SEO: The Big Mystery Explained
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a process of maximizing your website to achieve the best results through search engines. Meta tags like the title tag, description tag, alt tags, and keyword tag have been used for years to help search engines know where to rank your site for particular searches. Where are they and why don’t I see them? The meta tags are within the HTML or ASP.NET or PHP source code which is behind the scenes of the website.
Search engines crawl the domain name, the title tag, the description tag, the alt tags, the keyword tag (if observed), and the text in the content area of a web page.
Title Meta TagWhere is it?
Look at the top of your screen at the very top left area. If you are using Internet Explorer you will see the following: (Show screen print) The “e” icon is followed by the page title.
What is it?
The title is a page label that explains what is on the web page. The title meta tag is supposedly allowed 100 characters of text, including spaces and special characters. However, many search engines only read and display up to 69 characters in the meta tag title. In order to maximize the page title it should include relevant keywords that explain what the company does and/or what information is on that specific page.
For more information on maximizing your title meta tags for organic search engine optimization call Express Marketing Solutions at 770-530-8025.
Description Meta Tag
Where is it?
When using Internet Explorer go to VIEW, then SOURCE. Eeeek!!! Yes, that is the code behind your entire website. Now, look for the meta tag description (Show a print screen of the source code). If you can’t find it, click on CONTROL and F to find “description”. If you cannot find it, it means you don’t have one and are missing out on this important search engine optimization tool.
What is it?
The description meta tag is a brief, clear, concise description of what your business does. You can customize the description for each web page. The description meta tag is supposedly allowed 250 characters of text, including spaces and special characters. Again, many search engines only read and display up to 150 characters. In order to maximize the description tag it should include your company name, location if relevant, and a brief description of what your products and services.
For more information on maximizing your description meta tags for organic search engine optimization call Express Marketing Solutions at 770-530-8025.
Alt Meta Tags
Where is it?
The alt tags are also hidden within the source code of your HTML, ASP.NET or PHP.
What is it?
Alt meta tags, or alternative text tags, are those little pop ups you see when you hover over a photo, table, or other website graphic design. The Alt tag helps web surfers with graphics disabled, using text-based browsers, or using a Blackberry, iTouch or other PDAs to know what they are missing. The alt tag describes the graphic designs contained within a web page. (show print screen)
For more information on maximizing your alt meta tags for organic search engine optimization call Express Marketing Solutions at 770-530-8025.
Keyword Meta Tag
Where is it?
The keyword meta tag is hidden in the source code of your HTML, APS.NET or PHP web pages. You can look for it by using the VIEW, then SOURCE tools on Internet Explorer. If you cannot find it, you may not have one.
What is it?
The keyword meta tag contains keywords, both single word keywords and multiple word keyword expressions. The keyword meta tag is supposedly allowed 1,000 characters including spaces and special characters. Though, again, each search engine has its own protocol. Spamming keywords is taboo. As a result, some search engines, Google included, have stopped recognizing the keyword meta tag. At this point, we still feel that it is important for any of “the other guys”, the search engines who still recognize the meta tag.
Keywords should be relevant to your company’s products and service and geographic location if important. Research with a search engine based keyword tool should be used to help determine the popularity of a particular keyword or keyword expression and their relevance to your industry.
For more information on maximizing your keyword meta tags for organic search engine optimization call Express Marketing Solutions at 770-530-8025.
How does a company rank highly in Google, Yahoo!, Bing and the other biggies without paying per click?
By maximizing all these meta tags, as well as these three other SEO tips.
- Keyword Rich Text
By having keyword rich text throughout each and every page of the website you will improve your site’s search engine ranking. You may have the best meta tags around, but if your text is short, non-descript, or otherwise ineffectual your site’s rankings will suffer. Though the standards change often, the current recommendation is to have 300 to 400 words of relevant, keyword rich text per web page. You can have great pictures, but if you don’t have the text to back them up, you are missing out on SEO! - Cleaning Up Your Code
Antiquated sites may have oodles of unnecessary jargon and tags that bog down the bots (web crawlers). Current standards have changed and many HTML tags are outdated with the next XTML, ASP.NET, and PHP standards. The additional or outdated source code negatively impacts your search engine ranking. - Keeping Styles in a Separate Sheet
Cascading style sheets or CSS is the way to go for all web design. CSS files contain all the fancy formatting necessary to make your website design go from drab to dynamic. The standard operating procedure for Express Marketing Solutions is to contain all styles in their own separate sheets to keep the source code clean and concise for the web bots to crawl.
Each search engine has its own set of rules. We don’t want you, as the business owner or manager, to concern yourself with all the nuts & bolts of SEO. That’s our job. We’ll make sure to adhere to the appropriate search engine rules to insure the best ranking for your website.
Call Express Marketing Solutions at 770-530-8025 to get started on maximizing your company’s search engine optimization today.
