What does Google THINK your site is about? SEO Report with Valuable Info For All Webmasters!!
What does Google THINK your site is about?
This is an interesting and sometimes surprising report for many site owners. We analyze your page through the Google API and determine what "topics / silos" Google thinks your site is about.
Site Groups
business opportunity business plan small business
business small business plan business idea
Title Tag / Meta Tag Analysis
What you "say" on each page to the search engines is important. You may be surprised about what you left out! StomperNet can help you every step of the way.
StomperNet provides a full library of expert content on every aspect of On-Page SEO.
Title Tag Review:
Found between the tags. The Title Tag not only displays at the top of the browser window, but also appears as the linked text in the search results. The page Title is indexed by all the major search engines -- Google, Yahoo! and MSN -- and is used as part, or in whole, for the page listing in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages).
Remember, the Title of your site MUST grab attention, create curiosity and evoke emotion to get the user to click. Do not make the mistake of just using your company name. If you fail to get the click, your top ranking is worthless. In terms of SEO, the Title Tag is of average importance to Google for competitive phrases.
The Title Tag - Leaving out your web site Title is similar to publishing a newspaper without a headline.It's that important!
The Title not only displays at the top of the browser window, but also appears when potential customers perform a search and review the results. The Title is indexed by all the major search engines.
In terms of SEO, the Title tag has lost a bit of its importance. It is now only of average importance with Google, but with Yahoo! and MSN it is still very important. This section will concentrate on the new standard of the Title tag.
(Don't make the mistake of using just your company name for the Title. Your site's Title MUST grab attention, create curiosity and evoke emotion.) Pay close attention to T.V. and radio news programs and how they use short "hooks" to keep viewers and listeners through a commercial break. The same "hooks" can be used for your Title and Description.
Example: For a Corporate Help Desk, instead of using a Title of:
"XYZ Corporation - Corporate Help Desk", use "Corporate Help Desk | Meeting Your Core Business Demands".
This Title is more effective because it incorporates the main solution the company provides. Plus, it does not include any "stop words".
Search engines do not alphabetize their results, so refrain from using symbols such as "!!" or "AAA" in your Title. That technique was effective back in the late 90s but it isn't anymore. Placing your most important keywords in the Title, while it was a focus years ago in SEO, is also no longer a requirement. It is far more effective for you to create a killer Title that is highly compelling and generate a top ranking through other means, including incoming links. Your Title must be readable and descriptive - don't just stuff keywords in the Title.
Example: For "Hawaiian Vacations", one site's Title is: "windsurfing vacations lodging Maui budget accommodations Hawaiian vacation".
This Title fails because not only is it unappealing, it doesn't read well, therefore few will click on it, no matter if this site was listed #1.
Our suggested Title: "Hawaiian Vacations in Maui - Budget Lodging Available".
Result: Shorter Title, more effective and descriptive.
Now, this Title is effective because it targets people looking to vacation in Maui and those who are on a budget. This hotel is generally a two star hotel with affordable rates. Since they do not cater to the "rich crowd" they make that clear in the Title to ensure only qualified visitors come to their site. This is also very effective in PPC campaigns. By being direct and qualifying your audience up front, you lower your cost per customer acquisition.
Never use ALL CAPS, as it makes it difficult to read and it is considered "SHOUTING" on the Internet. Instead, capitalize the first letter of each word (when appropriate). Generally, your Title should be 5 - 7 words. Google displays a maximum of 64 characters, so ensure you have less than that so you are assured your Title will not be cut off. MSN and Yahoo! display more, but with the market share that Google has, it is highly advised you comply with their current standards.
Notice how the above example has "..." (Ellipses) at the end of the Title. The Title is too long as "Travel Web Site" is not displayed. This hurts the message being delivered and the click-through rate will probably suffer because of it.
Note: Yahoo! displays 110 characters and MSN will display 70.
According to testing, more characters are often indexed than what displays in the SERPs. For example, Google displays 64 characters, but indexes 72; MSN displays 70 but indexes 82; Yahoo! is the only engine that displays and indexes the same number of characters, 110.
It is said that success is 50% competitive intelligence and 50% figuring out how to do it better." This is also true for the Title tag. To see the top scoring Titles for the keyphrase you are targeting, type "allintitle:keyphrase" in Google. For example, if I wanted to know the Titles for "home security system" it would look like:
Note: Some experts will recommend using the "intitle" command. In order to see the top Titles, you must use "allintitle" or the entire phrase will not be used.
