Meta tags, keywords and search engines, my God

Are you skipping that crucial step, waiting until everything is okay? Are you doing your research to make sure you don’t “get it” wrong? Well, you are not alone. Many people who could be making tons of money online are missing out due to their Internet phobia. Companies that know what they are doing charge an arm and a leg to produce an effective website. But with all the millions of searches going on every minute, there must be room for us!

There is.

First of all, you need a domain name, a hosting company, and some knowledge of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). Domain name registration and hosting accounts are very affordable services offered by many companies and they are all quite similar in what they offer. Once you have registered a domain name and a hosting account, you will be able to upload your images and pages to the Internet.

Your website is made up of pages, images, and other files that must be readable by Internet browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome, etc. Most pages can be created in notepad and saved with an html extension (.html). HTML codes for page layout are beyond the scope of this article, but I’ll talk about some meta tags that every site NEEDS: title tag, keyword tag, and description tag. In addition to these, you will need keyword-rich pages with relevant content for your description, title, and keyword tags.

You should also keep links on all your pages to all other pages. This allows search engines to find all the pages on your site. I highly recommend placing titles within the code of your links. This should be the title of the page it leads to and supports the importance of both the linked page and the linked page.

Your site is a collection of information. It is like a book, an electronic digital book. Every book has a title. But once inside, each chapter is also titled. The table of contents is like the menu. Your website should have an interactive menu that links to pages with a title, keywords, and a description for each page. This is what search engines love and the more they like your site, the higher your page will rank. They want to recommend websites with organized, well-indexed information and relevant content within each page. This is probably the most important part of making your site “search engine friendly”. You must match the title of each page within your site with the description of the page (description tag) and the keywords used on the page (and the keyword tag). Don’t be overwhelmed, it’s a lot less confusing than you think.

Once your site is indexed in search engine databases, you’ll want to increase your page rank. The most powerful way to increase your page rank in search engine results is with valuable inbound links. These links, from other websites to yours, are extremely important. The higher the website is, the more valuable the link will be. I mean, if you read a good book and it talks about an amazing vacation getaway, wouldn’t you start planning that vacation as soon as you put the book down? Do you know how many people buy a book because Oprah puts it on her book list? Similarly, if an important and well accepted website links to your site, search engines believe that your site must be remarkable.

Keyword selection is an important part of your online marketing plan. When you first start out, don’t expect to appear at the top of search results for phrases that are heavily competed for. General words like “car” or “cheap” will have millions of results appearing before your site, regardless of how well your page is organized. Bidding or paying for these types of keywords may be a better way to get to the top of the list (in sponsored or paid search results).

So, that pretty much sums it up. You need a domain name, a hosting account, and something to write about. Think about what people are looking for and what you can help them with. Use keyword tools to find highly searched but low competition search phrases related to your content. Use these phrases on your pages, make them bold and use them in your meta tags (title, keywords and description) and in your link names and titles. Then find other companies in your industry or websites related to your topic, and contact them to link to each other. And don’t forget good old-fashioned word of mouth. Traffic is not only the desired effect, it actually increases the value of your page and its position in search engine results.

Be proactive. Good luck!

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