Mega Tips for Meta Tags

A few common and not so common tips.  A number bloggers have already reported these on a theoretical level, but we can confirmt this with results of some projects:

General Meta Tagging Advice

1. Do not forget them – they DO matter!
2. Try to match them with page names or heading names where possble for added impact
3. Use commonly known tools like Wordtracker or Google adwords to identify keywords that will drive traffic.  Just guessing the right keywords isn’t enough anymore.  If you can afford to, hire a web marketing agency to bring experience and a strategic perspective to the process.
4. Of the three types of meta tags commonly though to influence search results – meta titles, meta descriptions and meta keywords – meta titles are by far the most important.  Many SEO industry observers and actual results suggest that meta keywords are mostly ignored these days.

Meta Titles

1. The first few words in a meta title have more weight than the later words.  Additionally, they are the ones users tend to see in search results, so choose them carefully.
2. Repetition within a meta title is not always good or bad – it depends on how blatant it is.  “Insurance Insurance Insurance Insurance” is obviously going to get your page flagged as spam, but “Insurance agent offering auto insurance” is usually acceptable.

Remember that you’re not just writing tags for search engines – people are reading the tags on the results pages in search engines and then clicking to the page, so if the tags are mostly unrelated to the target page content, it will make your site optimization less effective as well as irritate visitors and cause them to bounce.

As always, please leave some feedback or contact us with questions! 

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