The above example shows the top three results. We suggest looking at the Top 30 to get ideas on how to make your Title more effective.
STOMPER TIP: Don't use more than one Title per page. Although, it is allowed on some search engines, it is not a good practice, as penalties can be assessed. Don't be tempted to repeat your keywords in the Title tag, because search engines may penalize you, and never repeat a term back-to-back in the Title. The reason for this is not necessarily getting penalized, it is to ensure your Title is compelling and will grab attention.
Where is the Title?
The Title can be found in the HTML code. It is contained in the tag near the top of the document. It looks like this:
How often do you click on the #1 result in the SERPs? Not every time? What is the reason? According to a survey we conducted, the number one reason a user clicks on a search result is that it was "compelling or matched their search query." What made the result compelling? That's right - the Title. What Not To Do
Often, the best way to learn how to do something is to show you what not to do. The following are very poor examples of Page Titles. All of these are actual Titles taken from the web:
The problems with the above examples:
Untitled document - this is a great example of the "lazy webmaster" who hasn't taken the time to change the default text.
"Your internet browser must support ..." - Okay, if *this* is your Title, I am sorry, you are just an idiot webmaster and you really need to outsource the work to someone else. If you have outsourced it, and this is what they did - fire them now.
Title bar text goes here - Another example of being lazy, but also telling the world that you are so. At least the "Untitled Document" is descriptive ... "Text Goes Here" does not help your online image.
What To Do - Titles Done Right
Let me briefly explain how to do the Title the right way. It should be understood that the algorithms of Google, Yahoo! and MSN are all very different, thus, the "Perfect Title" does not exist. You read that right, the perfect Title in terms of meeting the "Big Three" algorithms does NOT exist. There is just enough difference in their algorithms to not allow for a top ranking to occur across all three with the Title tag alone.
Here are examples of good Page Titles:
Plastic Surgery - Don't Trust Your Body to Just Anyone - this achieved a 4-1 click through ratio over a listing four spots above in the SERPS, mainly due to the word "trust" being added.
Looking for the Best Mortgage? - this achieved a 3-1 click through ratio over a listing two spots above and the conversion ratios were very good as the landing page contained a graphic, "See Us for the Best Mortgage Offer for your Home". This is a strong call to action.
Get Help Finding a New Job - The director reported that since changing the Title their overall traffic has decreased, but the number of closes for their resume help service has gone up seven fold!! Visitors are not just more qualified, but they come in with an obviously better outlook and attitude.
Health Insurance | Avoid the Traps, Get Expert Advice - This Title has boosted leads to the highest point in this firm's web history. They have their top keyword phrase "health insurance" but they also tell them why they should click - to avoid traps and also get expert advice. Notice that they did not place their company name in the Title, which is often just a waste, unless your company name is part of your main keyword phrase.
Title: Web Mums - Womens Networking and Online Marketing Community
Description: Womens Networking and Online Marketing Community & Forums. Lots of Free advice to Grow your Online Business.
Meta keywords: SEO, WAHMs, Blogging, information, female, entrepreneurs, UK, home, based, internet, marketing, networking, women, social, business
Title Tag Review:
Found between the tags. The Title Tag not only displays at the top of the browser window, but also appears as the linked text in the search results. The page Title is indexed by all the major search engines -- Google, Yahoo! and MSN -- and is used as part, or in whole, for the page listing in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages).
Keyword Meta Tag - There is still a lot of misconception about the Keyword Meta Tag. Due to spamming issues dating back to the late 90s, the Keyword Meta Tag has been devalued. Google has never indexed the tag, and while Yahoo! and MSN give importance to the tag, it isn't enough alone to get your site top ranking.
Keyword Meta Tag - There is still a lot of misconception about the Keyword Meta Tag. Due to spamming issues dating back to the late 90s, the Keyword Meta Tag has been devalued. Google has never indexed the tag, and while Yahoo! and MSN give importance to the tag, it isn't enough alone to get your site top ranking.
Warning: There is plenty of software designed to scrape Meta Keyword Tag information and many gurus suggest the first place you go to build a keyword list is your competitor's sites and take their keywords from this tag.
