I don't think that google 'sees' the meta tags on my site - ryanscreenprinting.com. I used templates to build the site and would hate to redo the thing. I think the borders (or are they frames?? - forgive the amateur ) block the tags from being seen somehow - - does this make sense? My natural search results are very low despite having some links and what I consider good content. I've been doing adwords and overture but would like better natural results. Can anyone tell if this is my problem? Do the meta tags need to go elsewhere on the page to be seen? I've heard people mention this in some of the other threads.
hm, I'd still say at least a meta description is worthwhile- google uses that quite often for the snippets they provide.
Correct, but as far as anyone can figure out they have no impact on the site's place in the SERPs. However other search engines do use them, including Yahoo apparently, so I think they should always be included in a site. But if you are talking about Google, forget it.
Well, one always wants a Content-Type meta tag, anyway. I for one would be best pleased if Google would more often use any supplied description tag, but they sometimes do and sometimes don't, with whatever passes in their world for what elsewhere is called logic. Of what weight Yahoo and others give to a keywords tag I have no idea, and, I reckon, about as much interest. I supply them, but don't sweat over them.
I think its always useful to add them - it doesn't harm your rankings as far as Ive seen so there is no reason to not add them in even if it just improves your yahoo performance.
I don't see anything in your code that will keep the search engines from seeing your meta tags. Just taking a quick peek at your site - What search terms are you targeting on your pages? You may want to reconsider many of your titles, using the great Keyword Suggestion Tool available on this site. It is important to choose titles that are terms the public will actually search for. Cricket
I still use the keywords and description meta tags today, at least for my static pages. Yahoo! still reads them and Google can used the description tag as disgust says.
Thanks for the feedback (I just changed my titles). I guess my question is; the competition for my key words (membrane switch, graphic overlay, laser cutting) have huge marketing budgets, is there any way to keep up 'on a shoe string'?
Do you use the Google toolbar? The reason I ask is that it makes analysis easier. The keywords you list do not strike me as very competitive. If that is the case you shouldn't have too much of a problem getting good SERP placement along with the "big Guys". Have a look at the sites in the top ten for any of these keywords. How many backlinks have they got? I would guess not too many. Essentailly all you have to do to beat them is get more backlink than they have. For instance the #1 site for a search on "membrane switch" only has 78 backlinks. Go get yourself 100 good backlinks and you will probably show up #1 in the SERP for this term.
No, not necessarily. The PR value of a backlink is not as important as the anchor text. So 100 good backlinks for "membrane switch" would be links with this term as the anchor text. There is still some question about whether Google is looking at the theme of the page the link is on, but if you can get your backlinks put on pages with related theme or content it certainly won't hurt. The one other issue is that the backlinks should be from several different domains locted on several different servers. If you can do all these things you will certainly have 100 "good backlinks".
Presuming that all links had correct anchor text, do you think that this would constitute a good set of backlinks? Server IP: 123.345.678.123 DomainA 400 links (PR5 on home page) Server IP: 876.245.111.222 DomainB 5 links Server IP: 876.245.111.222 DomainC 5 links Server IP: 876.245.111.222 DomainD 15 links Server IP: 876.245.111.222 DomainE 15 links Server IP: 876.245.111.222 DomainF 15 links Server IP: 222.333.888.999 DomainG 250 links (PR3 on home page) Server IP: 222.333.888.999 DomainH 30 links Plus various, say 15, assorted links from directories, other sites, etc PLUS, good internal linking on 50+pages.
It wouldn't hurt, but that is a lot of links from a very few domains or IP blocks. I'd be happier to see less links from a wider variety of sites. The way to get a wider range of site is via reciprocal linking. Have you considered this?
I have set up backlinks and they don't seem to show up? Right now I find 3 backlinks to www.ryanscreenprinting.com. However, I can literally go to and find more sites that I have reciprocal links with and these links used to show up as backlinks (I think they used to show up - since I used to have 11 backlinks only 2 months ago). Does anyone know what could be going on here? Do I just need to constantly keep finding new ones since 'old' ones get phased out?
Rhinoplayer, I am finding a similar situation. I have a link from the homepage of a site, and when I find the site via a Google search, and then click on the Cached link, and view the Google Cache, I can see the link there, but if I do a Google search for "www.equusbusinessfinance" this home page does not show up. Can anyone explain that?
All I can tell you is that Google seems to be in some terrible state of flux. Everyone is reporting unexplainable horror stories like yours. My only advise is just to be patient and relax a bit. I'm sure it isn't something you have done.
I still use title, description and keywords. Although these count for little, I suspect that contribute something. As for the rest, there's very little point anymore.
Use title, keywords and description. A part of the description appears as snippets in google search results, so be careful to use the keywords in description.