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Web Builder Tips 'n Tricks

So, after you're finished creating your cyber masterpiece, how should you go about getting visitors to come and surf it? This is a trick that evades even the pros at times. We actually wrote an article on our own site, specifically about this matter in the successful Promotion Strategies section, but thought we'd cover it again here for this month's Tips 'n Tricks section, giving a bit more general overview of the topic, as well as covering some areas that we may not have mentioned before...

Meta Tag Madness

There's probably nothing more frustrating for a Web builder than to spend weeks developing a site, honing it until perfection, from every graphic icon to font face style, only to publish it to the Internet, and have no one ever know it exists. Of course, you've gone to all of the search engines, and clicked on every "Submit URL" you could find, but it seems that whenever you perform a search on AltaVista, if you're lucky enough that your site even shows up in the listing, it's probably right around index number 11,234, with a relevancy rating of 0.2%. At the same time, you look at the first 10 search result returns, and see things like (from the writer's own personal experience) "Hardcore Sex! Free XXX!", when your search terms were something along the lines of "Harry Connick Jr." (This was a true story). The results often seem to have no correlation, whatsoever to the topic being searched for.

Unfortunately, Artificial Intelligence (or more commonly "AI") technology has not quite reached the peak of perfection, and therefore, it is often our duty to help, so to speak, the technology in understanding what it is that we're submitting to it, when we do create our sites. Well, the standardized method for this as of the current time (until XML comes into full swing) is known as a <meta> tag, and is a small, descriptive tag, which is enclosed in your HTML page, above the </head> tag. These little tags often contain descriptions and keywords related to your site, which help the search engine index it easier, as well as return proper results when searches are performed - in theory that is.

In reality, it's often times necessary to be (quite) a bit more descriptive than usual when defining your site for search engines, and to also throw a few curves, that will score more visitors for your site. If you want to see a brief technical description of how to place meta tags within your pages, then take a look at this page from AltaVista's own help section. That should give you all the information you need for the coding. What we're more interested in here is explaining how to make the most effective use of these little items.

It's a very simple strategy, and if you remember the following keys, then you'll be well on your way to producing top-level search results. They keys are:

• Synonyms

• Acronyms

• Misspellings

• Plurals

Although the list may look more like a lesson from English grammar; these are actually very important factors to consider in the creation of meta tags. Specifically, the creation of keywords. To place effective keywords into you meta tags, you must think as the Web surfer thinks. While you may use one word to describe something, other people may use a completely different description. At the same time, if someone is searching for the exact opposite of what you're offering, that does not necessarily mean that your site isn't of relevance to them. Open that word processor, and find those synonyms. Think of all applicable acronyms which can be used too.

Not everyone is a master speller, and there are many words within the English language that are frequently misspelled. This is a good enough reason to include those common misspellings in your keywords. As we've mentioned before, if a typo does occur within the search field, then your site will be one of only a few to return on the results. This is especially true in restricted, Boolean searches.

Keep your keywords in plural form, when the plural is merely adding an "s" to the ending. Why? Sometimes surfers type in the plural, while other times, they type in the singular. But search engines, return either a whole or part of a word. So, often times, if you search for something like "cat", you'll see that the search engine has also returned numerous hits with the word "cats".

Aside from keywords; make sure that your page description is clear and to the point. Don't rely on your page title, to tell your visitors what the page is about, unless you're already using very distinct page titles. If you'd like an example of what we mean, take a look at both the title of this page, and then also at the coding to find the meta tag description of it. Probably one of the masters in this particular area are the Web builders at Microsoft's own site. They make very effective use of their meta tags, and in-turn, search engines like them.

With so many site competing for attention on the World Wide Web, it is vital that you use every available method to increase your site's exposure. Meta tags are still one of these best methods at the current time. Use them with care.

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