Almost every web page contains a little bit of information in its code that gives search engines basic information about the content of the site. In almost all cases, a web page will have three lines of code that are called “tags,” and they are almost always contained at the very top of the code of a web page. If you would like to see an example, try the following:
Go to a website.
If you’re using Mozilla, go to the View Menu and click “Page Source.”
If you’re using Internet Explorer, go to the View Menu and click “Source.”
If you’re using Safari, go to the View Menu and click “View Source.”
This will show you the computer code that is behind the actual website you are looking at. What you will generally see near the top of the page, are three lines of code that look something like this:
<title>SEO Los Angeles – Title of Your Page</title>
<meta name=”description” content=”This is the description of your website.”>
<meta name=”keywords” content=”keywords, seo, search engine optimization, search engine optimization consultant, seo consultant”>
(If you are already feeling out of your depth, and want a more in-depth primer on how websites function, or if you are anxious to learn how to change these tags yourself please see “What is a Website, Anyway?“) For a general description of what type of information should be contained in these tags, read on.
Now, not every web page will have all of these tags, and in some cases, there will be variations in the tags. This is because different websites are programed using different languages, so if you look at a few different websites, you will see a fair amount of variation from this general rule (i.e., the title tag, description tag, and keyword tag grouped together at the top of the page code.) WordPress sites, for example, may not have these tags clearly set at the top of the page, due to the programming language that is utilized to create WordPress websites (The site you are looking at is a WordPress site.) Also, web sites are sometimes designed by people with no SEO experience, so they leave these tags out altogether. Therefore, if you’re browsing through web pages and looking at the code, don’t be surprised if you find that these tags are missing or vary in appearance or placement. But, if you look at the code of ten web pages, I would bet that about eight of them have these three lines of code (title tag, description tag, and keywords tag) right at the very top of the page.
As we’ve mentioned, these tags give search engines basic information about the content of your site. In a way, they are like a thesis statement for search engines. Let’s take a close look at each tag, and discuss it’s function in a little more depth.
Title Tag -
<title>Page Title Goes Here</title>
The title tag may be the single most important element of your site’s code that influences search engine visibility. In this article, we’re going to explain what these tags are, where they are, and what kind of information they should contain.
Title Tag – The title of your page should work in the main keywords that you are hoping to capture in searches, and it is a key factor in search engine visibility. To shed some light on why this is, let’s look at where the title tag will appear on your website, and in search results. See the tab at the top of the page that says, “What Are Title Tags and Meta Tags”? That’s the page title. If I were to change the page title of this web page to “How to Be More Like the Dalai Lama,” then the tab at the top of this page would say, “How to Be More Like the Dalai Lama.” More importantly, when a page shows up in a web search, what you see in bold letters on the search results pages are page titles.
Go to Google and type in “Stone Mason Los Angeles.” You will notice that the local listings and the organic results all have some or all of those words (“Stone,” “Mason,” “Los,” or “Angeles”) in the main heading (or title) of their entry. What you are seeing on the search results page is the page title of each web page. So, if you alter the title tag of your page, you will change the heading of your search engine listing. As you can see, the title tag of each of your web pages should be geared towards the keywords you are trying to capture. Search engines place quite a bit of weight on the words contained in this title.
Let’s give some other examples. One of our clients is Mike Pearson Construction, Inc., which shows up on the first page for the search “Stone Mason Los Angeles.” Since the phrase “Stone Mason Los Angeles” was one of our main target phrases, we put “Stone Mason Los Angeles” right in the page title. We did not put “Mike Pearson Construction, Inc.” in the page title. Why? Who’s searching for Mike Pearson Construction? They are searching for more general terms like stone mason, hardscape contractor, brick contractor, etc. It is a common mistake to overlook the importance of the page title, and title your home page “Home.” Don’t do this. Put your keywords right in the title.
Another example: We worked for a tree trimming company that wanted to show up in search results not only for Los Angeles, but for specific cities in Los Angeles. We created seperate webpages for each city in Los Angeles, and gave them page titles specific to those cities:
Tree Trimming Calabasas, Tree Trimming Beverly Hills, Tree Trimming Hidden Hills, Tree Trimming Hollywood, Tree Trimming Pacific Palisades, etc, etc.
You get the idea. Each page has a title that is specific to the exact search term we were hoping to capture. And it works. Nature-Scape Tree Trimming shows up on the first page of Google for almost every high-end community in Los Angeles (and particularly the San Fernando Valley, where they are located.)
