Even with all the current changes going on in the SEO world, with the penguins and the pandas – the little things still matter. Getting your site set up well from the start is a must. A key part of that is the good old fashioned meta tag. They have been there since the early days of SEO and search engines and while they won’t get you to number one on their own, they are the key foundation of a good website. These site set up tips are by Goddard SEO.
The Title tag
The title tag is often abused. People stuff it with keywords, make it hundreds of characters long, give every page the same tile or give the them titles like “home”. People are still somehow getting the humble title tag wrong. It is still an important tag however. Getting it right is still important. It becomes the clickable link in the search results and for that reason alone you should make it as clean and tidy and relevant as possible. It is also part of the ranking algorithm and should be used properly. Don’t keyword stuff, keep it relevant and to 60 to 70 characters.
Description tag
This will generally show up under your clickable result in Google. While sometimes they will pick content from your page to use as the description they still use this tag on occasion. Make sure it is properly filled in, relevant and useful and not stuffed with keywords.Make sure each page has a unique description and keep it to 150 to 200 characters.
Canonical tag
This tag is very useful for complicated CMS’s and Shopping websites where similar pages are generated based on the users choices. For example a shopping result page might be filtered by price or colour or type but may contain essentially the same content in a different order. This can lead to you getting a duplicate content penalty if not handled correctly. By putting this tag in place you can select the one version of the page you want to be the “real” one. Make sure you set it up correctly and its a great asset to your site.
Author tag
If you write on multiple sites this is a must. It will let your Google+ picture show up in the search results next to your site or a site that has your article on. This increased click throughs, increases author awareness and lets Google tie you together and give you credit when you guest post on someone else’s website. Since the early days of this tag they have worked and tweaked the way it is implemented and it is now relatively easy to get set up and working, even if it takes a few weeks to start showing up in searches.
Keyword Tag
Avoid this tag. Google does not use it, Bing has said that they sometimes use it as a keyword over stuffing spam signal. Its a waste of time and could end up doing more harm than good.
Author:
Gareth Goddard runs Goddard SEO a London based Boutique style SEO agency helping a variety of businesses grow through organic search and online marketing.
