On-site SEO

ericbramlett · 03-30-2007, 03:57 PM

I haven't read a whole lot about it, but how beneficial is it to make sure that you have unique metatags (keywords, description, title) on every page? I've been doing it on all my pages, and I'm just wondering if it's a waste of time - should I just use standard descriptions & keywords - or is this helping me out? I don't think that many users benefit from the descriptions, and definitely not from the keywords.

What are others doing?

Lydia · 03-30-2007, 04:04 PM

I have unique meta descriptions for all my content, and several sets of meta keywords for that content. I do it because I can, but it adds very little value. Most SE's essentially ignore meta information nowadays.

OTOH, I have read that the SE's will devalue a page for too many meta tags, so it could possibly hurt more than it helps.

kid disco · 03-30-2007, 04:25 PM

The meta description can have a lot of value...

For one, it is the snippet of text that is displayed in the SERPs. This is a lot of real estate on the SERP that you have the opportunity to control. Sure, the search engine may bypass the meta description and choose what it wants to display in the snippet in an effort to deliver a more relevant description to a specific search query, but if you know what your target keywords are and construct the description to be relevant and accurate to your page, it will most likely be displayed.

Would you want the search engines to choose what to display for you, or would you rather have an compelling, well-constructed, and relevant description of the page with a subtle call to action to encourage clickthroughs?

Having unique meta descriptions also help differentiate your page and alleviate duplicate content and supplemental indexing issues.

ericbramlett · 03-30-2007, 04:28 PM

What do you think about the keywords?

Ryan Ward · 03-30-2007, 05:06 PM

I have KW's and descriptions that apply to each page individually as well as the general overall KW's on the website. I am not Google and when they put out their book I will read it. Until then I simply try to appoach it from a common sense way. Examples:

There is a place for meta KW's, so I insert the keywords from the page and from the site that are relevant to the content.
There is a place for a meta description. I describe what the intent of the page is about.
The content is what I base the meta on.
The footer is at the bottom. In normal everyday writing, it seems to me that it is sort of like a quick recap. I use text similar to the KW's in the meta's.

What we "believe to be true" about search engines is that they attempt to make sense out of websites and assign relevance the way a person would assign relevance. So it just makes sense to utilize all of the tools that are available to convey what you are trying to say in a way that the search engine can understand it. Since they try to "think" about relevance the way we do. I try to write the way we think with an emphasis on what I want them to know and remember me for.

Eric Blackwell · 03-30-2007, 05:20 PM

E. Bramlett;

Build your site for relevance and readership. Metatags are part of that. Ryan's approach is spot on IMO. SEs are just 9in the end looking for the most relevant site.

You want EVERYTHING on your site to convey the same message...namely--This is what my page is about. Ideally EVERYTHING points to the same message. Even, as Disco points out...the description tag can also serve as the text on the SERP somethimes.

Best;

Eric

ericbramlett · 03-30-2007, 06:32 PM

Thanks Ryan & Eric - That's basically what I've been doing, and I wanted to make sure I wasn't wasting my time with the metas. I added ~20 new pages to my sites over the past few days, and I was spending some time going back & forth to the meta files. And thanks Disco & Lydia.

hastings · 03-30-2007, 10:23 PM

Make sure you have different keywords for each page on your site that relate to the content on the page. Don't over flow your keywords though keep it down to 5 to 7 per page and keep them direct.

webmaster · 03-31-2007, 01:18 PM

Commonly referred to as clickthrough rate improvement - you can actually get even more involved with the meta desc, and test traffic improvements based on changes you make.

What am I talking about? (Assuming all other factors are equal) you create a unique meta desc, test the entries to that page. Next month, apply changes, let them get spidered, test entries to that page etc It is very much like improving your CTR on Google adwords. It takes time, and is not perfect, but little things like this can really take you from 95% to 100% of where you want to be.

Ryan Ward · 03-31-2007, 02:41 PM

I was thinking about this and I think that is exactly why you don't want to stuff the description with keywords, although having your keywords in the descri[tion seems to me like it would improve CTR. Stuffing would be a turn off to me and maybe others as well.

So if my goal is to target people searching for "alpharetta real estate" and my description says "Your online resource for Alpharetta real estate" or something relevant as opposed to "real estate in north metro Atlanta", your CTR should improve - the million dollar question is - what is the best description to achieve more clicks?

The trick is, I think, in studying what terms people are actually finding you from and creating a description that appeals to them and maybe expanding on it while being careful not to over generalize. Although a few of my pages relate to alpharetta real estate, they may find me from searching for a specific neighborhood or schools or any number of things.

You make a fantastic point with the value of the description as it relates to CTR.

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