How to rank? If not by Metas? (general question)

by orvn
19 replies
  • SEO
  • |
So I just realized something critically important that I was doing very incorrectly.

I just discovered that Google doesn't rank by keywords in META tags anymore.

So if that's the case, how am I supposed to rank for the keywords I pick?
I try to insert them in the title and h1's/h2's.

How do you rank for a keyword of your choice?
#general #google #keyword #meta #metas #question #rank
  • Profile picture of the author JasonValens
    You'll find a great place to start here
    Signature
    If in doubt, follow the Russian guy selling pills...
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    • Profile picture of the author orvn
      Originally Posted by JasonValens View Post

      You'll find a great place to start here
      Thanks for that resource, it's quite useful.
      Good thing I already do all those things, lol.
      Signature
      Orun Bhuiyan[@orvn] [linkedin] See what I've been doing lately by visiting my marketing agency's site. SEOcial specializes in content marketing and integrated optimization. We create conversions for businesses by gracefully connecting the realms of design, development and marketing.

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      • Profile picture of the author paulgl
        Kind of an iffy way to start a thread. Google has not cared about
        metas for years.

        Because the keywords meta tag was so often abused, many years ago Google began disregarding the keywords meta tag.
        Like 10 years and counting....

        Not sure what people have been reading, but it sure isn't the WF.

        Paul
        Signature

        If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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        • Profile picture of the author F1SEO
          On-site keywords at various places and link building. The classics. They still work great.
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        • Profile picture of the author orvn
          Originally Posted by paulgl View Post

          Kind of an iffy way to start a thread. Google has not cared about
          metas for years.

          Like 10 years and counting....

          Not sure what people have been reading, but it sure isn't the WF.

          Paul
          Yeah, I'm rather embarrassed and upset at someone.

          See, the person who had originally introduced me to the basics of SEO (about a year and a half ago) insisted that the first thing I should work on was keyword research / competitor analysis and then develop meta tags.

          He emphasized the critical importance of meta tags and that it's how I should be ranking for Google.

          I now realize that he was a pseudo professional.
          It was hard to question all this because I worked for a web programming company at the time and just did what I was told. This knowledge stuck and I didn't even question it.

          Trust me, I feel pretty stupid right now.
          Signature
          Orun Bhuiyan[@orvn] [linkedin] See what I've been doing lately by visiting my marketing agency's site. SEOcial specializes in content marketing and integrated optimization. We create conversions for businesses by gracefully connecting the realms of design, development and marketing.

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          • Profile picture of the author Peter Gregory
            Originally Posted by orvn View Post

            Yeah, I'm rather embarrassed and upset at someone.

            See, the person who had originally introduced me to the basics of SEO (about a year and a half ago) insisted that the first thing I should work on was keyword research / competitor analysis and then develop meta tags.

            He emphasized the critical importance of Meta tags and that it's how I should be ranking for Google.

            I now realize that he was a pseudo professional.
            It was hard to question all this because I worked for a web programming company all the time and just did what I was told. This knowledge stuck and I didn't even question it.

            Trust me, I feel pretty stupid right now.
            Hey we all have to learn somehow, so don't worry about feeling stupid. One thing I would definitely do though if you are really interested in learning the ins and outs of seo is look for quality information and start testing things for yourself.

            The link to seomoz above is a great place to start as well as books like the art of seo, seobook (aaron wall), and marketing in the age of google (vanessa fox)

            Good luck in your journey.
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            • Profile picture of the author orvn
              Originally Posted by Peter Gregory View Post

              Hey we all have to learn somehow, so don't worry about feeling stupid. One thing I would definitely do though if you are really interested in learning the ins and outs of seo is look for quality information and start testing things for yourself.

              The link to seomoz above is a great place to start as well as books like the art of seo, seobook (aaron wall), and marketing in the age of google (vanessa fox)

              Good luck in your journey.
              Thanks for the resources. seobook and seomoz are favourites of mine.

              I'm pretty familiar with the basics, I have a track record of successful results and I've even developed some effective tactics of my own.

              That's why this whole thing came as such a shock: if I was making such a fundamental mistake, what else may I be doing wrong?!

              Heart-stopping stuff.
              Signature
              Orun Bhuiyan[@orvn] [linkedin] See what I've been doing lately by visiting my marketing agency's site. SEOcial specializes in content marketing and integrated optimization. We create conversions for businesses by gracefully connecting the realms of design, development and marketing.

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  • Profile picture of the author deus ex
    Everyone learns in other ways - the more quality links you have to your site, esp links of PR 5+ and .edus and .govs, the higher your ranking for the keywords you target. Target landing pages targeted to the keyword you want to rank for and you'll do very well
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author John Hocking
      Google cares about the content of your site.

      To rank on a keyword you can

      Get your keyword in your domain name.... Big boost
      Get your keyword in your Page title. The closer to the left the better
      as google only cares about the fist 65 characters.

      Get your keyword in your content heading and wrap with h1 tags.

      use your keyword and related keywords in the body copy

      Use your keyword in links on your pages.

      Get links to your site from other related sites and have them use your keyword in the link. A great way to do this is to publish articles related to your site on the article directories like ezinearticles.com or goarticles.com.
      When your article is republished you get a relivant link to your site.

