Anyone know anything about web keywords?

[Kpnuts]

I've been asked by a client to include keywords into a website, so that search engines can find them and put them to use.

I used meta data in the html code, uploaded the new files to the server a couple of days ago...

But apparently a web stats company has gotten in touch with my client saying that they're still not finding any keywords in the site.

Can anyone with a bit of knowledge help please? Getting desparate here.

Many thanks

 

[Kpnuts]

Anyone?

 

[Mr. B]

Gaining prominence on a search engine is a long term endeavor and you won't make it to page one of any search results within a week or two, even if you're offering completely unique content.

Since google is the prevailing search engine now, adapting websites to its PageRank system has become a science in itself. One thing you don't need to worry about is those META tags, which are largely ignored on the web now due to rampant abuse over the years.

To further this discussion, it would be a big help to know the website in question.

 

[Kpnuts]

Gaining prominence on a search engine is a long term endeavor and you won't make it to page one of any search results within a week or two, even if you're offering completely unique content.

Since google is the prevailing search engine now, adapting websites to its PageRank system has become a science in itself. One thing you don't need to worry about is those META tags, which are largely ignored on the web now due to rampant abuse over the years.

To further this discussion, it would be a big help to know the website in question.

You say that META tags are largely ignored these days...

I'm curious what else I can add to html pages, for keywords to be recognised by search engines?

 

[Venardhi]

How about content?

 

[Holdfast]

You might get more info in Science & Technology. If the OP wants this swished there, let us know with a note in the thread.

 

[Kpnuts]

Yes please, if possible.

 

[Holdfast]

Done. Hope the more techy-oriented people here can help. Good luck!

 

[smithaa02]

You can find a wealth of information on the subject by googling "Search engine optimization" (the industry term for what you're trying to do).

The short of it is that meta keywords (not to be confused with targeted search engine keywords) are worthless and may actually incur stuffing penalties.

The meta description is very good because even though search engines don't use this for ranking, this is what shows up in the search result description.

Lastly for the head data, make sure your title has your targeted keywords in it.

Your domain is very important (it should have keywords in it but new domains and aliases get penalized).

The page urls are important. They should be keywords and separated by - or _. Most pages should not end in script URL's or URL variables.

Google rewards you for updating content, so you do want to do that often.

Banklinks are everything. Try to get backlinks from quality sites that have a high pagerank.

Generally speaking more verbiage is better and it should have your targeted keyword in their repeated multiple times (but not too often to incur a penalty).

Most search engines have a submission form... Make sure you take advantage of these. Many are also taking advantage of automated sitemaps to keep their listings up-to-date and this might be something you could be interested in.

There is sooo much information on the NET about SEO if you are interested. Here is one of my favorite tip sheats for optimizing for google: http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/internet/google-ranking-factors.htm (pay attention to the penalty section)

Let me know if you have questions about any of this.

 

[Kpnuts]

smithaa02, you're a lifesaver, thanks for the info.

Basically my client is giving me grief because he got this report back from a web statistics company:

Meta tags report for: http://WWW.XXX
meta taglengthvalue
Title: 8No Title


Meta tags analysis.
Title:Title relevancy to page content is
terrible.
The Title relevancy to page content is 0%.



Description:Found no description meta tag.
The description meta tag is used by most of the
search engines. Consider to add a description
meta tag.


Keywords:Found no keywords meta tag.
The keyword meta tag is still used by some
search engines. Consider to add a keyword meta
tag.


Robots:Found no robots meta tag.
This tag is not really required but helps
spiders to index the web page.


Author:Found no author meta tag.
This tag is not really required but helps for
your (company) name recognizing.


I already updated the meta data a few days ago, but they've been in touch saying nothing's changed?

 

[Robert Maxwell]

smithaa02 mentioned backlinks, which are indeed very important on engines like Google. A good but time-consuming way to get them is a viral marketing approach: find communities (blogs, forums, etc.) that are relevant to the client's business, join them, post for a little while, and drop a link here and there. You want to do this on the higher-ranked sites.

One thing a lot of people do for SEO is include keywords in the page, but make them invisible--put them in a hidden layer/table, etc. This could be considered dishonest, so proceed carefully. A better approach is to actually use the keywords in context on as many pages on the site as possible.

But any new site is simply not going to show up with a high rank very quickly. Taking my site (linked in my sig) as an example, "Bookzek" is just a made-up word and it still took about a month to work its way up the Google system to be the first result.

 

[smithaa02]

smithaa02 mentioned backlinks, which are indeed very important on engines like Google. A good but time-consuming way to get them is a viral marketing approach: find communities (blogs, forums, etc.) that are relevant to the client's business, join them, post for a little while, and drop a link here and there. You want to do this on the higher-ranked sites.

One thing a lot of people do for SEO is include keywords in the page, but make them invisible--put them in a hidden layer/table, etc. This could be considered dishonest, so proceed carefully. A better approach is to actually use the keywords in context on as many pages on the site as possible.

But any new site is simply not going to show up with a high rank very quickly. Taking my site (linked in my sig) as an example, "Bookzek" is just a made-up word and it still took about a month to work its way up the Google system to be the first result.

Hidden keywords are tricky... I know it is widely believed the classic trick of using keywords in the same font as the background incurs search engine penalties. This is just an example of Black Hat SEO tactics that can get you in trouble with the search engines.

As for backlinks these are certainly tricky... For starters see if you can get backlinks from your clients or vendors. There are free directories outthere that help and if you get desparate you can always pay for backlinks. Search engines get suspicous if you get too many backlinks at once though. Look for backlinks on websites with a high page rank (1-10 where 3 is good). Trekbbs.com for example is 4 which is respectable.

 

[smithaa02]

smithaa02, you're a lifesaver, thanks for the info.

Basically my client is giving me grief because he got this report back from a web statistics company:

Meta tags report for: http://WWW.XXX
meta taglengthvalue
Title: 8No Title

This is important. Make sure each page has a title that is somewhat short, descriptive and contains keywords.

Meta tags analysis.
Title:Title relevancy to page content is
terrible.
The Title relevancy to page content is 0%.

Anything in the title should be repeated in the body for max affect.

Description:Found no description meta tag.
The description meta tag is used by most of the
search engines. Consider to add a description
meta tag.

This is what you see next to each result in google. Important for hooking visitors but not search engines.

Keywords:Found no keywords meta tag.
The keyword meta tag is still used by some
search engines. Consider to add a keyword meta
tag.

These are worthless.

Robots:Found no robots meta tag.
This tag is not really required but helps
spiders to index the web page.


Author:Found no author meta tag.
This tag is not really required but helps for
your (company) name recognizing.

Don't worry about these.

I already updated the meta data a few days ago, but they've been in touch saying nothing's changed?

Which program is he using? Have you updated all pages? There will be a delay for the description to propogate... Can you provide the link to the website? (you can pm me if you are worried about privacy)