When web companies talk about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) they usually focus on Link Building strategies. However on-site SEO is still very important. A poorly optimsed site in terms of metadata tags can lead to a huge drop in your rankings.
Which Meta Tags are the most important for on-site SEO?
Below is a list of the main meta data tags and some tips based on our experience of working with them.
The Title Tag
The html title tag is ranked highly by Google for keyword relevance . From working with our clients we have found that inappropiate use of the title tag has prevented improved SEO results.
The title tag is at the top of your webpage. You can view this on IE,Firefox,Safari or Chrome by clicking on View, Source (or Page Source, or View Source), this will show you the html for the web page you are viewing.
If you look for the <titlle> tag it will be something like <title> Internet Marketing | SEO Dublin | WSI Dublin Ireland</title>
Some Tips for creating a good title tag are:
- Do not exceed 65 characters including spaces
- Use your keyword phrases in the title, but do not use keyword stuffing
- Keep your most important keyword as far left as possible
- If you wish to use your company name for site branding keep it as far right as possible. Separate your title from your brand name by using the "|" symbol
- Use a unique title tag on each page of your website and make sure it matches the page content
- Place the primary keyword in your title tag as a <h1> header on that specific page
- Write your title tag as if you were writing the title text for a Google Adwords ad
- The more compelling your title is, the more clicks you are going to get in your search results
The meta description tag is another important element in on-site Seo. The key is to write a unique Phrase for the description tag that describes the content on that particular page. Your meta description should be up to 160 characters. Use 2-3 keywords and work them into the description. The meta description is the text found under the link on a search results page describing the content on that page so it is important that it is written in plain english and is compelling enough to make someone click on your organic listing.
Headings
A Heading exclusively refers to a <h1>, <h2>, <h3> ... HTML tag, and nothing else. Headings are important as they define what sections of a page contain a heading to a computer, so this information can be used both by search engines (aiding SEO) and to aid assistive technologies (for users with disabilities).
Keyword Tag
According to Matt Cutts of Google, he says that we can completely disregard the keyword tag when we are considering our SEO efforts for Google. It simply doesn't affect your ranking. However we have noticed that it is still used by some of the lesser known search engines so it makes sense to include some prominant keywords under this tag. Remember less is more so don't stuff this tag with lots of keywords.
Alt Tag
Use the Alt tag for all images on your website. This text will appear if the image cannot be displayed. The Alt tag gives a description of your image. Use your keywords in the Alt Tag. Like for your logo image, your ALT tag may be like “WSI Online Marketing a source of Internet Marketing tips” etc.
Robots Attribute
The robot tag prevents the search engine from indexing pages that you don't want crawled. A good example of this would be a Contact page. You do not need Google to index this page