      Use your keyword in links back to your site in your signature on forums like this one.
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      • Profile picture of the author paulgl
        I'll tell you one thing, Orvn, you are taking the bull by the horns.
        No doubt you have a big win coming up.

        I should not have come off as crass as that and I apologize.

        You have been a decent chap around here. I hope you stick
        around, read more, even put me in my place. As an example,
        Yukon and I used to be at it. Now we seem to on the same
        page--most of the time.

        There are a lot of snake oil salesmen, though, and I feel bad for people
        who get snookered, then come here.

        I guess was in shock that you genuinely were shocked. If I had a do-over,
        I'd say it took guts to start this thread. And it probably helped a few others.

        Paul
        Signature

        If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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        • Profile picture of the author yukon
          Banned
          [DELETED]
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          • Profile picture of the author orvn
            Originally Posted by paulgl View Post

            I'll tell you one thing, Orvn, you are taking the bull by the horns.
            No doubt you have a big win coming up.
            I should not have come off as crass as that and I apologize.

            You have been a decent chap around here. I hope you stick
            around, read more, even put me in my place. As an example,
            Yukon and I used to be at it. Now we seem to on the same
            page--most of the time.

            There are a lot of snake oil salesmen, though, and I feel bad for people
            who get snookered, then come here.

            I guess was in shock that you genuinely were shocked. If I had a do-over,
            I'd say it took guts to start this thread. And it probably helped a few others.
            Paul
            Avast Paul, you flatter me. I'm positive that I'm here for the long haul. I intend to join the war room fairly soon, when I decide the time is right.

            As it would happen the person that turned me on to SEO was exactly that: a salesman. The idea was that he presented himself as an 'SEO guru' to my superiors in the company and offered to teach his mysterious ways of marketing. He promised to provide us with clients, in exchange for SEOing them (something he said he didn't have time for anymore). As one of the brighter people that worked in that office, I was chosen to pick up what he was willing to teach. I was slightly disappointed in the lack of material he provided me with: everything he ever taught me could be summarized in fives minutes of speech (two minutes if you're a rapid speaker like me).

            At least it got me interested in the field though.

            Originally Posted by yukon View Post

            orvn.

            The best advice I can give you since you are a programmer, is to look at other sites that rank on the first page of Google for any keyword.

            That's the way I started learning SEO, I write my own software with VB.net so I really think that helped me understand how to read code (html, php, javascript, etc...).

            The reason I suggest this is, websites don't lie.

            Start digging in & tear apart top ranking web sites source code, you'll start seeing trends that work.
            Somehow, this is new advice to me. I don't do this nearly enough and I should do it everyday, with at least one major player for a keyword. Thanks.

            Originally Posted by yukon View Post

            I agree, & If a person can read (at least) basic html then on-page SEO isn't that complicated.

            My best on-page SEO tool is simply Google Cache (text only version). That cache will remove all the bloated content (images, javascript, colors, etc...) & only show you the bare bones of your web page.

            Makes tweaking a web page so much easier for SEO.

            The Google cache (text-only) makes reverse engineering your competitions pages so much easier also.
            The cache is a good friend of mine. Incidentally, so is the firefox extension Firebug. It really helps to tear a website up!
            Signature
            Orun Bhuiyan[@orvn] [linkedin] See what I've been doing lately by visiting my marketing agency's site. SEOcial specializes in content marketing and integrated optimization. We create conversions for businesses by gracefully connecting the realms of design, development and marketing.

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    • Profile picture of the author CityCliq
      Originally Posted by yukon View Post

      Start digging in & tear apart top ranking web sites source code, you'll start seeing trends that work.
      This is exactly how I learned SEO (after some basic Lynda training). It's a great way to learn about different keyword strategies, h1 strategies, etc.
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      • Profile picture of the author JasonValens
        Start digging in & tear apart top ranking web sites source code, you'll start seeing trends that work.
        Great advice, once you've got the basics down (which you have) reverse engineering what actually works (particulary in competitive markets) is by far the best strategy with the right tools. The same goes for everything else in marketing, it's better to do what works rather than what some guy hyping up his product says works.
        Signature
        If in doubt, follow the Russian guy selling pills...
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  • Profile picture of the author Intrepreneur
    Title followed by post content in terms of which Google use most.

    You'll also notice that Google now use the post title in the meta description people see in the search results.

    A nifty new addition that I have grown to love.
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  • Profile picture of the author jhonsean
    I think i should analyze this discussion for me to catch up those points that are not quite clear to me there are so many experienced SEO here. I truly appreciate it.
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  • Profile picture of the author divx22
    Originally Posted by orvn View Post

    So I just realized something critically important that I was doing very incorrectly.

    I just discovered that Google doesn't rank by keywords in META tags anymore.

    So if that's the case, how am I supposed to rank for the keywords I pick?
    I try to insert them in the title and h1's/h2's.

    How do you rank for a keyword of your choice?

    I just realized this last month myself. It seems the way to rank right now is proper backlinking and inlinking, traffic, and fresh content . Some may disagree but this is how it has gone for me
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