Just want to send a big thank you out to everyone who is trying to help us out with our site. I am working on what I can understand LOL. I do not know anything about building a webpage, I am learning as I go along. I have no clue what a meta tag is or how to write the codes, but hopefully, I will learn all of this. I just really wanted to let you all know how much I appreciate you giving me your feedback.
HTML (coding) is the hidden coding behind most webpages, that tells all browsers what to display on the consumer's computer screen.
HTML tags are contained within "<" and ">" brackets. Most html tags have an opening tag <tag> and a closing tag </tag> which contains a "/" before the tag name.
HTML coding divides most webpages into two parts - head information and document body
Here's a sample HTML page with the basic structure.
<html>
<head>
<title>We are a local florist</title>
<meta name="description" content="10-15 word description of your site read by some search engines">
<meta name="keywords" content="main keywords of your site separated by commas. Read by some search engines">
</head>
<body>
<p align="left">This is my new local florist web page. We hope you like it. Please buy flowers!!! Come back and visit again. </p>
</body>
</html>
So let's look at the head information
Per example...
<head>
<title>We are a local florist</title>
<meta name="description" content="10-15 word description of your site read by some search engines">
<meta name="keywords" content="main keywords of your site separated by commas. Read by some search engines">
</head>
So let's make your title read something like this...
<title>Macomb florist and flowers - buy flowers online at #1 Macomb florist -flower shop in Macomb IL offers same day delivery</title>
let's make your description read something like this...
<meta name="description" content="Fresh, beautiful flowers delivered by Macomb florist. Our flower shop delivers to Macomb IL, Colchester IL, Blandinsville IL, and Plymouth IL.">
let's make your keyword read something like this...
<meta name="keywords" content="Macomb florist, flowers online, flower delivery to Colchester IL, Blandinsville IL, and Plymouth IL">
Here is an old post that might help understand about of these head information tags
http://www.flowerchat.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2662&highlight=summertime
title tag
Remember, you only have one chance to make a first impression, make a good one and your visitors will be back.
Title Tag - The title tag gives the surfers and the search engines an idea of what your web page is about. Think of it as a title of a book or the name of a chapter within a book. Each page of your website should be titled that reflects the content (HINT: keywords) on that page.
You shouldn't name your title "Plants" if the page has nothing but "birthday flowers" on it.
Always use your keywords in the title tag at least once.
Try to place your keywords at the start of the title tag.
Avoid listing the same word multiple times in a row since most search engines penalize for this.
Use the longer form and the plural form of a keyword when possible. For example, if you use planting in your Title tag, a search on planting or plant will yield a match on most search engines. (this is called "substring")
Use Upper & Lower case lettering for keywords in general. Example: Anniversary Flowers are sold here!
Longer title tags are more effective because more words allow you to build a compelling reason to visit your web site . However, shorter ones can be used if you need to better emphasize a keyword that is not ranking. (HINT: 6 to 12 words)
Make your title interesting and compelling to the reader to convince them why they should click there.
(BIG HINT: Surfers don't read text, they recognize words)
Description tag
Meta Tag Description - The Description tag provides a concise summary of your web page content. Most search engines display the description tag under the title tag as the site information in the SERP (search engine results page). This brief description of your site's content gives the surfer important information they need to determine whether they want to visit your site or not...If there's no meta description to display, most search engines pull the first few lines of text from your site's content and display it on the SERP. You've probably seen a SERP with results that look like this: ""XXX florist" -- [home] [about us] [delivery info] [contact us] [links]
Google ignores the meta description tag and will automatically generate its own description for your page from the body content. (HINT: Google will display the first sentence or headlines that contains the theme of the page) The only exceptions are the Flash, Frame or All Image sites that have no content, where the search term are not found in the text, then Google will display your Description Tag.
Jon Glick (of Yahoo! Search) stated that Yahoo! Search processes the description tag similar to page copy.
Always use your keywords in the description tag at least once.
Try to place your keywords at the start of the description tag since most search engines cut off the display after about 200 characters.
Descriptions tags should be 12-15 words as most search engines ignore anything past the 15th word.
The description tag must be thought of as a marketing tool, include targeted keywords and action verbs like "online florist", "buy" and "sell".
Avoid sentences such as: The best site on the web
Don't use an exact copy of the title tag
Don't use a list of keywords, the description tag should make sense and be in sentence format.
Flower shop produced flowers with flower arrangements from local flowers. (HINT: sounds sammy, this will get you penalized)
Keyword tag
Choose the right keywords, and you'll see your traffic skyrocket.
Well, I started this thread with the use of keywords
I'll add a couple of additional thoughts:
Put yourself in the shoes of the visitor you want to attract. Make a list of what kind of keywords or phrases they are likely to search. (HINT: think like the consumer, ask the consumer which words they would use...they are not florist and don't know your buzz words)
I promise, you would be shocked at what some consumers will use to search for flowers or florist...
(HINT: you rarely want to target a single keyword, use phrases...surfers learn quickly that if they type in "florist" or "flower shop" that they get listings for florist from all over the world!)
Once you use some phrases your consumers are searching to find your local site, you'll have tapped into a continuous stream of free advertising for your web site which beats paying out thousands of dollars for advertising.
Here are a couple of other web tools to analyze your keywords:
http://www.webjectives.com/keyword.htm
http://www.searchengineworld.com/cgi-bin/kwda.cgi (I prefer this one)
http://www.jimworld.com/tools/keyword-analyzer/ (this one is more advanced)
http://www.keyworddensity.com/ (compare your page to another page)
I hope this helps you understand the head information and it will help your website rank well.
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