How to Write Search Engine Friendly Meta Tags

Inserting search engines friendly Meta Tags in your web pages can help your rankings. Meta tags are inserted at the top of your web page source code, between the head tags.  Some tags discussed here (Title, Alt) may not strictly fit the definition of Meta tags but carry a lot of importance for ranking your web page.

<META name=”keywords” content=”a, list, of, your, keywords”>

Before writing your meta tags, you need to determine your key words. You need to think of words by which your web site should be found. You can check out the sites of your close competitors for ideas. Identify a few important key words and focus on them.

Different search engines give different limits for the keyword tag. They range from 200 to 1000 characters. This amounts to around 10 to 150 keywords. Try to concentrate more on keywords that you have used in your web page content. This will contribute towards your keyword density.

Try to include key phrases in your keyword meta tags. These are  a combination of keywords that the users may search for. For example, if you have an online jewelry store, you may want to include: handcrafted designer jewelry, online jewelry store, buy jewelry online. Someone who is searching for jewelry is likely to type in the above phrases , as a search for only the word “jewelry” will give too many search results.

<TITLE> Title of document </TITLE>

The HTML Title tag appears on top of your web page. This tag is given extreme importance by Goolge when a web page is being ranked. Avoid using proper nouns (like the name of your company) in your title tag, unless you are a very well known business concern, and expect people to search for you by name. Instead make the title descriptive, including your most important keywords in it.

Inclusion of keywords in the title will have positive impact on keyword density and search engine ranking. Don’t repeat your keywords more than twice in the title and don’t use all caps. Title case and lower case Title tags are seen to have a better impact on rankings as opposed to upper case tags.

<META name=”description” content=”description of your website”>

The description of your website will be indexed by search engines and used by directories in your website listing. The description must be short and typically 200 characters long. Do not use marketing slogans or hyped up language in the description. Instead, concentrate on telling the reader about how they will benefit from visiting your website. Try including as many of your keywords as possible in the description. Make sure that the keywords included in your Title tag are there in the description tag as well.

<IMG SRC=”location of graphic” ALT=”Description of graphic”>

If you have a web store it probably includes a lot of product pictures. Search engines generally index text  and not images. Hence a website with more pictures than text is likely to get a lower ranking. One way of countering this is by providing descriptive and keyword heavy alt tags in your HTML coding.

Alt tags are used to describe images embedded in a web page and can play an important role in ranking websites, with search engines, that recognize them. Alt tags not only make images accessible to search engines, they also help the visually impaired in navigating websites.

Merely readjusting your meta tags will not guarantee you a high ranking on the search engines. Web page content and link popularity are also known to be major contributors. Keep trying and you will definitely reach the top.

Author: Erum Zehra
Posted: Articles |

About the Author

Erum Zehra is the Head Writer at Ace Web Content. Get professional web content and recharge your website now.
Visit: http://www.acewebcontent.com