Re: Search engines and meta tags

You're going to receive about a dozen different suggestions and opinions on 
this, be forewarned.  However, here's my 2 cents:

I use Web Position Gold and have had great success using it.  It will let 
you setup a scheduler for the submissions and also has a great "Reporter" 
feature that will show you where you stack up on all the top search engines 
(including international) for your keywords.  If you like, I can send you a 
report that ran overnight for a client who has found great placement in a 
few months time after being nowhere on any search engine before.

On meta tags, keywords/description:  their use/value has definitely 
depreciated because of abuse by people using keywords and/or descriptions 
that really had nothing to do with the site for placement purposes.  They 
are still valuable though.  My best results have come when I used 
"keyphrases" of 3-5 words, not single words - you'll never get top 
placement for a single word such as "shoes".  Google "shoes" and see what 
comes up!  Instead, try "dallas area shoe sales" (for example).  You'll 
have much more luck with that.  I tell my clients, come up with between 
25-35 keyphrases of what you would type into a search engine to find a site 
like yours.

My best results have come with solid keyphrases and a description that uses 
many of those words from the phrases.  Also, and importantly, content of 
the site should match the description and keyphrases.  They should be 
sprinkled throughout the site - not overdone, but definitely present on 
each page.

So, if one of your keyphrases was "dallas area shoe sales".  Your 
description might include "....an authorized Dallas area shoe retailer and 
sales for Nike..."

Then, on the pages that list your products, you would include that phrase:
<h2>Joe's Shoes, Dallas area Shoe Sales - Product List</h2>

Not the best example, but should give you the idea.  The words don't have 
to be next to each other either, just on the pages somewhere.

A neat trick is to do a Google for a phrase that you're thinking of 
using.  Then, in the results, click on "Cached" to get to the page instead 
of the page link itself.  It will highlight each word of your search phrase 
and you'll most likely see how they are sprinkled throughout the page on 
the top results.

GK

At 08:11 PM 11/24/2003, David Kendall wrote:
>Hey gang,
>
>I'm not sure if this is the right list to discuss this, but if it's not, I'm
>sure I'll be informed.
>
>I was wondering about if search engine submission
>programs/services are worth my money when I make good use of
>the meta tags "keyword" and "description" on every page.  A
>customer of mine recently told me he doesn't feel he's getting good
>enough search engine ranking sites, even though I use meta tags
>on his page.  However, I don't want to advise him to give me money
>to use a submission program/service when it won't do much more
>good than the meta tags I'm using.
>
>(If it helps at all, the client's page is lowcostdrugs.net.  Yes I know
>the page loks rather spartan, but that's how they wanted it.)
>--
>David Kendall - owner / chief web designer
>Home Pages Plus!
>david(at)homepagesplus.com
>www.homepagesplus.com

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