Even Prescription Pain Killers Won’t Help.

Personal Opinion by Gaystoryman

Copyright © 2007 ◊ All Rights Reserved

Feeling Better?

Okay I got a fresh cup of coffee, doggie is on my lap snoozing, so let’s pick up where we left off, Meta Tags.

The next ‘tag’ to consider is the biggie, Keywords. This used to be the ‘tag’ that told the SE (Search Engines) what the site was about. It was our way of helping them to properly index our site. Then some Morons got the bright idea that they could get listed in a whole slew of different listings, by stuffing this with hundreds and hundreds of different keywords, most of which had not a damn thing to do with what the page, or site even, was about.

It is easy to do, and some still do it. Generally that is a ‘rookie’ or ‘newbie’ error, not deliberate but the Goddess G (Google) does not approve. On the other hand, there are some who say that Mistress Y (Yahoo) doesn’t mind.

Hang on, I am putting on my tin hat. Now, notice how generally the Search Engines are given the feminine term? Goddess, Mistress, etc.? The reason is (thank God for re-enforced concrete bunkers) because they are constantly changing the rules, the game, just like a woman is always changing her mind. (easy, my real email is well hidden, so no exploding hair curlers please.)

When life was simple, you would put your keyword phrase into this tag, the bots would read it, and generally you got listed in the index for it. The rise to the top was basically easy, because it wasn’t complicated Algo’s being used to determine if the page really did support the listed Keywords.

The Cheaters changed all that. They forced the Search Engines to become more complex, in order to deliver to their customers, more relevant results. Because of these Cheaters, results have never really been the same. It has also boosted the Pharmaceutical Industry with the increased demand for Prozac and other drugs, because the SE became much, much more secretive. It also spawned Google.

As hard as it will be, resist the urge to stuff this tag. Keep it short, and to the point. If you page is about Short Stories, then don’t add the keyword ‘novels’ to it. I admit, this is not easy to do. The temptation is unbelievable, and yes, I fall into the trap on occasion myself. Hey, I am human, not just an extension of this infernal machine.

Key is to keep the words, phrases on theme. They MUST be terms within the page content, in your <title> tag, and yep, in your <description> tag. Be stupid to not have them there, but don’t go overboard.

<meta name=”Keywords” content=”gay, fiction, erotic, exclusive, short stories,” />

If you look, technical note is you separate each ‘keyword’ with a comma. Now if you look, you will notice that I use only one phrase here. The page is going to be about short story erotic gay fiction. The reality is that most people surf using combinations that you and I may never dream up on our own. But, they also don’t use the ‘exact match’ feature so if we have the basics, we stand a chance of being in the list they get to see.

Naturally, the more specialized the page is, the more narrow your keywords will be. I would recommend keeping the list in this particular meta tag at 8 or less in number. I have listed 5. More and you risk being flagged for spamming Miss G.

This brings up a pet peeve of mine as well. Design & SEO are not separate tasks. They need to be done together, planned together, because a proper site layout needs to make allowances for SEO, and if you don’t know the specifics, you will wind up altering the design, or forgetting the SEO rules or tricks.

To say you will ‘Optimize’ the pages later is so much Bullshit. If you are paying a designer, you risk altering their design, which ruins the visual impact of the site. If you don’t include all the necessary <tags> in the HTML of the page, you miss out on SE Rankings. So, it is essential to work both together, to plan it and insure your site design incorporates those features that are vital to proper SEO.

One of the biggest mistakes we all make, is we rush this little chore. We do not properly research our field, so that we choose the appropriate keywords and phrases to use. I do it, everyone does it, so don’t feel bad. After all, there is only 24 hours in a day.

Point being, you need to research what words, what phrases are being used to get to pages that are on that topic. Then you can properly incorporate them into your SEO strategy. Look carefully at the keywords people used to get to your site, if it’s already up.

If it isn’t live yet, or you don’t have access to good solid statistical programs for your site, then write out what YOU would search for, to find that page. Ask your friends what THEY would use as ‘search terms’ and then match the two lists.

Use online tools like Keyword Selector one’s that will tell you how many others use those phrases. Some of these tools even will show other terms people used that were similar. This is how you slowly build up your list. It also tells you what themes to use for your Pages.

Keywords are what drives us all nuts. A page can have umpteen different keywords in it, yet only get listed for one or two terms. There are lots of factors in play, but I am not going to get into that. My tin hat already has enough dings and dents, thank you. Point is this, you need to ‘determine’ what the main focus, theme, of your page will be, then choose the appropriate keywords for it. Using ‘big boobs’ for a page about ‘gay fiction’ is pretty stupid. However, if the page was about ‘man boobs’ it might then be appropriate. Only thing is, it would also attract heterosexuals, and I don’t know, I don’t run one of those reality sites, so it wouldn’t do me much good.

