Are you using META TAGS, and using them correctly?

I was updating a page on my personal promotional site, specifically the page: www.terscott.com/speaker  and I wanted to add some viable key words in my Meta tags so the search engines could find it easily and lead visitors to it who might be interested in booking my speaking services.

(By the way, you can get a “Finder’s Fee” for any lead that results in a paid booking. CLICK HERE for details). Now back to our regularly scheduled program; that of learning to get visitors to your site.

I’m an advocate for “not re-inventing the wheel” but also “not copying”,  so when I wanted some suggestions for Meta tags that are working for companies with a website offering services similar to mine; that of public speaking,  I searched for the bigger and most successful ‘”training” companies. So, of course I looked at the first companies listed, which means these people paid to be listed in that position (these are paid listings not an “organic” listing which is created by popularity, good content, the right key words, and Meta tags).

What I found surprised me so much, that I thought I’d share it with my visitors to this Web Tips Blog. What I will share here may surprise you and like many of the tips I share, usually knowing and using just one or two will more than pay the price of my Website Design Power and High Octane Traffic Secrets System at the right of this page; get it if you haven’t already done so! (The price will go up and the bonuses will be removed as more people get the system and my time to offer consulting is limited).

One of the tips in the Website Design Power and High Octane Traffic Secrets System is that you need to use appropriate key words in your Meta tags for your site.

This really isn’t an ad for my system, so if you don’t know what Meta Tags are, you can Google “Meta tags” on your own, but for now, I’ll tell you that they are simply the words you add to your site that describe what it is to the search robots so they know how and where to rank your site so when people look for those terms on the internet, they find you! For most readers this would probably be the job of the “web wizard”; the person who manages your site. So with the following information, implement it yourself or teach your web wizard something.

Two things to remember about Meta tags:

I speak here about two concerns, or situations, in considering what key words to use in your Meta tags, also for paragraph and blog entry titles, and captions for your photos (because search robots and spiders consider all of those; not just the Meta tag words).

The first thing to remember is that we always need to put ourselves in the shoes of the person who needs and searches for our product or service. Just as we do with our “offline” marketing, we also do with “online” marketing: “To sell John Jones buys, we need to see through John Jones’ eyes”.

Let’s say someone is traveling, and has car trouble. He or she would not look in the yellow pages for Joe’s Garage (if that is your business and website), because being new to the area, he or she does not know that Joe or his garage even exists. This stranded motorist might look in a phone book using terms like: garage, auto mechanic and car repair. Today with a Smartphone or desktop computer, when using the search engines one might use all of those, but being more specific, one might use key words such as car trouble; fix my car, and flat tire. So you, the website owner and wizard might use all of those and also add the local area within your word usage such as “fix my car Duluth MN” for example.  

Go ahead, copy any of those words and place them in any search engine of choice, Google, Yahoo, or Bing. Or, simply place them into your address bar and see what listings show up. What did you find? OK, then; use this information in thinking of words and key word phrases for your Meta tags, and also for the titles on you webpage or blog.

The second thing to remember in thinking of and using words for your Meta tags is to get the visitors who who have heard of you and your business so they may actually use your company name in the search engine. Sometimes they might not remember your name correctly or in total (Jill’s, Joes, or Julie’s Garage), they may think it’s spelled differently or have “fat fingers” (it’s OK, that’s a real term. Go to www.fatfingers.com if you don’t believe me; it’s a great tool also). With this all being the case, consider adding your name, city location, and even a misspelling within your list of Meta tags.

Now, here is the big surprise that I told you that I would share with you at the beginning of the communication. Are you ready? Here’s what I found when I searched other websites that were similar to mine so I could get suggestions to use on my web page’s Meta tags. Again, are you ready?

Nothing!

Yes, nothing. Several sites (and I’m sure I can find zillions of others if I wanted to waste my time) had nothing for Meta tags. What are they (or their web wizards) thinking? They did not err by having the wrong key words, or by not using their business name and location, but they actually had nothing for the search robots and spiders to munch on and spit out to show the world of prospects for their product and service, that “we are open for business, come in and buy”.

Here’s one example of a bad Meta tags usage; none given:

Oops! I realized that I can't show it to you because it shows their web address and I don't want them to see that I'm "picking" on them.

Just know that when you look "inside" and view the source code, that after it shows <meta name: "keywords", that there are none there! Wow, a big let down, expecially with a big company that could be getting more hits with just this one simple thing and they probably don't even know it!

Now here's an example of a better use of Meta tags; because they actually have some! Sure, one could always get in here and modify this to make it better but at least they have them:

 I know that this may not show clearly, but just know that all of the type in blue are good meta tags.

Here’s the example of the Meta tags that I used for my webpage: www.terscott.com/speaker:

 

Can you see the difference? I'm not bragging; who knows if these are the "right" keywords; time will tell, but at least I have them!!!

HINT: The way to find the Meta tags used by a website is to right click with your mouse anywhere on the site and click on “view source”. This opens a page with a whole lot of mumble jumbo, or Greek, or Geek; whatever you prefer. No worries. You can choose to go to school and become a webmaster and understand the details or just find where it shows you “Meta tags”. See what’s listed and how you might use similar or some of the same key words for your web page.

I hope you found this post helpful and that you’ll go now to your web pages and make these modifications and additions. I know it is a bit of work, but you pretty much only have to do it once with maybe minor tweaks in the future and it will pay off, believe me. If you haven’t gotten the Website Design Power and High Octane Traffic Secrets System yet, you are really missing out. The first few orders receive consultation from me via email, sweet!

Make it a great day!

Ter

Terrific. Energizing. Results!

PS. I'm thinking of creating a subscription based service that for just $7 a month, I will review websites. Any subscriber can have me evaluate their site (optional) but will learn as I evaluate others and I will feature a website that I think is done well (I will offer evaluation here too) but I will interview the creator of the site so readers can get tips and ideas from the experience. Interested? Let me know by your comment below or contact me via the Contact Us page at www.terscott.com. I'll need at least 100 plus subscribers before I can do this, so let me know soon.