What should be included in the META keyword tag?

META tags are simply HTML code containing the descriptive keywords for that page. The most important is the META description tag. The META tags assist search engine spiders to index your page and also contribute to your page rankings. These META tags are not seen on your Web pages. Some, but not all, search engines look for your META tags. You should include the keywords that Web surfers might use to find a Web page like yours. Take note of the difference between keywords and META keywords. The keywords for a page determine the essence of the page. The keyword(s) for the page should appear in the page header, page title, the body of the text, and the META tags including the META keyword tag.

Use the search engines to find the highest ranked Web sites for your first estimate of the important keywords then use view source on these sites to see if they have additional beneficial keywords.

List your keywords and phrases in the META keywords for the page according to their importance on the page.

Each Web page should have one or at most two keywords. These keywords should appear in the first 100 words of the body of the page.

The maximum number of keywords that you can use in the META keyword tag for the page is debated amongst the experts. Some suggest twenty and others up to 170 (1024 characters). It seems to me that the lower estimate is about right.

Use plurals whenever possible so that the search engine will include your page for a search whether the surfer uses the singular or plural. For example, use ‘plumbers’ rather than ‘plumber’.

Avoid repeating keywords in the META keyword tag as this could be counted as spamming by some search engines. At most use your keywords no more than three times as single words or within phrases within the META keyword tags.

Some search engines will have weighting for a keyword according to the number of keywords that appear in the keyword META tag. If you have too many keywords in the keyword META tag, the weighting of each keyword is reduced.

In general, be honest and avoid spamming to find favour with search engines.

In Front page, right click on a blank area of the page then:

Page Properties > Custom > Keywords

See Also

 

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