Search Engine Optimisation: Start with the Title
Titles help users quickly grasp the site’s purpose. Good titles
use descriptive, relevant keywords in the title for search purposes, making
it easy for users to find your site. If the title doesn’t reflect
the contents of the page, a user may not bother to revisit your site.
Most search engines search by the title displayed at the top of the browser
window; the same title that will appear in the user’s bookmark. In
the HTML code, the title is listed between the title tags, as shown here:
<TITLE>London Marketing Agency</TITLE>
If you use frames—which best practice discourages for design and
disability reasons—make sure that all of the subordinate pages within
the frames format also have titles. When search engines search individual
pages, subordinate pages may be logged in the results, in addition to
your main page.
Web Site Optimisation: Use META Tags
In addition to title and keyword searches, many search engines target
META tags placed within the HTML code. META tags are not visible to the
user. Therefore, you can code several types of META tags within the HTML
to make the website more searchable; you can use description tags, keyword
tags, and many more options.
Search engines index the entire page, regardless of whether descriptions
or keywords are included in the <META> tags. The words in the <META>
tags are indexed along with the rest of the document.
Optimisation Tips: Make META Tags Descriptive
Some search engines use META tags as the source for the page description
that accompanies the URL in the search results. Construct the description
carefully. It should get the searcher’s attention as well as describe
the page. Use several of the most important keywords in the description
and keep the description short. Some search engines will not accept descriptions
that exceed 25 words.
To create a description for a web page, use the<META> tag within
the <HEAD> element. The basic syntax is:
<META name="description" content="marketing agency
based in London">
Do not use HTML tags within the description or content part of the META
tag.
The tag would be used in the HTML at the top of the web page in this
manner:
<HEAD>
<TITLE>London Marketing Agency</TITLE>
<META name="description" content=" Marketing agency
based in London">
</HEAD>
The information from the tags would be displayed in the search engine
results as shown here:
London marketing Agency
Marketing agency based in London
Optimise Keyword META Tags
The search engine uses information in the META tags when it indexes the
page. Using the <META> tag to add keywords to a page provides additional
information about a page without interfering with the readability of the
text.
Specifying keywords:
A second <META> tag can be used within the <HEAD> tag to
specify keyword phrases that further describe the web page. The basic
syntax is:
<META name="keywords" content="marketing agency London,London
marketing agency, marketing agency London, marketing agency in London,marketing
agency, London, website, London marketing , agency, website, marketing
agencies, marketing agents London, internet, marketing agency">
If paired with a description tag, the HTML at the top of the page might
look like:
<HEAD>
<TITLE>London marketing Agency</TITLE>
<META name="description" content="marketing agency based
in London.">
<META name="keywords" content="marketing agency London,London
marketing agency, marketing agency London, marketing agency in London,marketing
agency, London, website, London marketing , agency, website, marketing
agencies, marketing agents London, internet, marketing agency">
</HEAD>
Optimisation Tip: Use Robots META Tags
If you want to prevent a search engine from indexing a single page or
pages of your site, place the Robots META tag in the HEAD tag of a page
to deflect the robot or spider. The syntax for this tag is:
<HEAD>
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX, FOLLOW">
</HEAD>
Not all search engines support the Robots META tag. Until the tag is
more widely supported, you may have to restrict indexing of your site
by another means.
All About META Tags
Additional META tags that provide more information about a website can
be added as necessary. An industry consortium called the Dublin Core Metadata
Initiative has developed a 15-element metadata set to facilitate the discovery
of electronic resources by digital libraries, researchers, other agencies
or specialized communities. Several of the Dublin Core elements are worth
considering:
Creator (or Author): An entity primarily responsible for creating the
content of the resource
Publisher: An entity responsible for making the resource available
Date: A date associated with an event in the life cycle of the resource
Rights: Information about rights held in and over the resource