All Things Web

This is the third article in our series on 25 pieces to a solid web site. Today, we’ll be discussing the Meta Description tag. While many people in the web design and search optimization world have misused this tag, it can be a great tool to improve a pages ranking in the search engines and once seen, it can be a great way to increase click through to a page from a search engine’s results page.

First, lets look at where in your page the meta description tag should go and if there is a particular order you should follow in your code with the description. I prefer to work on importance and flow of the page on where to place this tag in your code. While some may say it isn’t critical where it goes, I prefer to place this as the second tag inside your head section. First is your title tag and then the meta description and finally the meta keywords tag before you add any additional meta tags that your page requires.

Now that we know where the tag should be placed within your code, lets look at what information the tag should contain, and how much information should be in tag. Besides your Title Tag, I would share that the Meta Description is one of if not the most important tag on the page that you have full control over.

Your meta description tag should really do two things.

1. Incorporate Keywords specific to the page
2. Written to convince potential searchers to visit the page

Incorporating Keywords Specific To The Page
Each page of your web site has a specific purpose with specific information you are providing to your visitors. The page will have 2-4 main keywords that it is focusing on and those should be incorporated into your meta description tag. They should not be placed in the tag just to be included but they should be placed in a way the tag flows, is easy to read and is convincing to most visitors.

Written To Convince Potential Visitors
Your meta descriptions tags should be written with care as they are typically used by the major search engines along with your title tag as the link and description they return for users to see. You’ll want to ensure that your descriptions are well written, concise and have a bit of a promotional flare so they will encourage people to click and visit your web site.

Meta Description Resources:

• Creating Effective Meta Description Tags
• Meta Tags by Danny Sullivan

The Title Tag of your web page is one of the most important pieces that can directly affect how well your page is optimized for the search engines. Out of any attribute or section of your page, the title tag deserves the most time.

The title tag needs to be three things.

1. Specific to the page.
2. Short and concise.
3. Include on page keywords.

Specific To The Page
Each and every page on your web site should have a unique title attribute. The tag should be written specific to the content on the specific page. The title tag is typically used by search engines as the link text in the results and is the first opportunity for your web page to convince someone to visit. Time should be taken when writing these tags and never overestimate it’s value.

Short and Concise
In my opinion, and in the opinion of many SEO experts, you want to keep your title to under 70 or characters which forces you to only use words that are important to the page and the visitor. Clean, clear, short and concise is the best option for all titles. Make sure not to stuff this tag full of keywords that you feel need to be there. Simple and effective is the optimal way.

Include On Page Keywords
The final piece is to include the main keywords from the page, in the title. If the page is on pink widgets, then your title should say that, not something about blue widgets.

To summarize, your title should be specific and unique to the page, short and concise and include the keywords of the page. A well written title can go a long way to improving the quality of a page. Make sure to focus on this and take your time to do this well.

Resources On Title Tags

• How To Use HTML Meta Tags by Danny Sullivan - SearchEngineWatch
• SEOMoz - Best Practices for Title Tags | Rand Fishkin

Check out the other 25 items that make a great foundation for your web site.

When putting together a web site, we’ve put together 25 items that should be a part of every web site. Included are items on basic design, meta information, page layout, alternate content, navigation, page structure and linking. Follow these items and you’ll ensure a well layed out, well built web site for your company. During the month of June, we’ll do an indepth article on each of these aspects helping you get a better understanding of these items and their importance to your web sites success.

