Using meta keyword and description tags

These tips will increase search engine rankings - Correctly optimising keywords and optimising descriptions to improve the relevancy of your page and in turn boost your search engine ranking.

Keyword and description meta tags optimisation tutorial for better search engine rankings. Ever wondered why some web pages get higher search engine rankings than others? You may well have read of the hundred’s of ways to improve your page ranking, but you’ve been disappointed after poor results and you are left wondering “what went wrong”?

How to optimise meta tags to get the best keyword results.

This page let's you in on some of the secrets that get real results and deliver web pages that rank highly in the search engines.

We have detailed some basic rules to search engine optimise a page for keywords and description meta tags.

You have created your page, you know what it is about, but do the search engines understand what it’s about?

How do search engines know what a page is about?

Here are some guidelines for search engine optimisation using your meta keywords and description tags.

The number of keywords that you use within each page is dependant on how many words the page will have and what type of page it is.

For Example:

  • A sales page written as a letter is on average 2000 words or more. Within this type of webpage, you will describe your product, list all of its advantages and tell your perspective customer why you should be their chosen solution. The addition of customer testimonials within the text builds confidence in your product or service and by adding good descriptive webpage text, explaining how much better your solution is to others; you will increase your ability to convert an enquiry to a sale. Don't over do though, to much will not leave the enquirer wanting more and may loose your prospect through boredom.

  • A product page should be between 500 and 750 words and will provide short bullet pointed snaps of your products strengths. The aim here is to sell the product. Visitors to these pages probably already know what they are looking for and are only looking for specific help, advice and information. You are looking to convince them that your product is the right choice.

  • An article page should be approx 1000 words, but not more than 2000 words. If it’s too short, you will not have enough words to describe what you want to say and more than 2000 words, and then the effectiveness of an optimised webpage will be diluted. It is believed that an average reader can read somewhere around 6 words per second, so a 500 word article will take on average, 83 seconds to read. This isn’t sufficient time for your enquirer to feel confident, but at 1000 words the average reader will read your page in roughly 3 minutes, which is plenty of time to make a decision. From around 500 words onwards, provide “buying” or “more information” links, this will give the reader the opportunity to be specific. If you need to say more, then use theme specific links to go to another page that is not more than 2000 words or you may want to consider breaking the article into 2 pages.

Using a primary keyword in the meta keyword tag.

Your primary meta keyword must be an exact match with the file name of your page, so that the search engines match your keyword with your page name and give your page a higher relevancy score.

Use a maximum of 5 keywords in your meta keywords tag. More than that and the search engines might think you are keyword spamming. Search engines rank your keywords in the order that they appear, so make sure that the first one is your primary keyword and the second one a secondary keyword and so on. Line up your keywords in the order of relevance to the page so that they resemble a sentence. Although search engines don't read your keywords as a sentence, this will show what your page is all about.

Over use of your keywords will have a negative effect on your search engine results. As a rule, 3 uses of a keyword for every 300 words is about right and it lets the search engines know that there is supporting content for the keyword.

Don’t use any more than 3 words for your primary keyword and apply this rationale to your page name. Research has shown that people rarely search for a keyword phrase over 3 words long, so too many words in a keyword phrase will mean that the search engines may not find enough relevancy to list your page in the results. We believe that 2 words in a keyword phrase and file name is the optimum.

Note: Use your primary keyword within the first 90 characters and last paragraph of your page. Search engines will give more relevancy to your page if they find your keywords at the beginning and the end of your page.

An extra search engine optimisation trick!

Use your primary keyword as a text link in your page, but only once! Twice is too much and if you don't want your visitors to leave your page, then make that link an "add to favourites" bookmark.

Correctly using meta description tags.

Make sure that you include all of your keywords in your meta description tag, with the primary keyword as close to the beginning as possible. Add the primary keyword or phrase within the first 5 words of your description. Try to use all of your keywords once, but make sure that your description reads well and feeds the users want for more information. You may want to repeat the primary phrase, but none of the others as once again, the search engines might think you are keyword spamming.

100 and 200 characters is the optimum for meta description tags. Make your description informative, interesting and relevant to your page. Using less than 100 characters will mean that search engines do not find it relevant enough to list, but more than 200 characters and the search engines may truncate it, loosing its message to your enquirer. Too short a description and your visitors may think there is not enough information on your page and move on to the next result. Get this just right and see the difference to the click through rate of your page.

Proof read your content twice. You should always proof read your work before you post for a lot of good reasons like spelling, grammar, placement and paragraph distribution. Once your page looks great proof read it again with your focus on keyword placement and repetition. You want your keywords placed in your content sparingly.

As you are proof reading you may discover that you could use a much better keyword for your meta tag than you had originally planned.

Make sure that you put your meta description tag on one line in your html code. Doing so will ensure that the search engines read all of it. Some search engine results leave off the second line of a description, so by using one continuous line you can ensure that the search engine spiders do not leave out some of your meta keywords.

So What Next?

Contact us be emailing optimise@webprosolutions.co.uk with full details of your website, target market, keywords and keyphrases for your market place and we would be pleased to provide an individual search engine optimisation quotation for your website.

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