Instead, it is best to fill this tag with very general or generic terms. The boost that you will get from Yahoo! or MSN is worth sacrificing from allowing your competition to get the keywords in seconds that took you hours to research.
Example of the keyword meta tag:
Stomper Tip: Is it important to use commas? No. Commas are not indexed, nor are they used by the engines to separate the keyword phrases. Commas are for aesthetic reasons only for the webmaster.
A word of caution: Do not use your competitor's company name, trademarked products or words in your keyword tag. There have been numerous lawsuits filed because of this. This is because use of trademarked terms in your keyword tag can be interpreted as trademark infringement. Most legal experts will tell you that permission is required before using a trademark on your site at all, even in the visible area of your site. Also, there have been lawsuits due to phrases used that sounded or looked similar to the owned trademark. Keep these very important factors in mind when selecting your keyword phrases.
Meta Description - The Meta Description is indexed and used by Google, Yahoo! & MSN. It is recommended that you keep the description to less than 200 characters. The Meta Description works with the Title to attract potential customers. Ourtesting shows when a prospect performs a search in Google, the results displayed are the Title (hyperlinked) and the Description only if theMeta Description contains the keyword phrase the prospect used in thesearch.
If you do not include a Meta Description, most search engines, by default, will use the 30-40 words of your copy, which could look very unappealing to a prospect. Be careful not to keyword stuff your description.
Here are examples of each of the major search engines:
Yahoo!: If your site is listed in the Yahoo! Directory, the description will be pulled from the directory listing. This is the case, even though Yahoo! is pulling the Title from the website and not the directory listing. Notice how the title spans two lines.
MSN: They currently "mesh" the description. The first part is from the actual meta description and then ellipses will occur followed by the second half which is taken from the first paragraph of text on the page.
In terms of SEO, the Meta Description Tag is not very important to Google, has average importance to MSN, but is very important to Yahoo!.
Keep your description to 150 characters (including spaces) or less. Your focus should be in creating curiosity with the reader, but not satisfying it with your Description. If you do it right, you will achieve higher click traffic to your site. Do not repeat any keyword phrase more than three times, and do not have the same keyword phrase word repeated back-to-back.
Example: "Get the training you need and deserve at our state-of-the-art training facilities. Get all six courses, hotel accommodations, catered meals and a free Palm Pilot! We guarantee you will pass."
This description is for a training course offered in a highly competitive industry. Effective catch phrases are: "need", "deserve", "hotel accommodations", "catered meals", "free" and "guarantee". Use catch phrases to your advantage.
Warning: Make sure you can back up any claims you make in your Meta Description. If you can't, you may be sued.
Tip: To not allow Yahoo! to display the Title and the Description from their directory and use the ones on your website instead use:
Where is the DESCRIPTION?
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Your Site's Title Here</TITLE>
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="Your Site's Description Here">
</HEAD>
Is your Title and Description compelling?
Does it solve a problem?
Does it suggest that it solves that problem quickly?
If you answered "no" to any of the above, you need to do a rewrite. Remember when a search is performed on a search engine, two elements are displayed in the results list - the site's Title and the Meta Description.
Headline (Heading) Analysis
Headlines can be helpful to the search engines in addition to your visitors.
Heading Tags - There are six types of headings:
<h1>,</h1>
<h2>,</h2>
<h3>,</h3>
<h4>,</h4>
<h5>, and</h5>
<h6>. They also rank in the same order for importance, so (h1) is the most important in terms of On-Page SEO. You can use the headings to list your "headline" (h1) with its "tagline" underneath (h2). For example:
</h1>
Complete Home Security System
<h2>Self-install your home security system in One Hour or Less!</h2>
In the above example, it allows for the key phrase "home security system" to be used naturally in both headings, thus increasing the on-page optimization score for the key phrase.
Analysis of Images
Images are important to your visitors / customers. They help build brand identity and improves the overall design of your site. But search engines today can't "read" your images so SEOs have been "keyword stuffing" theimage ALT tags to gain better rankings. We advise against this practice.Instead, we recommend the ALT text be descriptive of the image...not a place to inject 18 kabillion keyword phrases.
ALT Text Importance - There is a major difference between indexing and importance, or what SEOs call "relevancy". Many webmasters will point to the fact that their site comes up #1 for the term "Glendale Arizona top residential and commercial real estate specialist for 2008" and state, "See, the only place that text occurs is in the ALT tag, so search engines do index it and it counts."
