How to use Keywords to get Top Ten Search Engine Listings
by rc-programs
Hi Web Surfer,
This is page three of using keywords to get top ten Search Engine listings. Click here to read page one.
How to use keywords:
Keywords should be placed in the Title, Description and Keywords meta tags which are found in the <head> section of a web page. The Meta Tag Analyzer Program creates a html template page
showing the proper placement and syntax for meta tags and robots tags. Keywords should also be used generously throughout the <body> of the web page. And finally, they should be used as links to your Webpage. Search Engines seem to be putting a
lot of importance on keywords being used as links right now. But, don't depend on this always being the case. Search Engines tend to vary what they emphasize all the time. If you put keywords in all the areas outlined here, you will have all the bases
covered no matter what Search Engines decide to emphasize next.
The Title Tag:
Technically speaking, the Title tag is not a meta tag. But, it is the only thing required in the <head> section of the html code for a Webpage. The Title tag is the first thing Search Engine spiders look for when they scan a web page. And, it is the
text they use as the title for the Webpage listing on searches. This makes the Title the most important place to put the keywords that best describe the web page. If you look at the source code for any of my web pages, you'll find I list the Title,
Description and Keywords meta tags at the very top of the <head> section to make them easy for the Search Engine spiders to find. The more spider friendly you can make your web pages, the easier it will be for them to read them. This can help improve
web page listings. It's not a must, but it is a good idea to use the Keywords used in the Title tag as a header and footer on your web pages as well. I use the Computer Side Addins
Program to automatically insert the Title tag as the
header and footer of my web pages. The Computer Side Addins Program automatically inserts html code you save in a text file into every Webpage you place an addin tag for that code. With this program you can make changes to a text file and have every
Webpage that has an addin tag for that text file automatically updated with the changes you made to the text file. No more copying and pasting repetitious code onto page after page when you use the Computer
Side Addins Program. Free Demo Version available.
The Title tag should be limited to 60 characters because most Search Engines truncate it to 60 characters when displaying it. The Meta Tag Analyzer Program will warn you if the text you're
saving as a Title tag exceeds 60 characters and give you an opportunity to correct it before saving it. It will also let you change it after you save it.
Some Search Engines are not putting as much emphasis on the description meta tag now as they have in the past. They seem to prefer creating their own description from the text in the web page. This is turning out to be a nightmare of convoluted gibberish
in some cases. I think they'll soon return to putting more emphasis on the description meta tag as a result. Generally speaking, you can work more keywords into the description meta tag than the Title because it can have more characters in it. I suggest
you try to write good clear descriptions using as many keywords as you can without repeating any single word more than three times. Search Engines tend to penalize Webpages that list keywords more than three times in the Title, Description or Keywords meta
tags. The Meta Tag Analyzer Program will let you know if you have words repeated more than three times in any of the tags.
The Description meta tag should be limited to 150 characters because most Search Engine truncate it to 150 characters when saving it. The Meta Tag Analyzer Program will warn you if the text
you're saving as a Description meta tag exceeds 150 characters and give you an opportunity to correct it before saving it. It will also let you change it after you save it.
The Keywords Meta Tag:
The Keywords meta tag has always been the least significant of the meta tags. There are those that say you shouldn't even bother with it because some Search Engines don't look at it any more. While it may be true that some Search Engines don't look at
the Keywords meta tag right now, that doesn't mean they won't start looking at it again in the future. I know for a fact, that even now some searchers are finding some of my Webpages using keywords that can only be found in the Keywords meta tag and are
not in the visible text on the web page. Of course, I sneak all my tags into the body of my Webpages without their being visible. More on that later.
All the keywords you have selected, including spelling variations, should be put in the Keywords meta tag. Generally
speaking, all the words in the Keywords meta tag should be in lower case. Contrary to suggestions by some, you do not have to have a comma after each group of keywords. I generally prefer not to use commas at all in the Keywords meta tag. Not using commas
creates weird keyword combinations you would never come up with otherwise. And, surprisingly, some people search for.
