Do not use the meta keywords tag. Many people still think of this as a quick fix for SEO. Its not. Google no longer uses it. In fact, it is likely that Google penalizes sites that do employ the meta keywords tag. Yahoo is perhaps the only search engine that still uses the meta keywords tag but places very little weight on it. By placing this tag on a web page, the primary beneficiary is your competition. How so The meta keywords tag gives your competitors a nicely formatted list of your important keywords. Dont believe me Try the free keyword research tool at the end of this article.
Search engines used to rely heavily on the meta keywords tag to guess which keywords were relevant on a web page. Now search engines are sophisticated enough to examine the actual keywords in the body of a web page. Major search engines place little, if any, value in the meta keywords tag. There is more risk than reward in using the meta keywords tag because your competitors can view the meta keywords tag and can steal your keywords. What do I mean by steal your keywords By placing the meta keywords tag on a page, you are, in effect, giving your competitors a list of your important keywords. They can then use these keywords and buy PPC ads or optimize their own site for your important keywords. Why give them this sort of business intelligence Having invested time and money on exhaustive keyword research to identify the important keyword phrases to use for your own SEO and PPC efforts, why on earth would you make a list of your high value keywords public
Here is our meta keywords advice: do not use the meta keywords tag. Instead, make sure the title of your web page has your important keywords and that those keywords are repeated in the body of your web page. If you want to, create a meta description tag. The search engines do use that meta tag, but its not essential for SEO. Creating good content is essential. Each page should have useful content and include your important keywords. Dont try to stuff all of your important keywords onto a single page. Create pages around a theme, a small collection of keyword phrases. For instance, target 1-3 keyword phrases per page. Write a title that incorporates those keyword phrases. If the title seems awkward from the point of view of your audience (site visitors not the search engines), scale back the number of phrases and try again. If you choose to write a meta description tag, it should reinforce the keywords already in the title tag. The body of the page should then include those important keyword phrases. Again, though, the content of the page should be written for your site visitors and not seem awkward.
Since many web sites do still use the meta keywords tag, we have developed a free keyword research tool that will analyze the meta keywords of your competition. Use the tool to see what keywords your competitors are embedding in their meta keywords tags and then research these keywords using other freely available tools. When I begin work for a new client, I ask them for a list of their competitors web sites. I plug those into the tool and it gives me an instant list of keywords. Thats only the beginning, a starting point for further keyword research. As time goes on, I expect online businesses to become a bit more savvy regarding meta tags and this tool will no longer provide a quick start. In the meantime, use the free keyword tool and crush your competition!
Richard Ball founded Apogee Web Consulting LLC, a full service search engine marketing firm, to help businesses succeed on the internet. Apogee Web Consulting provides strategic internet marketing services including pay per click advertising, search engine optimization and shopping search engine submission. All search engine marketing services begin with a foundation of keyword research and web log analysis. Use the companys free keyword research tool.
Prior to starting Apogee Web Consulting, Richard was a software developer for America Online. He has a degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT.
Dramatic title. Well, its about time- a lot of sites should be knocked off their rankings pedestals.
What Google Rates Sites By Hand
If you hadnt heard, Google is indeed using human editors to increase the quality of its search results and catch more web spam. You must know what web spam is- those Google search results that contain only more (fake) search results, pages with no real content but lots of links and adds These are black hat spammers trying to fake out Google and make money via affiliate programs and AdSense.
At one point, it wasnt clear Google could beat these spammers- they always had a new programmatic trick to stay a step ahead. Enter human editors. It may seem anathema to Googles style, but its critical to achieving their stated goal: quality search results.
For more details on these editors, or raters, including a copy of a help wanted ad for European Google editors, check out these links:
http://www.searchbistro.com/index.php/archives/19-Google-Secret-Lab,-Prelude.html
and
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/7183.
Which Sites Are Tagged as Offensive
If you dont want to get blacklisted, the most important thing for you to understand is what you should and shouldnt do when creating websites.
Ideally, it would be just as simple as following Googles Webmaster Guidelines (http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html). You could make the case that it is that simple. But its easy, when you arent getting any traffic and want to promote your site, to violate a suggestion you hadnt read all that carefully. Especially since so many sites are violating them. So the first imperative for webmasters is dont just skim Googles Webmaster Guidelines - read them slowly. MEMORIZE them.
Is that enough Lets look at Googles site editing instructions (their 13 page Spamguide.rtf) and see.
Affiliate Websites Under Human Scrutiny
The first important distinction they make is that sites must have unique value to their visitors. This is discussed in terms of how to uncover Thin Affiliates. A thin affiliate is a website that merely duplicates all or part of another site and directs traffic to it. The goal of the thin affiliate is to throw up many pages quickly (often with the aid of webpage-generating software), including their affiliate links.
Often these sites, like the fake search results websites, have pulled a large number of keyword search phrases together from Overture or Wordtracker, and, using some form of SEO (perhaps black hat), have wormed their way to high rankings.
Google doesnt mind an affiliate site that provides extra content or value for visitors. But a thin affiliate earning commissions and providing nothing Offensive!
Navigating the Gray Area
Google tries to help the human editors distinguish if the site is thin or not with both principles and examples. Here are some of major points made:
Obviously inoffensive websites can have one or two of these features, so Google encourages editors to send them a question rather than just mark the site offensive.
Other things that alert Google editors are:
FYI: Google also asks editors to mark uniquely authoritative sites as either Vital or Useful.
How to Make a Positive Impression on Google Editors
Since 1999, Brian B. Carter, MS, has reached more than 2 million readers online. His most popular site ranks in the top 1% of all major websites. Brians second book, How I Made $78,024.44 in Six Months Using the Newest Secrets of AdSense and Overlooked Keywords will be available in October, 2005 from Since 1999, San Diego SEO Consultant Brian B. Carter, MS, has reached more than 2 million readers online. His most popular site ranks in the top 1% of all major websites. Brians second book, How I Made $78,024.44 in Six Months Using the Newest Secrets of AdSense and Overlooked Keywords will be available in October, 2005 from his website, . Brian is an