Okay, let's be reasonable here. What is the likelihood of someone actually typing the above search string? Besides the SEO, the person being referenced and his mother? Slim to none, right?
Over the last few years we have seen a trend here at StomperLabs which shows that using ALT text for SEO purposes has diminished. The American Disabilities Act (ADA) has strict guidelines in order to be ADA compliant. I guarantee you, they do not look favorably at ALT text that has been keyword-stuffed.
Have you ever witnessed a visually-impaired individual use the Web? With a device which reads aloud the contents of a Web page, the impaired individual will be inundated with "ALT Text Spam". Sometimes the reader is stuck on one graphic for more than 40 seconds reading all of the keywords that have been stuffed. That isn't a good experience for them.
According to a Google engineer, what you should do is create an ALT [text] that is relevant to the image so it gives the user a good experience, including the visually-impaired. The ALT text is indexed, but it is downgraded in the algorithm. The reason?
"We see ALT text as relevant as the Keyword Meta tag," said the Google engineer. That should say it all as Google has never used the Keyword Meta tag due to its high spam rate.
What you need to do is to use ALT text in the manner in which it was designed to be used by the W3C: to describe the image. If appropriate, a keyword phrase can be used, but under no circumstances should you stuff the ALT tag with keywords. Keep it to a simple description.
Basically, remember to be compliant, not just with the W3C, but also with the ADA.
Top Myths About Google
Myth #1: The Higher Your Google PageRank (PR), the Higher You'll be in the Search Results Listing - PageRank has nothing to do with the ranking of web pages, it has to do with the level of authoritativeness the page has and how often it will be reindexed. Higher PageRank pages tend to be reindexed more often.
Myth #2: The Google Toolbar will List Your Actual PageRank - The toolbar displays PageRank and backlink information that is generally 3-5 months old.
Myth # 3: PageRank is a Value Based on the Number of Incoming Links to Your Site - It is more to do with the QUALITY of the links coming into your site.
Myth # 4: Searching for Incoming Links on Google Using "link:" will Show you all Your BackLinks - Google only shows you a small number of the links they know about. They have publicly stated that the links they show you may not all be counted towards PageRank. Instead, use Yahoo! or MSN as a gauge to your link progress.
Myth #5: Being Listed in the Open Directory Project Gives you a Special PageRank Bonus - There is not a "special" bonus, you get PageRank from the ODP the same as you would from any other site. No special treatment is given.
Myth #6: Being Listed in Yahoo! Gives you a Special PageRank Bonus - See #5. There is no special bonus given.
Myth #7: Google Analytics is used to track your user behavior for future products with Google - The data is not used by Google per the terms of use. There is no real value for Google to analyze that information, unless Yahoo! or MSN decided to use Google Analytics.
Myth #8: Google Will Not Index Dynamic Pages - Google indexed dynamic content all the time, the issue is, does it index it correctly, and that is the responsibility of the web master, not Google.
Myth # 9: Google Will Not List Your Site, or Penalize it, if you use Popups - Google does not view pop-ups as an indexing problem. However, if the popups are abusive, you can be manually deindexed.
Myth # 10: Google will Penalize you if You're Linked to by a Link Farm - While Google has stated that you cannot be penalized because of something that is not in your direct control, they do have systems in place to determine if you are participating in programs which are against their terms of use.
Go to http://www.stompernet.com and make use of the site seer tool to get a full in-depth analysis of how your site is performing in the above areas. The site seer tool is backed with mini videos explaining how it all works and is very clear and concise. If you want to get on that first page on Google then you need to go use the Site Seer tool today! The best bit? It's completely free!
This is an interesting and sometimes surprising report for many site owners. We analyze your page through the Google API and determine what "topics / silos" Google thinks your site is about.
Site Groups
business opportunity business plan small business
business small business plan business idea
Title Tag / Meta Tag Analysis
What you "say" on each page to the search engines is important. You may be surprised about what you left out! StomperNet can help you every step of the way.
StomperNet provides a full library of expert content on every aspect of On-Page SEO.
Title Tag Review:
Found between the tags. The Title Tag not only displays at the top of the browser window, but also appears as the linked text in the search results. The page Title is indexed by all the major search engines -- Google, Yahoo! and MSN -- and is used as part, or in whole, for the page listing in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages).