Next on the List, ROBOTS & DISTRIBUTION Tags. If you have a ‘robots.txt’ file then you could ignore having the ROBOTS tag, but it can be useful for those smaller search engines that simply aren’t smart enough to use the ‘robots.txt’ protocol. I set mine to ‘all’ and that is that. It lets any robot come sniffing, and I use my ‘robots.txt’ file to set the rules for these annoying busy bodies.

The ‘DISTRIBUTION’ tag is really outdated. It simply says your site is for whatever audience. I mean you can specify your country here, and whether or not it has an effect, I seriously haven’t a clue. I haven’t found any real hard evidence that this tag means or does anything really.

The others are pretty self explanatory. I mean adding the stylesheet is common sense, having a little graphic on the browser title bar is nifty too. Specially when people bookmark your site, because that little icon gets shown in their ‘favorites’ folder list.

The rest are what I call VANITY tags. I use them, but as to having any SE effect, I tend to doubt it. I do list a ‘copyright’ notice, and a ‘warning’ tag. I do include the ICRA and SAFESURF ratings code in the head as well.

There is controversy over that too. (I wonder, if most webmasters and SE Gurus aren’t just closeted Drama Queens at times.) Odd but some argue that putting those codes, filter codes, into your ‘head’ tag are red flags to the SE, and that they will ignore your site or worse, keep it from reaching high up in their Index. Myself, I haven’t found evidence to that, and besides, it is the Right Thing to Do. I do not want some kid coming and reading at my site, without parental permission, or supervision. It is how I feel, so yes, I’ll take that risk and Label My Site Appropriately.

Now we come up to the Page itself, and the appropriate HTML Tags that we SHOULD BE USING.

You will find in Google, MSN, and Yahoo, that they all talk about building pages that are ‘Surfer Orientated’ and after all, the SE aren’t the one’s buying our stuff. It makes sense, but we need traffic, or we won’t sell squat. So we have to balance our need for traffic with marketing.

Be honest here, but isn’t that really all we are doing? Trying to Sell something to Someone? So why do we all think we can use terms over and over again, expecting people to buy? It isn’t logical, nor practical even. Look at Television Ads, Radio Spots, or Magazines & Newspapers. How many times do you see a word or phrase constantly used over and over again?

YOU DON’T.

Your page, like any television ad or newspaper ad, has to accomplish a task. The first is to get people to read it. That can be a picture, a bold heading, so that is why there are image tags, and header tags. It also helps to signal the SE of something important on the page.

Header Tags: They are labeled H1, H2, H3, for a reason. As I have said, there is a PROGRESSION and so using an <H3> tag to start off your page is going against that natural progression.

Salmon will swim upstream to spawn. Many will die along the journey, and those that make it get to have sex with other salmon. Using an <H3> tag first is swimming upstream in the world of SEO. Some will still make it, but many, very many, will not.

Also take into account your whole site layout here. If you have a column type site, such as I do, then you need to know that the SE will read like you and I read. Left to Right. Placing an <H3> tag in the far left column, with the <H1> tag in the center column is wrong.

My solution is to not put any <h> tags in my first column. Instead I use it to hold my Navigation Module, and I’ll generally also use a large image to fill out the column (properly tagged of course, I hope). For me, the center is my canvas, it is where I’ll do the bulk of my Marketing. I’ll use the far right column to add further support to the main section, which is also where I’ll generally use my <H2> and <H3> tags.

Each of these tags, are HEADLINES. If you look at any newspaper, you will notice that they are not just a jumbled collection of words, and they are SHORT. Same principle as the <title> tag in your <head> section of the page, applies to these Headlines.

As difficult as it is, they should be less than 12 words, and frankly the <H1> tag should be a lot less. It is also your Main Marketing Hook. It has to grab the reader’s attention, and MAKE THEM want to know more, just like any Newspaper Headline does.

Think about this, and you will see also WHY it is so important to work both the SE Strategy of your site in with your Design. You can use Four Words that could be longer than Six Words, and so will it wrap around, putting your whole page off kilter?

[ Example:

Phrase 1> Making Him Jerk Off With Short Stories.

Phrase 2> Masturbating To Erotic Fiction ]

Depending on my allocated width, the size and font of my <H1> tag, the first example could end at ‘with’ and wrap ‘short stories’ to a new line. It will LOOK horrible on the page, and if you are paying money for a design, well, you won’t be happy, will you?

