Thursday, March 10, 2011

Meta Tags

      A meta tag is a code or tag in the Hypertext Markup Language or HTML that outlines features of the contents of a web page.  Internet search engines use meta tags to index a page so when people search for something that is written in your page, they are most likely to find you.  That tag is usually written in the form of  <META name = "something" content = "something else" >  It is imperative that each tag doesn't have any line breaks.  The basic types of meta tags are the description, author's name, and keywords.  Although not viewed by users, the meta description tag, the author's name tag, and the meta keyword tag provide information to user agents like search engines.  The description tag is a word, sentence, or paragraph describing the page.  The author's name tag s simply that; the author's name.  The keyword tag is a list of optimum keywords that are included in the text or appropriate synonyms of these keywords separated by commas.  Meta tags help search engines determine how to list or rank your site.  These tags can tell a browser what character set to employ.  While the majority of search engines use the contents of your page as a method to determine how to index it, don't forget to include meta tags with good keywords and descriptions.  well-written tags can make your page rank higher in search results.  After every new post or addition to your page, you should visit the HTML section and add the appropriate meta tags and then ping your blog.  I will touch on pinging your blog in my next post.  I have received a lot more traffic since following this formula.  Google likes my page due to frequent updates to the content plus the meta tags that I have used.  If you have any questions, there are several ways to contact me.  Here is how to add those valuable meta tags to your page or site.

1.Sign in to your blogger dashboard>click the 'design' button[it used to be the 'layout' button]
click on the 'layout' link
2.Click on the 'Edit html' tab
click on the 'edit html' tab
3. Then, check the "expand widgets" box





Here is the code you have to add

<meta content='DESCRIPTION HERE' name='description'/>
<meta content='KEYWORDS HERE' name='keywords'/>
<meta content='AUTHOR NAME HERE' name='author'/>



DESCRIPTION HERE:Write your blog description
KEYWORDS:Write the keywords of your blog
AUTHOR NAME:Write the author's name(Your name)


{ UPDATE : }
Now..You don't need to do it manually.. I created an automatic Meta Tags Generator to make this process easy for you!
Just go to this page and Enter some basic information like keywords,description,etc.. It will automatically generate you error free, effective Meta tags. Once done, copy that code and follow the next step.

4.Add the above code just after this [Look at the below screenshot]
<b:include data='blog' name='all-head-content'/>

add the code just like this
Don't forget to add description, keywords, and your name
and save the changes.

5. A quick way to check to see if you added the meta tags properly is to preview or view your blog.  As long as the blog appears the same as it did before you added the tags, then you have done a great job! If there are errors, you want to go back to your to Design, Edit HTML, and Expand Widgets and check where you added the meta tags to make sure all of the keywords (except the last one) have a commas and spaces behind them.


IMPORTANT:
Several people were filling with just the keywords in the description.DON'T DO THAT.Google and other search engines will ban your site from the search engines list if you did so.And also,don't repeat the keyword more than 3 times.
That's it!You have sucessfully added the metatags to your blogger(blogpsot) blog.If you want to check whether you added the meta tags correctly or not,just type 'meta tags analyzer tool' in the google and you will find so many sites which can check whether you have added the tags correctly or not.

13 comments:

  1. Hey Ricky - this was great information. I followed your instructions - but how do I know its working? Kriti - http://kriti-howaboutthis.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kriti, I am glad that you asked; I guess I could have added one more step. After you have finished and saved the results, make sure your blog is working correctly. By that I mean, that the page shows up properly. If you had added one of the meta tags improperly (and it could happen; speaking from experience), the blog would have errors and not show up properly. After I started with the meta tags, and in a few days, I checked my bogs stats with google. The keyword searches showed up more frequently. Thank you for commenting and for the question!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm going to try it out on my blog right now, I'm not particularly HTML savvy, but your directions seem easy enough even for me to follow.

    ReplyDelete
  4. OK, I did it, so far it hasn't screwed up the blog, I suppose I'll have to wait about a week to know if it helps me get found on search engines.

    Thank you Ricky!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Doubler 702. I'm sure this sounds a lot more complicated than it is. Maybe one day I'll have the patience--and guts--to try it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. If you notice my previous comment was 5 days ago, and my traffic has increased significantly, it went from 9 to 50 hits per day (average)

    ReplyDelete
  7. @Margaret...i will walk you through it if you want when you are ready. It is not that bad at all.

    @Santiago...Thanks for coming back and telling about your results! It really does help out.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi doubler702. I did it and all seems okay. Just one thing I wasn't clear on: Once I went to Meta Tags Generator and entered my information and got my Meta tags, I went to
    "Design" and "Edit html" and entered the tags as you said under update number four. However, I didn't click the "expand widgets" box as you said in step 3. All seems to have gone okay. Do I need to go back, click the "expand widgets" box and do it over again?

    ReplyDelete
  9. @Margaret...You did fine and I proud that you got it done. There's no need to go back and change a thing. You will really notice a diference; give it atleast a week or so. I started pinging my blog frequently as well. I will make a post about that soon. Thanks for the update.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Doubler702, or should I call you Ricky? Thanks for your help. It scared me doing this, but I had faith in you and your instructions. I'm now waiting for your post on "pinging," since I have no idea what that is.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I have two more questions for you doubler702. Do too many metatags confuse search engines? Is it better to have just one or two or is the sky the limit? Also, are drastic changes to your metatags (from one subject to another)or changes made too often confusing to search engines? I'm still in the process of figuring out my niche audience and clarifing what I'm trying to communicate. I'm literally "In the Between," which means that sometimes my posts are all over the place.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hello Margaret, and by the way, Ricky is just fine. The more tags that you have the better. You can put synonyms and common misspellings of your tags as well. It doesn't matter what words are near each other so any order is just fine. Good!

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...