Remember, the Title of your site MUST grab attention, create curiosity and evoke emotion to get the user to click. Do not make the mistake of just using your company name. If you fail to get the click, your top ranking is worthless. In terms of SEO, the Title Tag is of average importance to Google for competitive phrases.
The Title Tag - Leaving out your web site Title is similar to publishing a newspaper without a headline.It's that important!
The Title not only displays at the top of the browser window, but also appears when potential customers perform a search and review the results. The Title is indexed by all the major search engines.
In terms of SEO, the Title tag has lost a bit of its importance. It is now only of average importance with Google, but with Yahoo! and MSN it is still very important. This section will concentrate on the new standard of the Title tag.
(Don't make the mistake of using just your company name for the Title. Your site's Title MUST grab attention, create curiosity and evoke emotion.) Pay close attention to T.V. and radio news programs and how they use short "hooks" to keep viewers and listeners through a commercial break. The same "hooks" can be used for your Title and Description.
Example: For a Corporate Help Desk, instead of using a Title of:
"XYZ Corporation - Corporate Help Desk", use "Corporate Help Desk | Meeting Your Core Business Demands".
This Title is more effective because it incorporates the main solution the company provides. Plus, it does not include any "stop words".
Search engines do not alphabetize their results, so refrain from using symbols such as "!!" or "AAA" in your Title. That technique was effective back in the late 90s but it isn't anymore. Placing your most important keywords in the Title, while it was a focus years ago in SEO, is also no longer a requirement. It is far more effective for you to create a killer Title that is highly compelling and generate a top ranking through other means, including incoming links. Your Title must be readable and descriptive - don't just stuff keywords in the Title.
Example: For "Hawaiian Vacations", one site's Title is: "windsurfing vacations lodging Maui budget accommodations Hawaiian vacation".
This Title fails because not only is it unappealing, it doesn't read well, therefore few will click on it, no matter if this site was listed #1.
Our suggested Title: "Hawaiian Vacations in Maui - Budget Lodging Available".
Result: Shorter Title, more effective and descriptive.
Now, this Title is effective because it targets people looking to vacation in Maui and those who are on a budget. This hotel is generally a two star hotel with affordable rates. Since they do not cater to the "rich crowd" they make that clear in the Title to ensure only qualified visitors come to their site. This is also very effective in PPC campaigns. By being direct and qualifying your audience up front, you lower your cost per customer acquisition.
Never use ALL CAPS, as it makes it difficult to read and it is considered "SHOUTING" on the Internet. Instead, capitalize the first letter of each word (when appropriate). Generally, your Title should be 5 - 7 words. Google displays a maximum of 64 characters, so ensure you have less than that so you are assured your Title will not be cut off. MSN and Yahoo! display more, but with the market share that Google has, it is highly advised you comply with their current standards.
Notice how the above example has "..." (Ellipses) at the end of the Title. The Title is too long as "Travel Web Site" is not displayed. This hurts the message being delivered and the click-through rate will probably suffer because of it.
Note: Yahoo! displays 110 characters and MSN will display 70.
According to testing, more characters are often indexed than what displays in the SERPs. For example, Google displays 64 characters, but indexes 72; MSN displays 70 but indexes 82; Yahoo! is the only engine that displays and indexes the same number of characters, 110.
It is said that success is 50% competitive intelligence and 50% figuring out how to do it better." This is also true for the Title tag. To see the top scoring Titles for the keyphrase you are targeting, type "allintitle:keyphrase" in Google. For example, if I wanted to know the Titles for "home security system" it would look like:
Note: Some experts will recommend using the "intitle" command. In order to see the top Titles, you must use "allintitle" or the entire phrase will not be used.
The above example shows the top three results. We suggest looking at the Top 30 to get ideas on how to make your Title more effective.
STOMPER TIP: Don't use more than one Title per page. Although, it is allowed on some search engines, it is not a good practice, as penalties can be assessed. Don't be tempted to repeat your keywords in the Title tag, because search engines may penalize you, and never repeat a term back-to-back in the Title. The reason for this is not necessarily getting penalized, it is to ensure your Title is compelling and will grab attention.
Where is the Title?
