Meta tag syntax

[Markus]

Hope someone can help me with the basics of meta tags here.

When you add a System Meta Tag, you can enter the Name and the Value. OLH
says enter a list of words for the value, but is silent on the syntax. I
want to enter a list of keywords for search engines, and am unclear on the
syntax.

- Do I enter the words in the value box separated with a comma, e.g.,
Word1,Word2, etc. or with spaces Word1 Word2, etc.
- OR Do I add the tag named Keywords multiple times with one word for the
value for each time I add the tag?
- What happens if I want search engines to recognize a word string as a
whole, (e.g., plastic pipes) and do not want the individual words plastic and
pipes to result in hits to my site?

Thank you for any and all help on this,
Mark

 

[Mir]

While you're waiting for a real expert to answer, you can look at the code of
a website that works well (maybe your competitor's). In IE Explorer,
View>Source. I do that a lot!! -- Mir

 

[Ronx]

Yes, Yes and No.

You can separate words with spaces or commas, or either or both. But do
not use multiple keyword meta tags.
<meta name="keywords" content="this,is, a, list,of,keywords,with a
phrase, thrown, in, for, luck" />

Search engines nowadays tend to ignore the keywords meta tag, taking
keywords from the page content (especially <h1>, <h2> etc. tags)
instead.

 

[Markus]

Ronx,

Thanks for this. If keywords is not used, does that mean you have to design
your header to be descriptive of the site as a whole in order to get into the
search engine? e.g., I have quotes at tops of pages, which will not always
have the same much more descriptive words I would put into keywords. Or
maybe search engines use both when keywords are included on the page?

Thanks for your help,
Mark

 

[Ronx]

The keywords you use must refer to the page they are used on, not to the
website as a whole. Search engines nowadays tend to place more
importance on the page content, particularly that content in paragraph
headings (<h1>Main heading</h1><h2>Sub Heading</h2><p>more
paragraphs</p><h2>another sub heading</h2 etc.), than in keywords in
meta tags. Any keywords in a meta tag may even be used to penalise you
if those words are NOT in the page.
Note that these semantic headings are not the page Banner, and may or
may not be at the top of the page.
--
Ron Symonds - Microsoft MVP (FrontPage)
Reply only to group - emails will be deleted unread.
FrontPage Support: http://www.frontpagemvps.com/
http://www.rxs-enterprises.org/fp

 

[Markus]

Ronx,

Many thanks for all your help. When I open up one of my pages to see the
html code, I do not see any h1 items except for <h1><a
href="health_care.htm">

This is the name of the Frontpage file I set up. On this page, I have many
bullet points, etc. and would love those to be part of a search engine. How
does text on the page get marked as a header or subheader? That is, is there
a way to mark text on the page as a header in Frontpage?

Sorry for such beginner questions, and thanks again,
Mark

 

[Ronx]

At the left of the Formatting toolbar there are 3 dropdowns. These
might say Normal|fontName|2(10pt)| (where | represents the dropdown
arrow).

Highlight the text you wish to make a heading, then change Normal to
the heading level you wish.
Note that headings are very short paragraphs. They "live" on a line of
their own. Your quotation at the top of the page should not be made
into a heading.
--
Ron Symonds - Microsoft MVP (FrontPage)
Reply only to group - emails will be deleted unread.
FrontPage Support: http://www.frontpagemvps.com/
http://www.rxs-enterprises.org/fp