If you're new to owning a website and are wondering how you can get your site found on the search engines, this is a fundamental article about meta tags, a critical piece of search enginge optimization, that will help you get started.

What Are Meta Tags and Why Do I Need Them?
By Enzo F. Cesario

There is no other way to put it; the World Wide Web is big
business. As an example, you only have to look at the phenomenal
success of the online bookstore, Amazon. In 2008, Amazon brought in over nineteen billion dollars in income, yet only required an operating budget of approximately eight hundred and fifty million dollars. It really is no surprise to anyone then that more businesses are investing in expanded web presence and capability. Yet, not every organization has the same successes. Barnes and Noble was selling books online before Amazon was even an idea, and yet it isn't Barnes and Noble that people think of when considering online bookstores, it's Amazon. The key? Amazon took greater advantage of the opportunity to effectively market their product.

Search Engines, Spiders and Websites, Oh My

The most important and often least understood tool for online
marketers is the search engine. The primary type of search engine
is the web crawler - these are largely automated programs that
crawl through available web pages, indexing data according to a
variety of parameters. In short, the crawler, or spider, examines
each page of a website. Once it has examined the page, it submits
it to an index. Then, when a person uses the search engine
software, the index provides links to these pages, ranked
according to relevance. It is worth mentioning two other points.
First, not all engines index the same way. Some use keyword
density; others focus on the content of the first paragraph.
Second, any changes to a webpage are likely to affect search
rankings, so webmasters must carefully consider each change and
its possible effects.

I Never Meta Tag I Didn't Like

One important part of preparing a page for good search engine
rankings is effective use of HTML meta-tags. These tags do not
directly relate to the position a site will have in a search
result, but they do offer webmasters some control over the way
their sites are presented when they come up in a search. In
brief, meta-tags are additional bits of code added to the head of
your HTML document, right after "TITLE." Because of the
tendency for unscrupulous coders to find and abuse loopholes in
search technologies, search engines do not rely heavily on these
tags for rankings. Their benefits to web users are important,
however.

First, there is the Meta Description tag. This is a brief report
about the content of the webpage in question. When a search
engine presents users with a hyperlink, there is frequently a
small description accompanying that result. In many cases, that
is the Meta Description tag the Webmaster put in the HTML
document so that when a spider visits the site, it indexes this
information. This is not always the case, however; Google in
particular will generate its own description for a site.

The Meta Description is often the first piece of information
someone using a search engine will see. The URL may not mean
anything to them, but this description will. If it is poorly
written, the user will likely skim right past the site for one
that presents itself more effectively. Thus, the key is
effective, concise writing that conveys exactly what the site is
about.

The second tag is the Meta Keywords tag. This tag is a list of
keywords the Webmaster considers most pertinent to each page.
Proper use of the keywords tag is also vital. While search
engines use a variety of keyword systems, and have in recent
years de-emphasized the Meta Keywords tag, it still contributes
to website rankings and should not be neglected. The best method
is to examine each page carefully, and pick approximately ten
keywords that best represent the data therein. Too many
nonspecific keywords will lead to inconsistent search results,
and too few means missing an opportunity to get a message in
front of users. In addition, many sites are actively on the
lookout for keyword abuse. Google in particular is known to ban
certain pages from its index entirely if they consider the
article to be an abusive, loophole-seeking piece.

There are other, less relevant tags that can provide some
benefits, though they aren't as important as the previous two.
An example is the Robots tag, which is only useful in making sure
certain sites do not index a particular page. This can help a
Webmaster keep their content from being associated with
undesirable elements, but it does not contribute directly to
higher search placement.

No Meta Tag is an Island

Once again, it must be stressed that meta-tags are not a magical
solution to the very complex problem of online marketing. They
must be regarded as one tool in an inventory of other tools, and
should be used responsibly. Properly implemented, they will help
complete an effective marketing strategy.

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Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat.
Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art
internet distribution and optimization to build links and
drive the right kind of traffic to your website. Go to
http://www.Brandsplat.com/ or visit our blog at:
http://www.brandsplatblog.com/