Load.com has had opportunities to speak at numerous conferences about the value of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and its benefits. As a matter of fact, I personally believe it is the best way to create value for your users and drive prospective customers to your site cost effectively. In the previous entry Search Engine Optimization Techniques: Content, Content, Content, I briefly discussed the value of unique content and how users should approach customizing their site. In this article, we're going to specifically discuss Meta Tags and how CompanyWebsite makes it easy for you to customize your tags.
What is a META Tag?
According to Wikipedia, META Tags or META elements are HTML elements used to provide structured metadata about a web page. Such elements must be placed as tags in the HEAD section of an HTML document.
Uh, wuh? Well, I might actually define META Tags as the elements in the HTML code that help search engines identify the overall topic of the Web page and assess the quality of the content on the page. The types of META tags you can provide include: author's name, description (short abstract of a document), and keywords. Including these specific META tags will increase the chance that users will find your website. In addition, you can use META tags to refresh a Web page or give specific instructions to different search engines.
While this is all very good information, for many of you reading this article, you really only care about the META TITLE, DESCRIPTION, and KEYWORDS associated with your site and specific Web pages.
Customizing Your Site Meta Tags
CompanyWebsite users typically have META Tags that are pre-populated by the corporate office to serve as a great starting point. As shown in the picture below, CompanyWebsite subscribers have full control over site META tags.
CompanyWebsite allows users to Edit Site META Tags (SEO) and Page Specific META Tags. You may be asking, "What's the difference and what is the value of each?" That's a very good question.
Site Meta Tags (SEO)
In CompanyWebsite, users have the ability to create a default set of META tags which are automatically used to pre-populate any newly created Web page within a specific site. This allows for easy set-up and ensures that each page has site-relevant META tags in place.
Page Specific META Tags
When editing a specific page in CompanyWebsite, users have the ability to edit Page Options which allows users to create unique META Tags for a given Web page. This is particularly valuable for businesses with different services/products and are promoting each on separate Web pages. By creating unique META Tags, coupled with unique content, the likelihood that search engines will select your site as an authority on a specific topic increases.
To learn more about META Tags within the CompanyWebsite system, be sure to login to the Control Center and click the "?" icon to view voice-enabled tutorials on how to manage your CompanyWebsite.
For more information about META Tags, check out these two links: