Forum Moderators: mack
2 quick questions! I am unable to find my site in the google results (have looked from page 1 to 50+) so I am guessing it is either lower down or not on the list at all. To find my google entry I type in the url of my site which is found although no description is under the link (like the majority of sites).
When I first created/submitted this site (2 years ago) I'm not 100% sure that I have a description tag in the header as I was pretty new to all things meta. I also never had much content other than a placeholder image.
For the past 2 years I've not really needed this site although now I really need it to be displayed on google etc. I've spend allot of time in the past few weeks creating the site, adding content, making valid, link backs (5 so far) etc so it's all ready to go (I added it to google again last week).
So...
a) If no description is under my google entry, what does it mean?
b) what do I need to do to get Google coming back?
c) how can I speed up b)?
Hope someone can help, thanks all :)
I also never had much content other than a placeholder image.
There are many reasons, not the least of which is that you have had a placeholder image and little content on the page for so long.
Google looks for keyword content in the domain name, title tags, and within the HTML text that appears on your pages. METAs are important to have on your site, but I don't believe Google places much credence on METAs. AMke sure you have the follow META on all your pages:
<META name="robots" content="INDEX,FOLLOW">
If you have added new content to your site recently, you may want to wait a few months to see if Google updates your listing on the serps. Usually, Google looks for the first 10 to 20 words that appear in HTML on the page in question as the sites description. If you want to increase your ranking for various keywords, you need to start developing inbound links with targeted anchor text for Google to discover the next time they visit those sites. You will also want to make sure your site's pages include those keywords you want your site to be found under.
It takes a long time, but you can get there. Be patient and keep developing inbound links with quality content on your site.
Have fun!
One other thing...
On my site, I use one index.php file that uses includes to populate a) the navigation and b) the main table depending on the url header variables (e.g?page=home&id=0001).
With this setup, I have the SAME 'meta' tags across every single page in my site. Is this ok or should I have different meta keywords etc for each individual page?
With this setup, I have the SAME 'meta' tags across every single page in my site. Is this ok or should I have different meta keywords etc for each individual page?
The short answer is Yes; you should have different metas for each individual page. The long answer deliniates this a bit...
META tags are used to "reiterate" the most commonly used words and phrases that exist in the HTML text on each SPECIFIC page of your web site. Reusing the same METAs for every page of your site only lessens your chances of people finding the "best" page of your site with the content they are looking for. Essentially, by just writing one set of METAs you are wasting an opportunity to be found by other words on that people may be searching for.
You also stand the chance of a specific page not being found at all in the serps because the METAs don't jive with any of the words appearing on that specific page.
This is especially appropriate for the <title> tag on your pages as well (although the Title tag is not a META).
Each page of your site is unique to a search engine. It treats each page differently in the serps based on the accuracy of how your Title, METAs, and HTML text match up with what the spider is seeing on your page.
Go through each page of your site and ask yourself, "What is this page really about?" What words or phrases are repeated the most throughout the page, and use those words as the basis for the Title and Meta's.
Lastly, your original question dealt with Google. Google (as far as anyone truly knows) doesn't care one whit about your METAs but really pays attention to the page title, domain, inbound links to that page and the HTML text on that page.
There are plenty of search engines out there that DO care about the specificity of your METAs so put as much thought and effort into your METAs as you deem necessary
