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Step 2: Meta Tags & Their Uses
- Title Tags
- Description Tag
- Keyword Tag
- Alt Tags
Title Tags
This is probably the most important tag you will deal with, and therefore deserves the most respect. It is the tag that ultimately states what your page is about. When the spider comes to your page, they visit your title tag to find information about your page. If your title tag is un-enticing, and non descriptive, you will receive few clicks, even if you are ranked near the top.
People click on what they believe will help them the most. Therefore it is necessary to make your titles interesting to both humans and to spiders. The more enticing a title, the more clicks to your site.
The title should describe what is on the page; the most important keywords for that page should be included in the title. Don't try to stuff them all in the title, and don't include any keywords that do not deal directly with the point of the page. Any keywords you put in your title that have nothing to do with the main content of the page will work against you. Limit your title to 6 to 8 words. Google only displays approx. 62 characters, including spaces, for searchers to view; so be concise and exact - but also be enticing.
The title should be focused, not general. Place the most important keyword or keywords first where the spiders can "see" them. This is called Keyword Prominence.
The Title Tag is located in the header of your Source Code and looks like this:
<title> Keywords - Your Company Name </title>
For example: You own a business called Western Widgets. Your first inclination is to place your business name out there boldly, so you make your title:
<title> Western Widgets - Welcome. </title>
This is a common mistake for Search Engine Marketing [SEM]. In the "real world" people search their local area by brand name and prominence. Looking to yellow pages, and asking friends where to buy the best Widgets. "Western Widgets, of course" is the common answer - so off they go.
But on the internet, most of us are not branded, or even known. You need to appeal to how your product and service will be searched for. So consider this.
<title> Blue Widgets from Western Widgets. </title>
Note the keywords "Blue Widgets" is listed first and prominently in the title, followed by the business name. The "Welcome" is deleted - as it is an unnecessary term that no one will be searching for to find your product.
If you do your titles correctly, the spider will have a good basic idea of what your page is about.
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