The Title can be found in the HTML code. It is contained in the tag near the top of the document. It looks like this:
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Your Site's Title Here</TITLE>
</HEAD>
How often do you click on the #1 result in the SERPs? Not every time? What is the reason? According to a survey we conducted, the number one reason a user clicks on a search result is that it was "compelling or matched their search query." What made the result compelling? That's right - the Title. What Not To Do
Often, the best way to learn how to do something is to show you what not to do. The following are very poor examples of Page Titles. All of these are actual Titles taken from the web:
The problems with the above examples:
Untitled document - this is a great example of the "lazy webmaster" who hasn't taken the time to change the default text.
"Your internet browser must support ..." - Okay, if *this* is your Title, I am sorry, you are just an idiot webmaster and you really need to outsource the work to someone else. If you have outsourced it, and this is what they did - fire them now.
Title bar text goes here - Another example of being lazy, but also telling the world that you are so. At least the "Untitled Document" is descriptive ... "Text Goes Here" does not help your online image.
What To Do - Titles Done Right
Let me briefly explain how to do the Title the right way. It should be understood that the algorithms of Google, Yahoo! and MSN are all very different, thus, the "Perfect Title" does not exist. You read that right, the perfect Title in terms of meeting the "Big Three" algorithms does NOT exist. There is just enough difference in their algorithms to not allow for a top ranking to occur across all three with the Title tag alone.
Here are examples of good Page Titles:
Plastic Surgery - Don't Trust Your Body to Just Anyone - this achieved a 4-1 click through ratio over a listing four spots above in the SERPS, mainly due to the word "trust" being added.
Looking for the Best Mortgage? - this achieved a 3-1 click through ratio over a listing two spots above and the conversion ratios were very good as the landing page contained a graphic, "See Us for the Best Mortgage Offer for your Home". This is a strong call to action.
Get Help Finding a New Job - The director reported that since changing the Title their overall traffic has decreased, but the number of closes for their resume help service has gone up seven fold!! Visitors are not just more qualified, but they come in with an obviously better outlook and attitude.
Health Insurance | Avoid the Traps, Get Expert Advice - This Title has boosted leads to the highest point in this firm's web history. They have their top keyword phrase "health insurance" but they also tell them why they should click - to avoid traps and also get expert advice. Notice that they did not place their company name in the Title, which is often just a waste, unless your company name is part of your main keyword phrase.
Title: Web Mums - Womens Networking and Online Marketing Community
Description: Womens Networking and Online Marketing Community & Forums. Lots of Free advice to Grow your Online Business.
Meta keywords: SEO, WAHMs, Blogging, information, female, entrepreneurs, UK, home, based, internet, marketing, networking, women, social, business
Title Tag Review:
Found between the tags. The Title Tag not only displays at the top of the browser window, but also appears as the linked text in the search results. The page Title is indexed by all the major search engines -- Google, Yahoo! and MSN -- and is used as part, or in whole, for the page listing in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages).
Keyword Meta Tag - There is still a lot of misconception about the Keyword Meta Tag. Due to spamming issues dating back to the late 90s, the Keyword Meta Tag has been devalued. Google has never indexed the tag, and while Yahoo! and MSN give importance to the tag, it isn't enough alone to get your site top ranking.
Keyword Meta Tag - There is still a lot of misconception about the Keyword Meta Tag. Due to spamming issues dating back to the late 90s, the Keyword Meta Tag has been devalued. Google has never indexed the tag, and while Yahoo! and MSN give importance to the tag, it isn't enough alone to get your site top ranking.
Warning: There is plenty of software designed to scrape Meta Keyword Tag information and many gurus suggest the first place you go to build a keyword list is your competitor's sites and take their keywords from this tag.
Instead, it is best to fill this tag with very general or generic terms. The boost that you will get from Yahoo! or MSN is worth sacrificing from allowing your competition to get the keywords in seconds that took you hours to research.
Example of the keyword meta tag:
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Your Site's Title Here</TITLE>
<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="keyword1, keyword2, keyword3">
</HEAD>
Stomper Tip: Is it important to use commas? No. Commas are not indexed, nor are they used by the engines to separate the keyword phrases. Commas are for aesthetic reasons only for the webmaster.
A word of caution: Do not use your competitor's company name, trademarked products or words in your keyword tag. There have been numerous lawsuits filed because of this. This is because use of trademarked terms in your keyword tag can be interpreted as trademark infringement. Most legal experts will tell you that permission is required before using a trademark on your site at all, even in the visible area of your site. Also, there have been lawsuits due to phrases used that sounded or looked similar to the owned trademark. Keep these very important factors in mind when selecting your keyword phrases.
