FreddieZed
Technical User
Is there a certain number of keywords i should have in my meta tags? Curently i have about 100 wors or phrases for the search site. Is 100 too many?
Your opinions please,
FZ
Your opinions please,
FZ
Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!
Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!
-
Congratulations derfloh on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!
# of keywords in meta tags? 5
- Thread starter FreddieZed
- Start date
- Status
-
1
- #2
FZ,
I think 100 is probably too many... lots of search engines will not even list your site if you have an over abundance of keywords. I usually go with about 25 and be sure to keep the descriptions down to a minimum as well... I was reading somewhere the other day that some search engines will only accept descriptions of 27 words or less... not sure about that but it is probably a good idea to keep them down to 25 words or less. You are not trying to tell someone everything about your site...you are trying to tell them enough to make them want to go to your site and find out more.
Hope this helps! Ya' Gotta Love It!
I think 100 is probably too many... lots of search engines will not even list your site if you have an over abundance of keywords. I usually go with about 25 and be sure to keep the descriptions down to a minimum as well... I was reading somewhere the other day that some search engines will only accept descriptions of 27 words or less... not sure about that but it is probably a good idea to keep them down to 25 words or less. You are not trying to tell someone everything about your site...you are trying to tell them enough to make them want to go to your site and find out more.
Hope this helps! Ya' Gotta Love It!
-
2
- #3
Bear in mind what you are aiming for here. Keywords exist to indicate the subject matter of your website to the spiders that index it for the purpose of determining where to place you. Now, if I am a site that specializes in pet products, and I put the keywords:
dogs, cats, llamas, emus, lemurs, monkeys, horses, pigs, goats,
the spiders will never figure out what I am. They won't understand what I am trying to say is that I have products for any pet you may own. I've tried to cover too much ground and the common thread (pets) got lost. I've diluted my website's theme by spreading out too much.
On the other hand, if you concentrate (focus) on your main strength using the keywords "pet products" and "pet care", which 99% of the people who are looking for you will enter into the search engine anyway, then BAM, you're at the top of the heap. You've correctly and succinclty told the spiders what you are about using the most commonly used search terms to do it.
John Hoarty
jhoarty@quickestore.com
dogs, cats, llamas, emus, lemurs, monkeys, horses, pigs, goats,
the spiders will never figure out what I am. They won't understand what I am trying to say is that I have products for any pet you may own. I've tried to cover too much ground and the common thread (pets) got lost. I've diluted my website's theme by spreading out too much.
On the other hand, if you concentrate (focus) on your main strength using the keywords "pet products" and "pet care", which 99% of the people who are looking for you will enter into the search engine anyway, then BAM, you're at the top of the heap. You've correctly and succinclty told the spiders what you are about using the most commonly used search terms to do it.
John Hoarty
jhoarty@quickestore.com
-
2
- #4
I don't have a lot to add to answer to JHoarty's good answer. Just bear in mind that fewer and fewer SEs are giving less and less weight to the Meta Keywords tag. Concentrate on the copy on the pages THEN pick half a dozen phrases that people will actually search on and then tweak the copy and the Meta tags to match.
100 is far too many.
And don't resort to any spamming tricks, it isn't worth getting caught and banned. Joe Bananas
An independent guide to Perth, Scotland
100 is far too many.
And don't resort to any spamming tricks, it isn't worth getting caught and banned. Joe Bananas
An independent guide to Perth, Scotland
- Thread starter
- #5
FreddieZed
Technical User
Thank you guys for all your help,
Just 2 more questions.
1. Is i better to use phrases or single words?
2. What did bananas mean by: "And don't resort to any spamming tricks, it isn't worth getting caught and banned"
Thanks again,
FZ
Just 2 more questions.
1. Is i better to use phrases or single words?
2. What did bananas mean by: "And don't resort to any spamming tricks, it isn't worth getting caught and banned"
Thanks again,
FZ
Hi,
I personally use both phrases and single words.
