----------------------------------------------------------------- SearchReturn Discussion List "Understanding Internet Search Technology" ----------------------------------------------------------------- Moderator: Published by: Disa Johnson SearchReturn http://www.searchreturn.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- April 17, 2007 SearchReturn Issue #125 ----------------------------------------------------------------- SEND POSTS: ----------------------------------------------------------------- Refer a friend: http://www.searchreturn.com/subscribe.shtml ----------------------------------------------------------------- .....IN THIS DIGEST..... // -- SEARCHRETURN TIPS -- // "Meta Keywords" ~ SearchReturn ----------------------------------------------------------------- // -- SEARCHRETURN TIPS -- // ----------------------------------------------------------------- ==> Meta Keywords Essential Tip: The Meta Keywords container has gotten less and less important as legacy engines like Infoseek disappeared. The truth of the matter is that keywords were often so stuffed as to render the thing practically useless as a signal for what words search engines should care about with a page of code, especially as awareness about the usefulness of inbound linking grew with the advent of Google. Inbound linking is now getting just as polluted as keywords have ever been in the past, with commercial intent contributing to the noise and influencing the ranking process just as falsely. Since inbound links work great today, it is no wonder that most SEOs concentrate their time and effort building links. They typically neglect Meta Keywords altogether. In this SR Tip, we will re-examine Meta Keywords and discover hidden treasure that authoring an excellent keywords container provides. The rankings of tomorrow can shift and change just as quickly, perhaps quicker, than they have in the past. We ask for you to rethink your approach, and consider the real benefits of Meta Keywords. Should you care about keywords anymore? The Meta Keywords container is designed for search applications. There is no disputing that if the search engines could rely on the webmaster community for being honest and pure with their use of keywords, they would not hesitate to make it more important for rankings. Why not pay in and be honest and pure now? Microsoft has stated, and Google has implied, that they care not for using page keywords for any influence on their rankings. Regardless, Yahoo! continues to allow some minor influence since theory suggests the inherent quality of keywords can in fact provide for a better search application. A roughly accurate search engine could be designed solely on the basis of indexing Meta Keywords alone. It would have reasonable reliability with accuracy (outside the commercial noise). This means the container is not completely devoid of usefulness. Going further along this line of thinking, applications that can use keywords include everything from specialized desktop or network search to full-blown website search. If you want users to have a good experience with site search, consider the keywords container and how you can influence the result set including common queries in your Meta Keywords for custom crafted results. Most site search is terrible; just horrifically bad. If you approach Meta Keywords with this in mind, you could automatically include the best keywords for ideal responses, influencing the application and making interactivity with your users a better experience. That leads to reaching more goals with loyalty, and a better perception of your business. Most importantly, inbound links have been polluted ever since the advent of Google. Very few asked for an exchange of links, or sought large numbers of commercially available links with specific text unless the linking itself was deemed to be valuable by traffic alone. Then inbound links meant Google rankings. The quality of rankings has decreased sharply as people have been able to "artificially inflate" their popularity by gaming inbound links for Google. It seems this erosion is not dissimilar to the way that Meta Keywords once were highly important. Meta Keywords are not at all likely to be as important as inbound linking. Rather, inbound links, the kind you can solicit, may be doomed for a fall to a much lower level of importance. We believe where and how well you are connected via linking as social bookmarks, and actually cited by the cleanest, purest third party resources will continue to dictate how well you do in search engines over the next five years or so. Thoughtfully applied Meta Keywords, however, have uses beyond the major search engines that you can enjoy while knowing they play a minor role of influence on your rankings in Yahoo!. All things being equal, it may just be enough to have you appear above a competing listing where the other webmaster neglected them. Meta Keywords Author an unique set of Meta Keywords for each page. Meta Keywords is the only appropriate place for alternate and correct spellings, as well as the only appropriate place for commonly misspelled keywords to appear. Use words that are found in the body of the page itself as much as possible. Consider your nouns as naturally occurring primary search terms for inclusion. Find other words that you would highlight with a marking pen for the search user as you go through the document. Use commas. Do not repeat items exactly. Do not bother with altering case in order to repeat items. All lower case is fine. Avoid repeating any single word more than three times throughout the container. Avoid more than twelve items total; remember less is more. Fewer terms provide more power to each item individually. Start with the most important and end with the least important. Go with five items (or even fewer) for your most competitive pages. Once you've done the hard work of authoring excellent keywords, consider indexing and using them for site search. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stay Tuned. Got feedback?: http://www.searchreturn.com/feedback.shtml Archives: http://www.searchreturn.com/digest-archive.shtml Alternate formats: http://www.searchreturn.com/info-formats.shtml Manage Subscriptions: http://www.searchreturn.com/help/manage-subs.shtml Problems unsubscribing? 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