[The Geekest Link]

Need more help (thank you, Stephen). There's an awful lot of people asking me why my website isn't optimised, and saying there's no specific content in the meta tags.

Now, for an online store, what SHOULD be in the meta tags? I've got a bunch of things in my meta description, but it's a bundle of confusion wrapped up in a riddle.

So, what should I be putting in my meta tags (both of them)? I've seen sites that are at the #1 slot in Google, yet apparently have nothing in their tags.

Please help. I've done the internet searches but finding dedicated answers is really tricky!

[Alan Mater]

You essentially have these three things: Title, Description and Keywords.

You want your main keywords you're targeting to be in all three.

Taking a look at yours, your Title doesn't have any keywords, your description is way too long (should be 160 characters or less) and you have way too many keywords in the keyword tag.

Your Title should describe the page, including keywords you want that page to rank for.

Your description should be a short description of what people can find. You do that to a point, but it's way too long. Plus, include your keywords in the description. Your description is what will show up in search engines and should compel people to click through to your site. Keep in mind Google can decide to display whatever description they choose based on the content of the page.

You should only have maybe 5 keywords in your keyword tag at best. These keywords should be used throughout the page as well.

After all that I just said, meta tags aren't really needed anymore for Google. At the very least you need a Title with your keywords in it. A description helps, but it's not needed. The keyword tag can be ignored really.

Also, that only applies for Google. The other search engines still still make use of the meta tags.

I'm not an SEO expert, but this is what I've learned and have read from others.

[JV3STUDIO]

Originally Posted by Alan Mater

At the very least you need a Title with your keywords in it. A description helps, but it's not needed. The keyword tag can be ignored really.Also, that only applies for Google. The other search engines still still make use of the meta tags.

The only thing I'd add is that although a meta descrption might not be needed strictly for SEO purposes, it does give you control about what Google will use as the description in their listings. A well written description will get higher CTR vs some relevant text Google scrapes from your page.

Best,

Johan

[Alan Mater]

Originally Posted by johan

The only thing I'd add is that although a meta descrption might not be needed strictly for SEO purposes, it does give you control about what Google will use as the description in their listings. A well written description will get higher CTR vs some relevant text Google scrapes from your page.

Best,

Johan

Yeah, I kind of mentioned that. But, even if you have a description, Google can still decide to use their own description based on what the search term was.

[Stephen Meyer]

Originally Posted by The Geekest Link

Need more help (thank you, Stephen). There's an awful lot of people asking me why my website isn't optimised, and saying there's no specific content in the meta tags.

Now, for an online store, what SHOULD be in the meta tags? I've got a bunch of things in my meta description, but it's a bundle of confusion wrapped up in a riddle.

So, what should I be putting in my meta tags (both of them)? I've seen sites that are at the #1 slot in Google, yet apparently have nothing in their tags.

Please help. I've done the internet searches but finding dedicated answers is really tricky!

Each page should have a "Title" that is exactly what you are selling or promoting. For Instance on your True Blood page you have ,
<title>The Geekest Link</title>

It should = <title>True Blood</title>

Keywords should be somerthing like, "True Blood, vampires, T'Shirts, Mugs, Posters, HBO Vampire Series" etc.

The description should be as Johan pointed out, relevant to what you are targeting and well written to attract more clicks. I for one don't follow the common thought that keywords no longer matter because everything matters if even just a little so I wouldn't ignore anything.

On the other hand SEO is actually very easy even though most make it out to be hard and charge outrageous sums to help you out. If someone is looking for True Blood for Vampires they aren't likely to click on The Geekest link.

Ok, sorry, when someone looks for how to vine ripened tomatoes they want to land on a page about vine ripening tomatoes. The entire goal of the search engines is to make sure they land on the correct page and not some other junk. No one wants to click a link looking for something to only land on some Niche marketers sales page. That is what Google wants to avoid. So everything about your page needs to be exactly relevant to what someone would search for. This includes the Title, Keywords, Description, and content. So make it all relevant, add value and watch your search position rise.

[Kanga]

Hello Guys,

I have appreciated very much what i have read about SEO in general and what Meta Tags Is because it has been me for very enlightenning, i am in that process right now and absorbing all what i can about the matter.

Thank you.