The type of tricks you can use are hidden text etc.(Text the same colour as the background) As bananas said, it is not worth it, better to have a good content in your pages with relevant keywords.
Hope this helps
Wullie
I personally use both phrases and single words.
The type of tricks you can use are hidden text etc.(Text the same colour as the background) As bananas said, it is not worth it, better to have a good content in your pages with relevant keywords.
Hope this helps
Wullie
What you should do is to think using a surfer's mindset. You should think that if you are look for a website that contains the information you are giving in your website, what would you normally type in the search textbox.
This way, you will be able to limit down the number of meta tags to as little as possible and users will be able to find your websites within a few search
. Whether you want to use phrase or single words will actually depends on your website. Using phrase will allow surfers to find your site easier but using phrase alone will not work, since surfers will not always type exactly the same phrase as those within the meta tags.
What I think banana meant was having a lot of meta tags thus spamming the browser (or could be server too) since most search engine have limits to the number of meta tags like what TulsaJeff had said.
Leon
This way, you will be able to limit down the number of meta tags to as little as possible and users will be able to find your websites within a few search
. Whether you want to use phrase or single words will actually depends on your website. Using phrase will allow surfers to find your site easier but using phrase alone will not work, since surfers will not always type exactly the same phrase as those within the meta tags.What I think banana meant was having a lot of meta tags thus spamming the browser (or could be server too) since most search engine have limits to the number of meta tags like what TulsaJeff had said.
Leon
Phrases are far easier to optimize for, here is an example:
I searched for "golf" on Google - 3.2million matches so you can imagine how difficult it would be to get ranked high out of that. I then searched for "golf tuition" - down to two thousand matches, still a lot but you could theoretically make an impact in that if you optimized a page or pages for that phrase that people would definitely search on.
If possible go for phrases, it's not really a case of better, just more chance of being found for a phrase.
There is a freeware utility called Good Keywords that will tell you just how many searches are made at the major search engines for a keyword/phrases and also variations of it - very handy. Joe Bananas
An independent guide to Perth, Scotland
I searched for "golf" on Google - 3.2million matches so you can imagine how difficult it would be to get ranked high out of that. I then searched for "golf tuition" - down to two thousand matches, still a lot but you could theoretically make an impact in that if you optimized a page or pages for that phrase that people would definitely search on.
If possible go for phrases, it's not really a case of better, just more chance of being found for a phrase.
There is a freeware utility called Good Keywords that will tell you just how many searches are made at the major search engines for a keyword/phrases and also variations of it - very handy. Joe Bananas
An independent guide to Perth, Scotland
Hey Freddie-Oh:
Check out this thread, which has lots of highly relevent info for you: thread84-102742
To answer your other question, "spamming" (in this context) refers to the trick many people use whereby thousands of keywords are hidden in the pages of a website to "trick" the spiders into raising that site's relevence score. Many search engines will throw you out on your ear (and rightly so) for using these techniques. John Hoarty
jhoarty@quickestore.com
Check out this thread, which has lots of highly relevent info for you: thread84-102742
To answer your other question, "spamming" (in this context) refers to the trick many people use whereby thousands of keywords are hidden in the pages of a website to "trick" the spiders into raising that site's relevence score. Many search engines will throw you out on your ear (and rightly so) for using these techniques. John Hoarty
jhoarty@quickestore.com
- Thread starter
- #10
FreddieZed
Technical User
Thanks Guys,
You have been helpfull.
Bananas where can i find that freeware Good Keywords.
i looked everywhere but cant locate.
Cya,
FZ
You have been helpfull.
Bananas where can i find that freeware Good Keywords.
i looked everywhere but cant locate.
Cya,
FZ
Good Keywords:
Joe Bananas
An independent guide to Perth, Scotland
Joe Bananas
An independent guide to Perth, Scotland
- Thread starter
- #12
FreddieZed
Technical User
Thanks Bananas,
I found it -- and it is great
Thanks agian,
FZ
I found it -- and it is great
Thanks agian,
FZ
- Status
Similar threads
- Locked
- Question
- Locked
- Question