1. Doctype
   When developing a new document, you need to define which version of (X)HTML your document is using. This is a vital piece of information needed by browsers to parse the document.By using a doctype declaration you will make the browser’s job easier, and the browser will use a “traditional” parsing mode, where the understanding of the document is not only faster, it is also consistent and free of any issues that can come up when a doctype is not specified.
2. Language Declaration
   After setting your doctype, you’ll want to declare the language you are using within the document. This tells all browsers, text readers and speech synthesizers what language to read this page in. This is a fairly basic item, but really quite important in the scheme of things and something you should be sure to include.
3. Title Attribute
   Arguably the most important piece of information within a web page. The title attribute is the eye catching headline of the page. Each page should have a unique title that matches perfectly with the content of the page. Optimally, this should be kept to less than 70 characters.
4. Meta Description
   Frequently used by search engines as the detailed description of the page, the meta description tag inside the pages header is an important optimization tool. A well written description will help your site by improving search rankings and click through rate of potential visitors. Take the time to write this description as well as you possibly can.
5. Meta Keywords
   While this is becoming a less important tag to many search engines, it is still recommended that each page should have a set of “keywords” to let robots know what can be found on the page. Keep this short and sweet and don’t spend forever on this tag, but make sure to include it.
6. Author Declaration
   The Author Declaration is a small tag that lets visitors know who is responsible for the document. While not a factor in Search Engine Optimization, this tag is a basic tag that should be added for all web sites. This tag is most important in terms of basic accessibility and usability.
7. Jump To Sections Navigation
   At the core of accessibility is the ability to allow visitors to jump to various sections of the page. At a minimum we recommend three key sections on a page. First, your main navigation, then your main content, then your secondary navigation region. This navigation can be most easily achieved through the use of an unordered list and CSS. This should be the first piece of information available in your HTML.
8. Logo
   The first visual element on your page should be your logo. This placement is generally expected by most visitors, and users also expect it will be a link that will return them to the home page of the web site. Keep the image size small, include alt text and link to your home page.
9. H1 Tag
   Following your logo each and every page on your web site should have a unique header tag. This is the H1 tag and should be used to define the content of the page. This should be displayed as prominently as the site will allow. Ensure that this is the largest font on the page and very eye catching.
10. Main Navigation – Text Based
    Immediately following your logo and header tag should be the site’s main navigation. Best practice is for this to be a text based menu that is accessible to all users and visitors including the search engines. If at all possible, avoid Javascript or DHTML menus for your main menu. Using lists visually managed by CSS is your best bet for optimal internal linking. This practice also allows search engines to easily find the core sections of your site.
11. Main Content Area
    This is the meat of your specific page. Your bread and butter so to speak and the reason why people are coming to the page. You’ll want to ensure this information is well written and that as much of it is text based as possible. Search engines look for content…new content…fresh content…on topic content to rank for specific search terms. Pack this area with as much content as you can, link to other content within your site and build a quality piece of information for your visitors. Remember, in the end, it is solely about your visitors.
12. Breadcrumb Navigation
    Breadcrumb navigation offers the visitor a quick way to backtrack into the higher sections of the site. This should be placed at the top of your main content section and link back to the categories and pages above the one the visitor is on. Home > Category > Sub Category > This Page is the structure we recommend, and as a side note it allows you to increase the internal linking structure of your site which is never a bad thing.
13. Sub Navigation – Text Based
    Should your page lead to more information in the same category, it should contain a sub navigation section using text based links to drive traffic to pages within that section. This area should be used to improve ease of navigation for the site. As a side benefit, you’ll find that this is a great way to build internal linking without appearing spammy.
14. Valid HTML
    Valid HTML is one of the most important things you can do for your web site. Benefits include improved accessibility, usability and cross browser friendliness. While there is some discussion on this, I believe that properly formatted validated HTML can improve your web sites Search Rankings. While not a major factor, every little bit can help.
15. CSS For Page Layout
    With the ever changing world of web today, it is absolutely critical that you begin to seperate content from style and this is achieved using CSS or Cascading Style Sheets. There are a few benefits to moving to CSS for your styling including reducing HTML file size, improving Content to Code Ratio and quick and easy site wide visual changes.
16. Page Structure
    We’ve found it best for both your visitors and search engines if your web site uses a proper semantical structure in your page layout. By using header tags, H1 for example, to break up areas of your page you can guide all visitors to the content they need, while showing the search engines what the important sections of your page are. Done correctly, you will ensure accessibility and usability for your web site.
17. Internal Linking
    Internal linking on your web site is one of the best ways to increase link counts with search engines and drive traffic from established areas of your site to new and informative information. There are three key pieces to internal navigation and success is dependent on these being done properly. You have your Main Navigation, Sub-Navigation and In-Content links. With a little work, this is a great way to gain exposure for new content on your site and build a solid reputation within the search engines.
18. Alt Attributes for Images
    After a decade of web design, I would have thought this was a given for many designers but this is still an item that needs to be addressed. Each and every image on your web page needs an Alternate Attribute or ALT. This lets users know what the image is while it’s loading, or what information is contained in the image if they are unable to see the image due to limitations.
19. Title Tags for Text Links
    While not a mandatory thing, Title Tags for Text Links are a way of improving the accessibility of your site for all visitors. This will give visitors more information on a link before they visit it. At it’s most basic form, it’s an ALT tag for text links.
20. Contact Information
    This is a major thing, that too many sites skip or don’t input enough information. If you are a business, have an address, phone number, and email address at a minimum for people to contact you. You can have forms, and live support if you’d like but you should have some basic contact information available to all people, a PO Box is not enough.
21. About Information
    An About Us section allows visitors to get a basic understanding of what your web site is about, what your organization is about and little history on the team. This should be deep enough that people can feel comfortable with you and be willing to trust you.
22. Footer Section
    Each page should have a footer section. This can contact basic contact info, a link to your sitemap, copyright policy, privacy policy and any other pieces of information visitors might need. This is not an area to dump 100 links to every section of your site as a linking strategy.
23. Sitemap HTML
    This page is a visual representation of the layout of your web site. Allowing visitors to quickly and easily find a specific page on your web site.
24. Sitemap XML
    This file is for search engines. This allows them to get information on the pages in your site including the importance of the page on your domain and the frequency of when this page is updated by you. It is a must have resource and should be a file named sitemap.xml in your root directory if at all possible.
25. Web Analytics
    Each and every page on your web site should have a type of web analytics incorporated. Web Analytics is used to give you a general understanding of how many people are visiting your web site, where they came from, what pages they are visting and how long they are staying. Depending on your specific needs, a well structured Web Analytics package can be used to do some serious analysis of seperate sections and pieces of your web site.
26. Visual Appeal
    Finally, your web site should be visually attractive and appealing to your visitors. Visual appearance is one of the most important things when it comes to successful conversions on a web site. If your web site does not appear professional and trustable, then you are behind the 8 ball right out of the gate.

