Search Engine Optimization Blog

It surprises me how many search engine optimization companies still use meta tags in their marketing ploys. In the early days of the internet, search engines relied on web site owners placing accurate keywords and descriptions in meta tags to determine where to place the web site in their index.

However, today, search engines download the text of your entire web site (if optimized properly) and use your actual content to determine where you should be ranked…that along with your content quality, link population, relevancy, etcetera.

So are meta tags useless? Not really. Meta tags can still help the search engines accurately read your web site. Also, search engines do still rely on your description tag for ranking. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

1) Don’t put keywords in your meta tag that are not displayed on your web pages actual content. If you are running an online shoe store that sells sneakers, don’t put name brands in your keyword list that you don’t actually sell. This is called “keyword spamming” and you will be hurting your search engine optimization effort by doing this.

2) Keep it short. Beyond 10-15 keywords, you’re going to get ignored. So keep your keyword list short and relevant.

3) Finally, keep your description short, descriptive, and full of your keywords and keyphrases. For example, in describing your shoe store you could say, “Pete’s shoe store offers sneakers, running shoes, formal shoes, business shoes, sandals, and a variety of quality footwear.” It is important not to “keyword spam” in your description.

To learn more about search engine optimization, contact Adviatech at 1.800.728.5306 or visit Adviatech.com.