Meta Description - The Meta Description is indexed and used by Google, Yahoo! & MSN. It is recommended that you keep the description to less than 200 characters. The Meta Description works with the Title to attract potential customers. Ourtesting shows when a prospect performs a search in Google, the results displayed are the Title (hyperlinked) and the Description only if theMeta Description contains the keyword phrase the prospect used in thesearch.
If you do not include a Meta Description, most search engines, by default, will use the 30-40 words of your copy, which could look very unappealing to a prospect. Be careful not to keyword stuff your description.
Here are examples of each of the major search engines:
Yahoo!: If your site is listed in the Yahoo! Directory, the description will be pulled from the directory listing. This is the case, even though Yahoo! is pulling the Title from the website and not the directory listing. Notice how the title spans two lines.
MSN: They currently "mesh" the description. The first part is from the actual meta description and then ellipses will occur followed by the second half which is taken from the first paragraph of text on the page.
In terms of SEO, the Meta Description Tag is not very important to Google, has average importance to MSN, but is very important to Yahoo!.
Keep your description to 150 characters (including spaces) or less. Your focus should be in creating curiosity with the reader, but not satisfying it with your Description. If you do it right, you will achieve higher click traffic to your site. Do not repeat any keyword phrase more than three times, and do not have the same keyword phrase word repeated back-to-back.
Example: "Get the training you need and deserve at our state-of-the-art training facilities. Get all six courses, hotel accommodations, catered meals and a free Palm Pilot! We guarantee you will pass."
This description is for a training course offered in a highly competitive industry. Effective catch phrases are: "need", "deserve", "hotel accommodations", "catered meals", "free" and "guarantee". Use catch phrases to your advantage.
Warning: Make sure you can back up any claims you make in your Meta Description. If you can't, you may be sued.
Tip: To not allow Yahoo! to display the Title and the Description from their directory and use the ones on your website instead use:
Where is the DESCRIPTION?
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Your Site's Title Here</TITLE>
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="Your Site's Description Here">
</HEAD>
Is your Title and Description compelling?
Does it solve a problem?
Does it suggest that it solves that problem quickly?
If you answered "no" to any of the above, you need to do a rewrite. Remember when a search is performed on a search engine, two elements are displayed in the results list - the site's Title and the Meta Description.
Headline (Heading) Analysis
Headlines can be helpful to the search engines in addition to your visitors.
Heading Tags - There are six types of headings:
<h1>,</h1>
<h2>,</h2>
<h3>,</h3>
<h4>,</h4>
<h5>, and</h5>
<h6>. They also rank in the same order for importance, so (h1) is the most important in terms of On-Page SEO. You can use the headings to list your "headline" (h1) with its "tagline" underneath (h2). For example:
</h1>
Complete Home Security System
<h2>Self-install your home security system in One Hour or Less!</h2>
In the above example, it allows for the key phrase "home security system" to be used naturally in both headings, thus increasing the on-page optimization score for the key phrase.
Analysis of Images
Images are important to your visitors / customers. They help build brand identity and improves the overall design of your site. But search engines today can't "read" your images so SEOs have been "keyword stuffing" theimage ALT tags to gain better rankings. We advise against this practice.Instead, we recommend the ALT text be descriptive of the image...not a place to inject 18 kabillion keyword phrases.
ALT Text Importance - There is a major difference between indexing and importance, or what SEOs call "relevancy". Many webmasters will point to the fact that their site comes up #1 for the term "Glendale Arizona top residential and commercial real estate specialist for 2008" and state, "See, the only place that text occurs is in the ALT tag, so search engines do index it and it counts."
Okay, let's be reasonable here. What is the likelihood of someone actually typing the above search string? Besides the SEO, the person being referenced and his mother? Slim to none, right?
Over the last few years we have seen a trend here at StomperLabs which shows that using ALT text for SEO purposes has diminished. The American Disabilities Act (ADA) has strict guidelines in order to be ADA compliant. I guarantee you, they do not look favorably at ALT text that has been keyword-stuffed.
Have you ever witnessed a visually-impaired individual use the Web? With a device which reads aloud the contents of a Web page, the impaired individual will be inundated with "ALT Text Spam". Sometimes the reader is stuck on one graphic for more than 40 seconds reading all of the keywords that have been stuffed. That isn't a good experience for them.
