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Yikes I really need your help! I have just been informed that our meta tags are incorrectly formatted, which I why SE's are slow to find us. As a relative newbie trying to help a client in need, I feel like I am out of my league.
If my client wants to improve SE position, and is impatient to gain exposure thru good linking etc, should I pass the gauntlet to a pro? Or can I learn this myself? As a consultant not a web master I did not think I was responsible for programming and formatting.
Can you help me?
Thank you, thank you, thank you...
However, getting them wrong to the extent you suggest is clearly not good enough - if that's not right, what else could be wrong?
Good search engine marketing is a specialist subject that is not easy to do without lots of learning for the inexperienced, and you don't sound very comfortable with the idea. I suggest you research a good internet marketing company using search engines and find someone who can do a really good job for you :)
Or if not, you could try to do it yourself - there's pretty much only one important tag these days:
<meta name="description" content="Put a keyword-friendly description of your site here">
which goes between the <head> tag of your web pages.
There are other good ones if you want to look them up, but you also have to bear in mind that there are many different aspects of promotion that you will need to learn.
I have just been informed that our meta tags are incorrectly formatted, which I why SE's are slow to find us.
Most likely you have been misinformed. While it's probably possible, it's unlikely that the formatting or content of meta tags are causing search engines not to "find you," with the big exception of the meta robots tag.
For that one, you should either not have it at all, or it should be as follows (unless you have a specific reason for using a different one):
<meta name="robots" content="index,follow">
But again odds are that if you are having problems either getting spidered to begin with, getting indexed, or with positioning, meta tags aren't really the cause of those problems.
As to your other question, "can I learn this myself?" -- of course you could. But it's just a matter of having the time to devote to gathering information and learning. A few hours a day reading here at webmasterworld will do wonders.
I have seen sites with repeat meta tags though learned from these forums that can could be considered spam.
I do I find out what key words perople are using when searching?
Thank you agian for the words of encourgement.
find out what key words perople are using when searching?
Check your logs -- your ISP probably provides some sort of basic statistics analysis program. If not, search here for recommendations.
Find the referrer strings (or some such name).
Give it another month or two, to see how all your tweaking is working, you may be surprised!
-webwoman
I rcvd a call from an inquiry into free listing for web mall and the guy started asking questions re: sales, SE position etc I explained that the site was stil sitting in relative anonymity and he said that there may be more that we need. Then while looking at our source he said he saw problems with meta tags, formatting was wrong and the reason we aren't seen yet by SE's. Then he had me visit his corp site because in addition to being in sales he is also in SEO, the company is internet interactive-seems fairly impressive and made me feel like a complete idiot. I suppose this was the point.
Anyway, the metas were done by our web master who I think is not so talented. But they also are not fundamentally
incorrect. I asked for certain attributes given what I have learned in these forums.
So I know tht he was trying to sell his services, just kind of a sneaky, like a bait and switch.
But I suppose I can learn and now would lke to know more about finding the right match of keywords that fit my products site etc and are being currently used in current searches.
Basically I have become a student here, applying all the good tips, we have a beautiful site, needs some work re: better body copy and I am developing great linking partnerships. I have no problem in waiting if you agree that achieving site visibility takes time.
Thanks very much for asking.
Are we talking the <meta keywords> tag here? - The one that all the important search engines completely ignore now? If so, the story takes a turn to the worst...
Jim
You write:
> I have no problem in waiting if you agree that achieving site visibility takes time.
Brett's fundamental article is entitled "Successful Site in 12 Months with Google Alone". Maybe it does not take a full year, but real SEO (as opposed to snake oil) takes time.
You say that you are getting good links, that matters 1000 times more than meta tags! Don't be discouraged, and keep reading and doing what you learn!
I suspect you are right. Attempting to dazzle you with BS it kind of sounds like.
Most META tags have little importance anyway. You did not post the URL of the site, so cannot see what you have...
Unfortunately for them, in that one statement they told us that they simply did not have a clue!
Bewarned there are a lot of scammers out though making a fast buck by prying on those that don't know better.
SEO does have a lot of mystery attached to it. There are no known magic formulas, there are no standards set in stone due to the nature of the engines and the ever changing face of the internet in general. So it's easy to make someone feel dumb in an industry where we are all learning all the time, and to make them feel they know so little that they couldn't possibly understand it - much less tackle it themselves.
You should consider your client's needs, and decide if you have the time and energy to put into learning and making mistakes, and doing the best you can on your client's nickel. If there is no urgency, I would say, hang around here, learn lots, become an seo junkie for awhile, and you'll have a new skill at the end of it.
If time is a factor, hire someone. But not this guy - he thinks he has to make you feel bad in order for him to be valuable. People like that usually don't know as much as they would have you think!
Good luck:)
There is some good advice here, and I'd like to add a little if I may...
Meta-tags DO still matter - they just don't carry the weight they once did with the major players. Selecting the right keywords is critical - in both your meta description, and your meta keywords (there are other areas as well). You can go to a free trial tool on a website called "Wordtracker" if your going to do this yourself with the client.
Once there you can put in your keyword guesses based on your combined knowledge and they will A: give you alternative suggestions, and B: tell you from one engine what kind of inquiries those keywords are getting in a given month (helps you define stronger words)- it is a great help in your current situation, and you will learn a lot just playing with keywords you believe would be good.
It is also important that you take these same terms and use them in the Body of the pages, in any alt image tags you create, and in the actual names of your HTML pages. This will help you get much better results than your competitors! There is more, but you appear to need to start here - without the URL, I cannot consult you much more on specifics.
You are not stupid, or dumb, YOU are smart for addressing this now (and your client is lucky to have someone who cares), because as stated - it takes a little time to see real results with the exception of Paid Inclusions (which should be an option if time is of the essence). Feel free to mail me if you need more specifics... I hope this can helps you.
- SS
As a long time SEO and cybrarian, I often help out others with their tags.
