Key Words and Meta Tags

[Alan]

I am about to embark on a web project where the client is more worried about
the key words and meta tags for web search engines like Google, Yahoo and
others will generate hits, so the person doing the search can reach their
site than content of the web site.

How critical are Key words and meta tags these days, and name some tricks to
generate the web search engines to "grab" it? And, its use in FP 2003. I've
tried it, and it doesn't seem to work. Unless, of course, I don't understand
something.

Outside of "advertising" the address, what other suggestions are there for
getting traffic to a site.

Thanks.

 

[Steve Easton]

Keyword meta tags are largely ignored because they were abused.

Best bet is to just make sure that the words in the keyword meta are actually used in the text on
the page.

--
Steve Easton
Microsoft MVP FrontPage
95isalive
This site is best viewed............
........................with a computer

 

[JDR]

Alan,

Most search engines give little or no support to the meta keyword tag. The
best place to go for SEO and how search engines spider sites is to Search
Engine Watch.
http://searchenginewatch.com/

They have great articals and a forum that will provide you with great
information.

Good Luck on the project!
JDR

 

[Jon Spivey]

If you mean META keywords they're worthless. The critical part, if your
keyword is atall competitive, is incoming links. Get yourself links from
decent sites, call in favours if you have to. Other than that make sure your
HTML is well formed, basically do the obvious things but links are the key.

 

[Tina Clarke]

I am about to embark on a web project where the client is more worried about
the key words and meta tags for web search engines like Google, Yahoo and
others will generate hits, so the person doing the search can reach their
site than content of the web site.

How critical are Key words and meta tags these days, and name some tricks to
generate the web search engines to "grab" it? And, its use in FP 2003. I've
tried it, and it doesn't seem to work. Unless, of course, I don't understand
something.

For SEO (Search Engine Optimzation) there are lots of things you can do that
make up the whole picture, no one thing works by it'self. If you want to
learn more about SEO the best place is
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SEO_Techniques/

This is a free class, be sure to read the guidelines and welcome emails ..
it's a class not a list or group.

good luck

Tina
Tip now out is: THUMBS.DB AND FRONTPAGE
http://frontpage-tips.com/ - FrontPage Tips
They are primarily for FrontPage 2003 but will be good
for earlier versions too.

 

[Jon Spivey]

Actually one thing does work by itself - links. Most of us know what comes
up at number 1 when you go to google and search for the phrase "miserable
failure" but that might not be a good test because nobody else is competing
on that phrase. Just saw today what happens when you google "poodle" which
seems to be quite competitive judging by the number of adwords. The number 4
result is a bio of Tony Blair. For non UK people we often call him a poodle
(of George Bush) but he certainly didn't SEO his bio for that phrase

 

[Tina Clarke]

Actually one thing does work by itself - links. Most of us know what comes
up at number 1 when you go to google and search for the phrase "miserable
failure" but that might not be a good test because nobody else is competing
on that phrase. Just saw today what happens when you google "poodle" which
seems to be quite competitive judging by the number of adwords. The number 4
result is a bio of Tony Blair. For non UK people we often call him a poodle
(of George Bush) but he certainly didn't SEO his bio for that phrase

Links get a higher profile when used with keywords or keyword phrases,
everything helps ... links are one part of it ... actually before I knew
anything about SEO I concentrated on just getting linkbacks to sites that
involved my subject matter and I linked to sites from mine on the same
subject, it also helped whenever I was asked what 'payment' I wanted for
helping someone I said a link back LOL. Having said that I've still not
found time to update accessfp... too busy playing with fp03

One thing to note about getting links ... Getting links willy nilly serves
no purpose and can be harmful .. like when link farms are used and you have
your link on one of those...

Good solid content is the main thing to concentrate on, use your link though
in various ways. Here is an article I wrote about it. It was written for an
ezine (not mine) a little tongue in cheek in parts.

Promote your FrontPage Website.
http://msmvps.com/frontpage/articles/18345.aspx

Tina

--
http://accessfp.net/ - FrontPage Resource Centre
http://anyfrontpage.com/ - FrontPage Ezine - Free FP Ebook
http://addonfp.com/ - FrontPage Addons
http://frontpage-tips.com/ - FrontPage Tips NEWLY LAUNCHED
http://msmvps.com/frontpage/ - FrontPage News & Articles Blog
http://frontpage-advice.blogspot.com/ - FrontPage Advice Blog
http://frontpage-ebooks.com/ - FrontPage Ebooks

 

[Jon Spivey]

I agree with your comments - just posted up the poodle example as I thought
it was a funny example of how one can get top 10 for a competitive phrase
just from links without the phrase being on the page atall. In the real
world though getting enough links to do this on a commercial site would be
impossible.

My own experience is just time can also push a site well up Google - the
longer a site is listed the higher it's ranking. Realistically with the best
content and the best links it's not going to be possible to get a site a
worthwhile ranking on Google inside 3 months.

The other factor is the new MSN search - once this picks up speed it's going
to be a significant player. The game may well change again

 

[Tina Clarke]

My own experience is just time can also push a site well up Google - the
longer a site is listed the higher it's ranking. Realistically with the best
content and the best links it's not going to be possible to get a site a
worthwhile ranking on Google inside 3 months.

Well it depends .... my dad wants to sell his cottage so for his birthday as
a fun present I made a site for him http://derbshire-cottage.com/ ... it
managed to get a google PR of 5 within days .. it's slipped to 4 after a
recent google upheaval, I was amazed as the only links it has are on my
sites ... in my sig lines (grin) and to some house places ... I was trying
to follow seo guidelines so was pleased it has worked somewhat.

my brother has since paid for some google ad links ... along with my dad's
girlfriend's site http://wilmslow-house.com (she want's to sell her house
too) and .. hey.. I was going to say I've not been able to get that a PR but
I see it now has a 4/10 ...changed the keywords on there recently though (I
did not put as much effort into that one ...

Your right on the backlinks .. my oldest site has a quite a lot.

The other factor is the new MSN search - once this picks up speed it's going
to be a significant player. The game may well change again

Onwards and upwards I still prefer google though

Tina