According to a Google engineer, what you should do is create an ALT [text] that is relevant to the image so it gives the user a good experience, including the visually-impaired. The ALT text is indexed, but it is downgraded in the algorithm. The reason?
"We see ALT text as relevant as the Keyword Meta tag," said the Google engineer. That should say it all as Google has never used the Keyword Meta tag due to its high spam rate.
What you need to do is to use ALT text in the manner in which it was designed to be used by the W3C: to describe the image. If appropriate, a keyword phrase can be used, but under no circumstances should you stuff the ALT tag with keywords. Keep it to a simple description.
Basically, remember to be compliant, not just with the W3C, but also with the ADA.
Top Myths About Google
Myth #1: The Higher Your Google PageRank (PR), the Higher You'll be in the Search Results Listing - PageRank has nothing to do with the ranking of web pages, it has to do with the level of authoritativeness the page has and how often it will be reindexed. Higher PageRank pages tend to be reindexed more often.
Myth #2: The Google Toolbar will List Your Actual PageRank - The toolbar displays PageRank and backlink information that is generally 3-5 months old.
Myth # 3: PageRank is a Value Based on the Number of Incoming Links to Your Site - It is more to do with the QUALITY of the links coming into your site.
Myth # 4: Searching for Incoming Links on Google Using "link:" will Show you all Your BackLinks - Google only shows you a small number of the links they know about. They have publicly stated that the links they show you may not all be counted towards PageRank. Instead, use Yahoo! or MSN as a gauge to your link progress.
Myth #5: Being Listed in the Open Directory Project Gives you a Special PageRank Bonus - There is not a "special" bonus, you get PageRank from the ODP the same as you would from any other site. No special treatment is given.
Myth #6: Being Listed in Yahoo! Gives you a Special PageRank Bonus - See #5. There is no special bonus given.
Myth #7: Google Analytics is used to track your user behavior for future products with Google - The data is not used by Google per the terms of use. There is no real value for Google to analyze that information, unless Yahoo! or MSN decided to use Google Analytics.
Myth #8: Google Will Not Index Dynamic Pages - Google indexed dynamic content all the time, the issue is, does it index it correctly, and that is the responsibility of the web master, not Google.
Myth # 9: Google Will Not List Your Site, or Penalize it, if you use Popups - Google does not view pop-ups as an indexing problem. However, if the popups are abusive, you can be manually deindexed.
Myth # 10: Google will Penalize you if You're Linked to by a Link Farm - While Google has stated that you cannot be penalized because of something that is not in your direct control, they do have systems in place to determine if you are participating in programs which are against their terms of use.
Go to http://www.stompernet.com and make use of the site seer tool to get a full in-depth analysis of how your site is performing in the above areas. The site seer tool is backed with mini videos explaining how it all works and is very clear and concise. If you want to get on that first page on Google then you need to go use the Site Seer tool today! The best bit? It's completely free!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ann Williams-Maughan on
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Thanks Nikki, this info is great. Popped over to stompernet but not sure it's working. Will take a closer look again later on. Can you check I have signed up for the newsletter, I don't want to miss anything.
Regards
Ann
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Permalink Reply by Sabine on -
That would be because they sold out and you can't join them anymore.........
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That's a shame
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Permalink Reply by Nikki - Web Mums on -
The stompernet siteseer tool is free but some people were having trouble signing up as it got swamped. It's the free SEO tool that Ann is referring to not the actual stomper membership - you need to be quite affluent to sign up for stompernet membership - I believe it's about £800 per month!
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So is the free tool still available?
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Permalink Reply by Nikki - Web Mums on
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Try this link. It should take you to the sign-up page for stompernet.
They have lots of free tools when you sign up and are just amazing. The stompernet team is made up of some of the most admired internet marketers of all time!
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Permalink Reply by Nikki - Web Mums on
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Yes it's here (we crossed over on posts)
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Many thanks, I'll take another look.
Ann
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Permalink Reply by Sabine on
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Will that work with the ekmpowerhsop, Nikki? I am always having trouble integrating software into my template... never mind a blog!
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Permalink Reply by Nikki - Web Mums on
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Theres no software to integrate, it's just SEO tools and videos - really good stuff!
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