Have you ever visited a search engine, typed in a keyword, clicked on a result, and a website appeared that contained information totally unrelated to what you searched for?
Well, chances are it wasn’t Google you used, and chances are they used hidden keywords and descriptions to lure you to their site.
Search Engines such as Google, search the mammoth number of websites in the world looking for content and pages to list in their directory. This is known as ‘spidering’ the web.
Websites are built in code, and code allows for visual elements (what people see such as text and images) to be used, and behind-the-scenes elements (hidden in the original source code) to display and build pages.
Codes formats vary from the older and more traditional HTML, to CFM (Cold Fusion), .NET, ASP, PHP and many more.
All those create things you see, and use hidden code to build the content you find on the web.
Through the use of META tags, web designs can include keywords and descriptions that some search engines use when listing websites.
These META tags are invisible to the website browser, unless you view their source code.
In Internet Explorer, you can do this by visiting a web page, and selecting VIEW > SOURCE.
What you see is the code used to build this site.
In many cases, this code contains two META listings in particular:
META name="description"
META name="keywords"
IE:
<meta name="KEYWORDS" content="apple,orange,pear,grape">
This META tag is typically located at the top of the Internet source code in what is known as the HTML header or . IE:
<head>
<meta name="DESCRIPTION" content="ACME Apples - the best apples you can find!">
<meta name="KEYWORDS" content="apple,orange,pear,grape">
</head>
Each of these hidden code lines are also populated with values, or ‘content’ as it is known in HTML.
In the above example, ACME Apples clearly sells ‘the best apples you can find!” However, their keywords also contains other fruits such as oranges, pears and grapes.
Does that mean they also sell these fruits? Absolutely not!
So why has ACME Apples used these keywords?
ACME Apples have used these keywords to trick potential visitors. They not only want to catch apple eaters, but also people search for oranges, pears and grapes.
That’s the danger of relying on hidden META entries when searching for websites, as the values in these hidden code lines may not represent what the website is really about.
If you don’t know it yet, you soon you. Being “Googled” is perhaps the most important part of owning a website.
Being “Googled” means your website is listed in the great mother of all search engines, Google (http://www.google.com/).
Google seems to favor the main elements that people see in a website, such as the domain name, page title, text content and links ot your site over hidden keywords description, which is also very important, but not as important as the visual elements on your site.
It is almost impossible to trick a visitor with these three main elements, as they see the domain name, they see the page title, and they see the content. As the saying goes, what you see is what you get!
Therefore, you should ensure these three important elements are optimized to suit what you expect your potential customers to search for when looking for your products or services.
Domain Name
Domain names are very important, and you should consider carefully what you want before you buy it. Consider if people know your company name, or your product name better. You may want to register both – use the company name as your corporate site and the product name as your product site.
Make the domain name relevant to your company or product name, or industry of which you are serving.
For example, you wouldn’t use www.acmepeaches.com when you are selling cars. If you sell apples, then use something like www.acmeapples.com.
Website Title
The title of your site should reflect your company name, product or service. It also helps it if matches your domain name.
HTML Example:
<head>
<title>ACME Apples - the best apples you can find!</title>
</head>
Content
As silly as this sounds, most people opt for flashy images with animation, sound and endless background images to spruce up your site over text based content. The reality of using all those creative elements it that is slows viewing of your site to your visitors, makes it harder to read, and less likely that will be Googled. Why?
Google looks at the content in your site. Therefore, if you don’t write about your product and only show images, there is every chance Google will skip right by your site and not list it in its directory.
Use text headings where possible, and repeat the common phrases and words you expect people to use when searching for your product.
Don’t skimp on the content! It is why people come to your site, and it is how your site will increase its chance of being spidered by search engines.
Keywords and Descriptions
Even though we have placed a strong emphasis on the domain name, website title and content, keywords and descriptions are equally as important.
Ensure you use an accurate description and set of keywords. Again, use words and phrases you expect your potential customers to use when searching for your type of products or services. Potential customers may not know your company name, so using this as an emphasis may not be practical or a complete waste of time.
Don't forget the importance of links to you site! Google will favour this so the more sites you have linking to your site the better. Therefore provide some educational and informative content for your users to read and encourage other similar sites to link to your site to access this content.
You may also want to start a Link Exchange program and post links to other sites on your site in exchange for a link on their site to yours.
For more information on Google and listing your site with Google, visit http://www.google.com/support/webmasters.