Through the month of June we’ll be discussing each of these topics in more detail and helping you plan the success of your web projects. Stay tuned.

Today we will cover the final topic in our series on SEO Basics series. These lessons show companies that there are some basic things that can be done to their web sites that will improve their search rankings.

Our final topic is a discussion on the importance of Unique Meta Information for each and every page of your site. There are three tags that everyone should be concerned about. Title, Meta Description and Meta Keywords.

First, we’ll discuss the title tag, this is the first piece of information a search engine will see on your page and should be directly on target for the content within your page. I cannot express just how important a quality on target Title tag is for each of your web pages. The information should be kept as consise as possible, flow and contain keywords that describe the actual content on that page. Remember, not only do the search engines read this tag, but it is typically used as the first line in the results by the major search engines, so it should be enticing as well as on topic.

The second tag, which is the second most important tag is the Meta Description tag. This is a more in depth phrase that describes the page in more detail than the tittle. Think of this tag as an intro or snippet for the page. Many times this is used as the long description in the search results so you’ll again want to make sure that this tag is well written and contains information that will entice a potential click on your link. I have seen a number of web sites rank well without the Meta Description tag, however, I would recommend using it as a tool to improve click through rates from the search engines.

Finally, there is the Meta Keywords tag. While many consider this tag to be almost obsolete, we feel that you should still include it but keep it short and sweet. Don’t stuff it with 800 words that are relative to any piece of information that people might look for on your site. Keep it short and sweet and on topic for the page.

By combining these three tags on each page, and developing unique tags for each page on your site, you will be offering a solid benefit to all visitors of your site and in the long term you’ll reap the rewards of targeting those that are specifically looking for the information you are sharing.

Starting tomorrow, we’ll begin to look at each of these SEO basics in more depth, giving you tips and ideas on how you can implement these ideas into your site and jump ahead of your competition.

Yesterday we discussed the importance of using valid code and css for your web site. In our SEO Basics series we’re on our second subject. Use Text Whenever Possible.

As a business person, you want your web site to be as attractive as possible, and the easiest way to do that was to use images for navigation, layout and visual presenation of your web site. The issue that many web site owners don’t realize is that information in an image is unsearchable by the search engines.

A great way to increase your web sites search rankings as well as improving accessibility for your web site is to use text when it is at all possible. With CSS or cascading style sheets, it is now easier than ever to create a visually attractive site that is very searchable, fast loading and fully accessible to all visitors.

The most important area a company should focus on improving is their navigation areas. Any navigation should always be text based if that is ever possible. Search engines love keyword rich links and navigation menus are the easiest way to achieve this.

A note of caution, make sure that your web site designer uses CSS and lists to achieve the text based navigation and not Javascript or DHTML. You want the search engines to see these links, index them and follow them on to the other pages within your web site.

To recap, there are really three main reasons you should use text when at all possible on your web site.

1. Improved Accessibility
2. Faster Load Times
3. Improved Search Placements

So make sure to follow this simple tip, and your web site will be on its way to future success. Make sure to stop back tomorrow, we will be discussing the third and final step in our SEO Basics series, Unique Meta Information.