However, don’t get the idea that this is some kind of panacea. You’ll notice that there are lots of sites that come up for “Tree Trimming Los Angeles” that don’t even have the word “trimming” in the title. The page title is only ONE factor amongst a number of factors that search engines will use to rank your page. But, it is a pretty important factor.
Let’s discuss the other tags now, and then you can go change those tags for yourself, right now! (Which at this point, I’m sure you’re pretty anxious to do.)
Description and Keywords Tags -
<meta name=”description” content=”This is the description of your website.”>
<meta name=”keywords” content=”keywords, keywords, keywords, keywords”>
We refer to these tags as “meta” tags, because they give search engines broad information about your site. (The description and the keywords tags are not the only meta tags that exist, but they are the only ones we are going to deal with here.)
Let’s start with the least important of the two first: the “keywords” tag. At this point, Google ignores the information in the keywords tag completely. Other search engines still use it, so it’s a good idea to include it, but it doesn’t carry that much weight anymore, and our guess is that it will become completely obsolete.
The second meta tag is the “description” tag. Despite some information to the contrary, Google no longer uses the information contained in the description tag as a ranking factor. However, some search engines do, so it’s best to still address it.
We have already covered the placement of the description tag in your web page’s code, so let’s look at where your description tag shows up in the real world. Visitors can’t see it on your once they are on your website (unless they know how to view the source code, like you do) so is it only there for search engines to read? The answer is no. The description, like your title tag, shows up in search results. If you do a search for any keyword, you will see a list of search results, and we already know that the first, bold line is your web page’s title tag. Underneath that is the text from your description tag. Usually the keywords from search query are highlighted.
Writing Title Tags and Descriptions
1. Do not duplicate the title or meta tags of your individual web pages. Search engines will definitely ding you for duplicate content (anywhere on your site.)
2. Make sure the tags are relevant to the web page. Make sure that the keywords that you are targeting are in the title and the description (and certainly make sure that they are in the actual readable text of your site.)
3. Use about three sentences for your description tag. There’s a lot of debate on how long it should be, but, since Google doesn’t even use it to rank your page anymore, it doesn’t really matter that much. Just write a clear, brief description of the page.
4. Keeping the above factors in mind, it is fair to say that some keyword stuffing is acceptable in your title tag. I would generally suggest about three phrases for each title. Your title could be this:
<title>SEO Consultant | Increase Page Ranking | Search Engine Optimization Los Angeles</title>
We’ve put specific keywords and phrases in the title that I would like to pick up in searches.We have also paid some attention to the actual appearance of the title, in this case, putting lines between the phrases. This is because, when it shows up in search results, we want it to have a pleasing, professional appearance. As a side note, you might also consider putting your phone number right in the title, like this:
<title>SEO Consultant | 818-381-1004 | Search Engine Optimization Los Angeles</title>
This way, when you show up in search results, your phone number is right there in the listing of results. As you know, when you’re searching for a product or service, about half the time, you’re in a hurry, and you just want the phone number! So, putting your phone number right there in front of people when they are looking at a page of search results and trying to figure out who to click through to may not be a bad idea.
If you’d like to read what Google has to say about meta tags, you can take a look at what they have to say here: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=79812
At this point, I imagine you want to go edit the tags of your own website. We have included a general set of instructions on how to edit html websites in the post: What is a Website Anyway? While we can’t give you specific instructions on how to edit every type of website on every type of server, this post should point you in the right direction, give you an idea of how a website is structured, how to get to your website’s files, and how to download, edit them, and re-upload them.
If you are using WordPress, I would suggest using a plug in for SEO. We are using Title Tags. This will allow you to modify your page titles fairly easily. If you’d like to get more in-depth with SEO edits on a WordPress site, try Greg’s High Performance SEO. This plug in will allow you to edit descriptions, keywords, title tags, and a few other elements of your WordPress web site’s code.
An all-important caveat: Title tags, descriptions, and keywords are only one small factor of your site’s SEO. You should address them and move on, but do not spend too much time on them. It is true that a web page can have great content and strong back links from other sites, but do poorly in search engine results because the title tags are missing or irrelevant (a home page being titled “Home” for example,) so, they definitely need to be edited for search engine visibility, but once that is done, move on. The most important factors for search visibility are: Content and reputable back links. So, let’s move on the really important stuff, shall we?
Please see the next lesson: Content is King!
Read more about SEO for iWeb users here!
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