What's a good title/description tag?

[usbnuts]

First, to my knowledge, a good title tag should contain keyphrases that can be found inside the text of the webpage. And the text has to be in real English. The length of the text should be around 250 to 500 words.

Take this webpage for example.
http://www.everythingusb.com/hardware/index/MSystems_DiskOnKey_32MB_review.htm

The keyboard I want to target is "DiskOnKey 32MB" and "DiskOnKey"

So in my title tag, I have "MSystems DiskOnKey 32MB Review -EverythingUSB" as my title tag. In my description tag, I have this...

"<meta name="description" content="DiskOnKey is a mobile storage device with a self-contained USB interface. Light weight and compact, DiskOnKey is ideal for mobile users. Despite it...">"

Within the text of the webpage, the keyword "DiskOnKey" appears more than 20 times.

So, I take it this page should be very optimized. What do you think?

[ihelpyou]

This would take even more research. Does DiskOnKey get a lot of searches every month? If not very many, it may not be a good one to target.

There is so much more to this than simply making up a few tags. Research is involved, then more research.




Then,... did I say research? :eek:

[usbnuts]

DiskOnKey doesn't get a lot hits, but I am just pointing out as an example.

Also, may I ask whether or not your SEO service includes keyphrase research?

Thanx!

[ihelpyou]

It includes everything it has to in order to get good ranks. No matter what it is. Yes. Keyword phrases are the first thing you need to research.

[I.Q. bandit]

Let's say in the future if your site becomes amazingly popular , and you have this unique keyword where only your site pops up in a search. Say your site's name is Onionbreadtrucks. Most likely no one will have this keyword in particular(as one word anyway).

Wouldn't it be a good idea to have one unique keyword that no one has?

[Mel]

Hi I.Q. Bandit and USBnuts

As Doug has pointed out, you can get a great ranking if you have an unique keyword, BUT it may not get you any traffic, which is the reason you want high rankings.

If no one is searching for (say) onionbreadtrucks then your number one ranking is not going to do you any good.

Another related problem is using keywords that you might think people would use when searching for your products or services, but your customers do not have the same understanding of your industry that you do, and in fact use a different word.

As an example, in this forum we use SEO to stand for search engine optimization, but there are far more customers searching for the phrase "search engine optimization" than for SEO.


IMHO good keyword research is the foundation of any successful website. Do this before you even start to do your coding.

USBnuts you have a different problem. Your suggested keyword "diskonkey" has only been searched on 43 times in the past 60 days from a sample of 351 million searches. It could well be that you have been the only major searcher for that keyword.

IF you want to use that keyword then you will have to raise the publics level of awareness of that keyword through a branding campaign, which can be expensive. A better solution is to let a professional SEO research alternate keywords that will generate traffic

[ihelpyou]

Thanks for that Mel. :)

[I.Q. bandit]

If no one is searching for (say) onionbreadtrucks then your number one ranking is not going to do you any good.

I realize this. Which is why I said if your site is amazingly popular. I guess I wasn't clear, and my question wasn't worded correctly.

What I meant was if you get 10,000 people a day to your site(for example). And some of those people are typing in the name of your site(Onionbreadtrucks) in a SE, and it's not optimized as one of your keywords because when your site got 10 visitors a day you didn't use it as a keyword.

Wouldn't it be a good idea to keep a space reserved for this keyword that is the name of your site making it easier for REPEAT visitors to find your site?

[Mel]

Hi I.Q. Bandit

Well... if you site is named say Onionbreadtrucks.com and it is popular for other keywords (necessary to get those 10,000 visitors per day, they had to come from somewhere) you can always add this keyword, BUT it will mean that you will have to add it in several places in order to do any good, and that just might disturb that great ranking you have on those other keywords.

I still prefer to start out a commercial website in these steps, none of which should be ignored IMHO:

1. Develop a good business plan. No point setting up the worlds greatest website if you don't have something people want and will pay your price for. Also no point if you don't make any money at the end of the day. Now you know what you are going to sell, at what price and how long it might take you to get your investment back.

2. Insure that you are targeting the right keywords. This is basic to the success of your site. A good SEO will come up with a list of perhaps 20 keywords and phrases which many real people are searching for.

3. Find out what the competition is for those keywords. A basic truth here is that if it is a popular search term, existing websites will be highly optimized, and there will be lots of competition. You might be better off targeting less popular keywords which have less competition. This is a business decision and you should make it with the help of your SEO, since he knows the search engines and you know more about your own business.

4. Now build your website targeting those words and phrases you have decided on. Work with a good SEO (or spend a lot of time learning the SEO ropes) and make sure you know what's good and bad about your major competitors websites, so your optimization can hopefully be better.

5. Submit to the directories and search engines. If you need instant traffic (and can afford it) the PPC engines will give you traffic almost overnight. Paid submission programs can also generate traffic quickly IF you have done your SEO right.

6. In two or three months most of your rankings will be apparent (and likely there will be a change or two in the SE algos) and you can start in the continual maintenance phase of your site to get your rankings high and keep them there.

While there is not any magic to doing this, mostly just hard work, an experienced SEO guy will develop a sixth sense on what works and what doesn't. This translates into better rankings more quickly and is why SEO firms have plenty of business.