The Keywords meta tag should be limited to 250 characters because most Search Engines truncate it to 250 characters when saving it. The Meta Tag Analyzer Program will warn you if the text
you're saving as a Keywords meta tag exceeds 250 characters and give you an opportunity to correct it before saving it. It will also let you change it after you save it.
Tricks that can be used to improve page listings:
Actually, what follows is not really trickery. It is little known legitimate ways to weave keywords into the body of a web page.
The alt tag:
Every image you place on a Webpage can have an alt tag. The alt tag's purpose is for a short description of what the image is. You can take advantage of this by including your keywords in the description. An example of this is the winking eye above the
site navigation column on this page. The html code for the winking eye image follows:
Please ignore the full path for the link and image source above. It is not necessary in most cases. The full path is there because I use the Computer Side Addins Program to automatically insert my navigation links into web pages in multiple folder levels. Note the alt
tag, in bold above, says
"Sexy Search, Find and Replace". Sexy happens to be good keyword when combined with Search, Find and Replace but is not a very fitting combination of words to use on the actual page. Using the alt tag is a good way to sneak it in and have it go pretty much unnoticed.
The text link title tag:
Every text link can have a title tag. Don't confuse this with the page Title tag. They are totally different. The text link title tag's purpose is to give blind people a description of what the text link is pointing to. Search Engines really like web pages that use
the text link title tag and give a better listing to those that do. I don't use the text link title tag in every text link on a page. But, I do use the text link title tag in every text link in my navigation links. My Webpage listings improved dramatically after I started using the
text link title tags a couple of years ago. The moral of the story is use your keywords when appropriate in the text link
title tags. The html code for a text link title tag follows:
Note the text link title tag, in bold for highlighting purposes only, follows the hyperlink code but is still inside the ending > and the text following title="must be in quotes". I'm telling you this because you will probably have to insert the
text link title tag into the code yourself as most
Webpage design programs don't give you an option to do it.
Also note the above link itself. The meta_tag_analyzer.htm file is in a folder called meta_tag which is in a folder
called web_page_tools. Having file names and folder names that relate to what the page is about improves Search Engine Listings.
The hidden image trick:
This may be considered trickery by some, but it's gone unnoticed by the Search Engines for years if it is. I use a very small "clr01.gif" image to put keywords into the image alt tag. The image can also be used for hidden links but I
have a feeling Search Engines frown on this. So, I don't do it anymore. This Webpage and almost
every web page on this site has at least three of these "clr01.gif" images on them and each of those repeat my Description and Keywords. This is a good way to get Keywords into the <body> content of a page in case you don't use them in the
text on the page. Search Engines like to see your Keywords used as part of the visible content on your page. Search Engines consider alt tags visible because their content is displayed when the mouse is moved over them. The trick here is, the
"clr01.gif" image is so small it is not highlighted when the mouse moves over it and yet the Search Engines see the alt tag and list it's contents as part of the page. Search Engines don't mind the image being so small because they think it is part of the page format. You can download a copy of the "clr01.gif" image by clicking on the link below:
Click here to download the clr01.gif image. A new Window that appears blank will open. Select File/Save As and save it. You need to do it that way because the image is too small to be saved any
other way. You can close the new Window after you save the image.
You will have to add your keywords to the alt tag yourself as the image is invisible if you have the right path to the folder it's in. It only shows up as a very small dot if you don't have the proper path to it's folder. Use the same syntax to add keywords
to the alt tag as any other image alt tag.
This completes my tips and tricks to achieving top ten Web Page listings. It's time for you to go to work and put them into practice. Don't forget to come back and send me a little gratuity when your pages start getting top ten listings on the Search Engines.
(LOL) Sure you will! Better yet, click here to send the gratuity now. Note: The text link title tag is used on the gratuity text link and the gratuity link will open in a
new Window.
