Step 3 is implementing our efforts from Step 2: How to make a good website.
Why?
- Because the search engines want to rank high the "good" websites.
- And as explained yesterday: a good website offers what people want.
- So in an ideal world, the search engines rank the websites that people want first
Now you can fiddle around with SEO software, SEO tips and tricks, but at the end of the day: the search engine needs to rank high the websites that give what people want because… that’s what people want from a search engine.
How to tell the search engine you have a good website?
- summarize what your website is all about in title, description and keywords HTML tags
- make sure lots of websites with a similar or complementary topic link to your website (Yes, that’s why this site is all about Linky Love)
HTML tags
The correct placement for both html tags is between the <HEAD> and </HEAD> tags within the HTML that makes up your page. Their order does not really matter, but I always do:
- title
- description
- keywords
Based on what we did yesterday in Step 2: How to make a good website
1. Keywords tag
Yes, we start with keywords first. Take the lists of keywords from yesterday and pick the ones that describe your site the best.
For example this linky love site, since I want to show:
- how to make money online and
- link to you if you link to me
I have 2 lists with the top keyword phrases that have to do with what I offer:
- make money, make money online, make money on the Internet
- link, add your link, suggest link, link exchange, add a new link
22 words, where the golden rule is about 13 words, so I need to pick the keyword-phrases that represent my site the best:
- make money online, make money on the Internet, add your link, link exchange
13 words 🙂
In HTML that will look like this:
<meta name="keywords" content="make money online, make money on the Internet, add your link, link exchange">
2. Title tag
The title should describe my website in as little words as possible. So I start from the above keywords and try to summarize even more.
- Since I have 2 topics (money and links) I separate them with a horizontal thingy: |
- Then I combine the link keywords add your link + link exchange to:
add your link exchange - together that becomes:
Make money online | Add your link exchange
Not very, very short, but that’s because I want to do 2 different things (money and links) in one.
In HTML that will look like this:
<title>Make money online | Add your link exchange</title>
3. Description tag
Now it’s easy: in no more than 250 characters I have to write in human readable sentences what I already summarized in my title and keywords.
The description will be shown in Google search results, so try to catch the attention. Since by now my inspiration is finished, it will look like so, with the keywords in bold just for illustration:
Do you want to make money online? Then follow how this new step by step is making more money on the Internet. Exchange links so we both rank higher and get more visitors. So let us make money online together and start to add your link exchange.
Run this in a "Spellt-Cheque-er", because this could be the first thing people read before ever visiting your site. (come back tomorrow for the joke of spelling mistakes in Google)
In HTML that will look like this:
<meta name="description" content="Do you want to make money online? Then follow how this new step by step is making more money on the Internet. Exchange links so we both rank higher and get more visitors. So let us make money online together and start to add your link exchange.">
Summarized: Search engine optimization (SEO)
As said yesterday in Step 2: How to make a good website :
Give people what they want and they should find you. Same in the search engines. Give them what they want:
- title, description and keywords
- links
So my HTML code looks like:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<title>Make money online | Add your link exchange</title>
<meta name="description" content="Do you want to make money online? Then follow how this new step by step is making more money on the Internet. Exchange links so we both rank higher and get more visitors. So let us make money online together and start to add your link exchange.">
<meta name="keywords" content="make money online, make money on the Internet, add your link, link exchange">
Come back tomorrow for how funny my site looks in Google search engine…
Technorati Tags: Keywords | SEO | Online Marketing | Website | Title | Search Engine Optimization | Description | HTML | Meta tags
Ok maybe it is just me but… when I look at your page source the only meta name I see is “generator”. Can you tell me where you show your “description” or even “keywords” in your page?
Hi Susan,
Thanks, I gave the theory and forgot to copy – paste the keywords in the html, which is done now.
If I still didn’t explain well, please ask again 🙂
Hi Linky Love:
This is not a spam! I resend the comment because some mistake at first comment. So Sorry!
Like your SEO post so much! Read many materials about META TAG,never apply any one them because so confusing! However, after reading your post, I tried to generate my own META TAG by Meta Tag Generator at http://www.free-webmaster-tools.com/Meta-Tag-Generator.htm, no problem to generate one with your clear guide.
Below is the section of META TAG:
(Best Home Based Business Opportunity
)
However, when I am going to plug in to Blogger blog, I am facing problem at Edit Template. Following is part of the comment:
We were unable to save your template
Please correct the error below, and submit your template again.
Your template could not be parsed as it is not well-formed. Please make sure all XML elements are closed properly.
XML error message: Element type “META†must be followed by either attribute specifications, “>†or “/>â€.
Expert please help me to see what went wrong! I am so desperate to apply META TAG on my blog after reading your step-by-step guide!
Thanks and have a nice day.
Best regards,
S.Webex
Hi Sir Webex,
Make your life ease and just copy/paste the code right at the end of my post,
where you change my “money and link” words with yours.
Tags always open and close between < ... ... >
between those “funny arrows”
(that’s what the error message from blogger is trying to tell you)
Please follow up and ask again if I didn’t explain well!