How can you make sure you meta tags and webpage in general are optimized for search engines?

First of all, I'd recommend you have a clear idea of the page's topic - what it's going to be about. The more specific you can be, the better.





Then, make a list of the most relevant search phrases people are using to find that sort of information - a good resource for this is:





http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com





Once you have this list of keywords (only the 2-3 most relevant phrases, and they should be related to each other), you are ready to optimize your page. Here are my top 5 suggestions:





1) Include your main keyword phrase in the "Title" of your page





2) Include a keyword or two in the "Description" META tag (you really don't need to worry about the other META tags)





3) Use header tags (specifically %26lt;h1%26gt; and %26lt;h2%26gt;) in your page's body to identify a headline %26lt;h1%26gt; and subheadline %26lt;h2%26gt;, making sure to include keywords in each of these.





4) Include variations of your keywords where appropriate throughout the body of your page, using different tenses and suffixes. It is important to do this in moderation and avoid "stuffing" your content with keywords.





5) What matters MOST is that your content is useful and interesting to your readers - it's okay to build or cite information already out there, but make it unique and something people would find valuable.





So, basically define your page's content in terms of keywords, use those keywords appropriately throughtout the page, and be sure to provide content that's unique and meaningful to people - do this and you should have an optimized page.





Best of luck,





Jason - eNCarolina.com

How can you make sure you meta tags and webpage in general are optimized for search engines?
1.) URLs must be search engine and human friendly (I mean all urls must be in html form and of course, all the keywords are in the url without any session ids, characters, or whatsoever).





2.) Meta tags, contents, alternate texts, and title are filled with keywords.





3.) Sites must not be in full flash or framed layouts.





4.) Layouts must be search engine friendly (in divs not tables with XHTML and CSS validity).
Reply:The most important aspect of your web page (in terms of on-page elements) is the page title. Be sure that this is keyword focused %26amp; concise with the topic of the page. Generally shorter is better, but a good title will increase your clickthrough rate from search engines - so probably put a little thought into it.





The meta tags should be in line with the title element %26amp; the page's contents. Don't try to stuff the meta keywords tag or over-repeat things, keep it simple. This meta content is not really considered overly important, though I always add at least the description to every page that I create.





Also, make note that the meta description tag is not for keyword stuffing, either. A lot of website owners tend to stuff the meta description with keywords; and that's not what it's for.





Your page titles %26amp; meta content should be unique for each and every page because each and every page of your website should have a distinct, and unique purpose.





There is much more to consider when working on optimizing your website, such as internal link structure, use of descriptive anchor text for internal links and using keyword focused page names. . . but above is how you can align your website's page titles and meta content for better optimization.
Reply:First, make sure your URL's are SEO readable. This means that if you've got a site on pizza it would be www.yoursite.com/pizza instead of www.yoursite.com/topics/_topicid=20934uj...


Optimizing your URLs is a subject unto itself and you can read up on it online.





Also, write some good content that you think people might want to read and might link to. This will help your page rank in Google. Google will tell you that there are no tricks to getting a higher page rank and that in order to rank high for any given search term, you will need to be linked to a lot as well as viewed a lot.





Third, target what topics and search terms you are going for and strategize.





SEO is such a broad topic you could spend a lifetime learning about it. I reccomend you go to webmasterworld.com for more info. You can also see Google's webmaster help center at http://www.google.com/support/webmasters...





Cheers,





Brian
Reply:The following article may prove helpful to you in streamlining your SEO metatags in order to attract more Net traffic by higher search engine placement.





The most effective way to advertise on the Internet is


to first set up a website and publish its domain name


on major search directories such as Google.com,


Yahoo.com [at http://www.google.com/addurl/?...... and


MSN.com since 85% of Internet shoppers rely on these


search directories to provide them with goods and


services. In a sense, these search directories are a


very large Internet Yellow Pages.





Nevertheless, should your website or opening webpage


fail to contain "generic" keywords, then anyone using


such "generic" queries will not be able to discover


your website. Your domain name [URL] of your website,


in a sense, will be invisible, undiscoverable.





You may want to consider some simple algorithms which,


when observed and committed in designing of a website


with placement of various critical metatags that can


surely achieve a high search engine presence and


increase Internet traffic to your website. These


metatag strategies work well with published webpages


at Google and Yahoo.





Design: Should you create an extensive Flash-based


website, make sure to fill-in the property entries


such as the Title, Description and Keywords. Failing


to do so, leaves no hard HTML or ALT resource that can


be readily indexed by search robots. Also consider the


Internet audience and their incoming setup. For


example, if they are on analog/dialup, Flash webpages


take too long to load up and therefore analog users


will likely lose interest and discontinue entering the


Flash site. On the other hand, anyone on hi-speed DSL


lines, will welcome Flash pages which load quickly. So


before designing a pure Flash websitge, ask the simple


question, "Who's my end user - is he on dialup or


DSL?" And if you had to choose between these two users


for maximum marketability, then select analog users


since 80% of most resident users are still analog


Internet subscribers and pure HTML designed webpages


is best for them.





A non-Flash-based website which relies on hard text,


is far easier to be indexed by search robots. Limit


the use of stylized text saved as .gifs since as a


graphic, they are not indexable by search robots.





Avoid use of frames since any number of search robots


are unable to properly classify textual material.





Placement of Metatags:





A ranking or search order does take place with Google


and Yahoo and it begins with the "Title" metag which


should consist of no more than 60 characters separated


by commas. The "Title" should describe in generic terms, the goods and services, followed by a location from which the resource is located, i.e., city, state. The placement of a domain name which is not generic within the "Title" is not appropriate, unless your


domain name is a major recognizable brand name.





The second metatag is the "Description" which is


usually up to 41 words to form a complete paragraph which


best describes one's goods and services. It is not merely a list.





And the very last category - "Keywords" are also


somewhat limited to 15 words which can be plural


and compound in nature. Again, avoid multiple entries


which could be mistaken as "spamdexed entries" which


is defined as the loading, and submission of


repetitive words into a particular metatag category.


"Spamdexing" when discovered on a webpage and reported


to Google's spamreport.com can result in the


elimination of your website from their search


directory.





Here's an example of a very highly-placed website on


Google.com: Begin with the very "generic" search query


"sandwiches downtown los angeles," taking note to not


abbreviate Los Angeles to "LA" and of course, leave


out the parentheses ("). It will bring up some 2.4


million+ search results. Check out where "Nazos.net"


is ranked. It's on the SECOND FRONT [ranked 15]!


Again, Nazos.net's high web presence was achieved by


proper web design and placement of relevant metatags


according to Google's publication guidelines.





Good luck!



Yellow Teeth