Ok, I have never designed a site before. I am using dreamweaver 8. All I know is that there are "description" metatags "content" meta tags and "keyword" metatags Is the description metatag the one that you see when you do a search? I know the keyword tag is what search engines look at <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> <title>Weight Loss Home</title> This is the default for dreamweaver. What is the http-equiv for? What is the content= for? So would I erase the current meta tags and put somthing like this? <head> <meta description="description of page for a human to read" <meta keywords="keywords for the seach engine" anything else?
Below are a couple of links that will explain a bit about Meta Tag usage. I am not a real expert in that area, but it is my understanding that Title, Description and Keywords are the place to concentrate. With Keywords, I have heard advise to limit them and conversely to use a lot. Do not repeat them, as this could actually backfire on you. I have been known to use alternatie spellings e.g. theater and theatre where they might seem appropriate and I think in some cases where your site may be international, you may wish to use some foreign keywords. http://www.meta-tag.net/descriptions.php http://www.redalkemi.com/search-engine-optimization-seo/title-tag-meta-description-tag.php Here is a free Meta Tag generator.
I would say never repeat as in cars, cars, cars. Using this as an example, expound e.g. automotive, auto parts With my site I use frontpage, frontpage tutorials, frontpage forms etc. And while we're talking meta, you might want to add this one... <meta name="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" content="TRUE"> A while back MS IE was configured to allow pop up ads based on content. Anyone using that version (think it was IE 5) won't get the pop up ads.
You can use this free useful tool (Meta Tag Expert) : http://www.dark-street.com/downloads/metatag2.zip Meta Tag Expert makes the generation of these tags simple and easy.
If you dont want to download that then here is an online meta tag generator: http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/meta-tag-generator/