Despite what some so called ‘experts’ tell you, you cannot just plug in words and phrases into a template. You need to configure the words, to match your design, and it can be a whole lot of headaches trying to get that phrase fitted in. Now, CSS, can help you here. By allowing for easy adjustment of Font, Font Size, you can alter your <headline> tags so they do fit. (That’s a whole other discussion)

In an ideal word, each <headline> tag needs to be supported with additional text on your page. And YES, it should be before any NEW <headline> tags come into play. Least that is how I see it. I will admit, that at times I will use a <h2> tag in support of my <h1> tag, but not often. Only for added emphasis, but I do insure there is sufficient ‘text’ following to make sense of it all.

Again, the ‘supporting text’ needs to also be relevant, and use appropriate ‘keywords’ in a ‘natural order’. I mean come on, people do not say ‘sex gay dick big’ now do they? So your ‘text’ shouldn’t either, nor should your ‘headlines’ for that matter.

Also, the use of <images> should be taken into account here. Most <images> are going to lead somewhere, be linked to some other page. Your <headline> tag will focus the attention on the topic, the supporting <text> will then explain it further, and the <image> creates an action.

A Natural Progression.

Supporting Text shouldn’t be overly long either. Different for what each site is about, what each page is about. So again, one more reason why SEO has to be DONE WHILE BUILDING. Not only are the <headlines> going to be of different sizes, lengths, but so will be the <supporting text>.

This is not an easy task, specially if your pages are graphic rich. However it can be done, with time and careful thought beforehand. Find the words, make up phrases to fit. In short, look at the pictures you are adding to the site, and think of what words will be enhanced by the picture. Again, think of ‘Natural Progression’ here. If you are placing the <image> as the draw, the action, then it will FOLLOW your text. Therefore, the <image> has to ‘enhance’ the text, not the other way around.

CODING:

SEO also takes into account coding of your page. Ever wonder why BLOGS are so popular with the Search Engines? Seriously, they drool over blogs, and crawl them like ants on honey. Wonder why?

Because of the Text Content, but also the ease of going through a blog. The Text Content isn’t cluttered up by tons of superfluous code. Thanks to CSS and PHP, a blog is relatively Clean, making the Spyder’s task much easier.

From what I can see, and some others, is that Blogs have more text for the Bots, despite the influx of <image> blogs. This lends some credence to the thoughts that your text content of a page should be the major aspect of the page. However, that is still debatable, depending on who you talk to.

CSS is a boon to helping you do your SEO, because a lot of the unnecessary crap can be handled by an external style sheet, or hidden in the <head> section if you must. The less <inline> code you use to set style, fonts, widths, etc. the better it is, in my opinion.

The biggest mistake made today in SEO, is that people assume the SE’s are just dumb ass machines. They assume that certain things aren’t picked up, like using hidden text or near hidden text by the use of color tags. That Is A Stupid Assumption. The Algo’s these days are extremely complex, and while they don’t have the ability to reason like a human, they can pick out things, send up flags that warn the human operator, and that is enough to ruin an entire business, YOURS.

There is a lot more to cover, but you know, I think this is enough for now. I am tired, plus I have other work to deal with. I hope this helps as these are the basis. They are what I call the standards, because while new things come and go, the content formula withstands the test of all those changes in the Algo’s. The content continues to hold its own, and while there are other ‘tricks’ or ‘tips’ to enhance your rankings, to improve your ‘optimization’, it still comes down to how you build the site. What tags you use, how well you craft your ‘textual content’ to match your ‘graphical content’.

SEO is not a science, nor is it an art. It really does come down to simply using some plain old fashioned Common Sense. Something missing these days. However, the goal for a website and its rankings in the Big Three, should be focused on the Theme, on the Topic of the site, and Each Individual Page within that site. That is what gets you noticed, what gets you good targeted Search Engine Traffic.

There are a lot of other tactics that one has to take into account. LINKS are very important, and something for a discussion all of its own.

Bottom line to all this is simple. CHEAT and you will get caught, Follow the Rules, Guidelines, and you can get into the top tiers of the Index. Patience is also something You MUST Have when dealing with Search Engine Optimization. It can take ages to get listed, and sometimes minutes. There is no set time for updates either, as many of the Indices are constantly in a state of update. I can find a listing in the Top 20 now, then in five minutes be somewhere in the lower 500’s. It happens that quick, that often. Its is why Bellevue has a special wing dedicated to all us loons who do SEO.

Oh, when you come visit me, don’t say you are a webmaster. You might get the room next to mine.