data, I would title the
page based on a few keywords or keyphrases and then give the
filename either the exact same name, or a shorter version. For
example: If the title tag is "Buy Web Page Templates" , then my
filename would look something like
"buy-web-page-templates.html". Sort of 'echoing' the title.
Since the meta tags I was creating were to be used for article
and product pages, I wanted to make sure I got the maximum
effect.
Keywords Tag - I only use these based on the type and amount of
content on a page. For articles, I don't use this tag but will
put the keywords at the bottom of the article under "article
keywords" like you see in article directories. For some reason,
this works better. On pages where putting that little keyword
rich nugget at the bottom can be a problem, I usually use it as
a blurber like what eBay does. For example, look at the bottom
of
this page: http://antiques.ebay.com/_W0QQfromZR12
Description Tag - Gone. It's much easier just letting search
engines fill in that area and if the page content changes, then
it will naturally change in the search engines. I've long had
the impression that description tags are something like a sales
pitch you give to search engines, so that if they aren't
impressed, they won't 'buy' into the content or pay much
attention. After all, strippers don't make money keeping their
clothes on, right?
Now some people will say, "What about the other search engines
that rely on descriptions?" I say... what about them? You mean
those silly little Google wannabes I tried for 5 years to lure
to one perfectly good website only to get 10 hits a month? Yeah,
right. Why don't I just host my website at Geocities while I'm
at it (rolleyes)
Title and filename have been the most important to me. I've
finally settled with the conclusion that different kinds of web
pages demand different kinds of meta tags depending on the type
of content, how much content there is, how often it's updated,
and it's significance on the website. I use a few other tags
where appropriate, but I like to keep things simple.
There are many, many meta tags to choose from, yet I still don't
understand how the majority of them have any real benefit for
most webmasters. Most of these tags aren't even used by the
majority of top-ranking sites I've seen. Of course, stripping
tags is nothing new, but when combined with the right
combination of keywords and keyphrases, I believe can work very
well. Imagine my surprise when one of my 'test sites' started
claiming top 5 listings among thousands and often millions of
other websites, with almost daily indexing - but that's really
another story :)
About the author:
Carole Nickerson has been a web developer and internet marketer
since 1998. She now spends her days actively filling up her new
blog with all she has learned. To find more free articles, tips,
and resources like this visit: http://www.CaroleNickerson.com
Don't forget to stop by and post some free ads at:
http://www.Leadhitter.com
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