meta tags, key words, search engines

[Chad Fabry]

I recently hired someone to create a website for me and I didn't research either their ability or effective websites. The result of this indiscretion is a really crappy website that looks like I made it.

Now I've hired Mike Brown @ Dev Wave(one of the folks responsible this forum) to make the site what it should be. My question is: what have any of you found to be the most effective meta tags? If you're placed high on the search engines, how'd you get there? Is there a limit to meta tags and are the ones you choose diluted by additional ones? What the hell is a meta tag?

[Richard Stanley]

Chad, second here. What the hell is a meta tag?

[Bobby Ryon]

Chad:

Mike is a great developer. I am a satisfied customer of DevWave's Inspect Express.

I copied the text below from a recent reply of mine to a post initiated by Steven Hocksten entitled "Web Site Review Assistance". This has worked very well for me.

FROM THE PREVIOUS POST:

You can use a lot of descriptive keywords that are recognized by the big search engines but your site visitors will never see. As the search engine bots "crawl" your site, they will pick up on data contained in meta data fields for descriptions, keywords and title fields that are mostly used behind the published part of your web pages.

In the html of your page you should include every possible word you can think of that someone could use as a search phrase where you would like your site to show up.

Obviously, "home", "homes", "inspection", "inspector", "inspectors", all of the city and county names you cover, etc. should be included.

This has worked very well for me. Even though my site is in need of a face lift to reduce the amount of text and increase graphics and photos, I seem to have very good search engine placement and I don't have to pay for it.

Be sure to register your website address at www.dmoz.org. All the big search engines access dmoz for new and updated webpages.

Feel free to visit my site: www.AtoZHomeInspect.com and click View, Page Source (netscape) or View, Source (internet explorer) and see what types of keywords work for my site.

[DonTx]

Chad, forget about trying to have your site rank high in national search phrases such as "home inspectors". Your meta tags should reflect your specific area.

Try meta tags such as "Rochester Home Inspector", "Rochester NY Home Inspector", "Rochester NY Home Inspections", etc, you get the drift. If you do any specialized inspections such as radon, swimming pools etc, I'd include those also.

Whoever designs your site should know all about meta tags and keyword phrases.

Good Luck,

Donald