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 - How to Be Found on the Web -
Bubbling to the Top in Google

 

Title Bars and META Key Word Tags

 

Many businesses and web designers do not yet know or implement the simple rules which will help "bubble" their pages to the "top twenty" in a Google search?  Why?  Because they have not become "students" of search engine operation.

 

Do a Google search on a key search term and look at the results.  What do you see?

 

More often than not you will see first the Title Bar of a web page displayed with the search term you used appearing first.

 

Next you will see part of the META description tag placed below.  Google does this to give viewers some idea what the page is about.

 

Interestingly, you do not see the META Keyword tag being displayed!

 

What does this tell you?  It tells you that Google is returning the results of your search based on the following three things in this order:

  1. The placement of the search term on the Title Bar

  2. The placement of the search term within the META description tag
  3. The appearance of the search term within the <body> of the page

This should suggest to you that the appearance of the key search term in the Title tag is the single most important opportunity for your page to be "found" and returned in the top 10 - 20 of Google.

It also suggests that the META Description tag is the second most important location for key word placement.

Finally, it suggests that the META Key Word Tag may be irrelevant.  People tend to over-use the META Key Word tag, loading it up with superfluous, redundant, and, in some cases, misleading word strings and terms.  Accordingly, Google is not ranking its search results based on key word placement in the META Key word tag.  

Instead, the rankings are based on the search term's appearance, and its order of appearance, in the Title tag and Meta Description tag.

By studying how the Google and other search engines work, you would then make the following changes in how you approach your main marketing tools on the web -- the Title and Meta Description tags.  Here are some pointers.

  • Limit Title Bars to 10 Key Words
    1. Best Search word first = “Network” or “Security"
    2. 3 types of key words
        • Service and product key words
        • Location – e.g., Montgomery County, Washington.,D.C., Virginia
        • Name of Business – least important search term. People who know your business name and search on it will find you anyway. You want people who don’t know you to find you.  The title bar for "Sam's Surf Shop" in Key West Florida probably should read:
        • <title>Surfboards, Scuba, snorkeling, snorkel, Swim, Bathing Suits, Key West, Keys, Florida, Sam's Surf Shop</title>
        • If you put the company name first, you defeat your main purpose of locating new customers.  Who is going to search for scuba gear in the Keys by using the search term "Sam's????" 
        • The first search terms should describe services or products
        • Second, location(s).  What is your market?  What are the location search terms people who want to find you are most likely to use?  Maryland, Montgomery County, Washington, D.C., Virginia.  What is your market area? Put it in the title bar.
        • Third, Company name.  This is the reverse of how most people think of titling a web page, and is different from what most web textbooks describe.  Why? Not everyone has studied how search engines work.
        • We increased a restaurant's catering business within 4 weeks of placing the word "Catering" first in the Title bar of the restaurant's catering page. 
        • Paying for web location also is an option.  The above tips of the trade assume you are not paying for location.
    1. Change the Top search terms (e./g., services provided) on different pages:
      1. Home Page = “Security”
      2. P2 - Network
      3. P3 - Computer, Computers,
      4. P4 – Cybersecurity
      5. What would people search on to find businesses like yours
      6. Firewall sticks out at me, too
      7. Spam
      8. Spyware
      9. Intrusion
    2. Current title tags are way too long.
    3. Example for Home Page = Security, Network, Networks, Cybersecurity, Computers, Computer, Maryland, Montgomery County, Washington Metro, Virginia, Silk Route Security.
      1. Vary which service word is first on the internal pages, but also include location and name of business.
      2. Firewalls, etc.
    4. META Description Tags = One, sentence description which repeats the key words but in sentence form.
      1. Example = Network security solutions using firewalls, anti-spam cyber-security software for computers is provided by Silk Route Security in Maryland, Montgomery County, Washington, D.C. Metro, and Virginia

     

    Contact Information
    Prof. Raymond J. Kimball
    Information Technology Institute
    Gaithersburg Business Training Center
    12 South Summit Ave.
    Gaithersburg, MD 20877
    240-567-3825
    Raymond.Kimball@montgomerycollege.edu

    © Raymond J. Kimball 2000 - 2004. All rights reserved