posted
So I registered a domain name for my doggy oriented website. Its just fowarding with masking to the actual website, because we've got plenty of memory from our Cable modem provider for my puny site.
http://www.corgipages.com isn't working yet cause I guess it takes 24 hours, but I'm not complaining about the price.
But the GoDaddy site that was reccommended here and I registered through was asking for meta tags to affiliate with the website.
Can these just be words? like corgi, cardigan, lowryder, kingsbury, etc or is there something more specific I need to put in?
posted
All three items are used by search engines to identify your site. The title is what is seen by the visitor, and should consequently be both informative and user-friendly. Keywords are indeed a list of words, and a description CAN be a list of words but can also be used to put in a longer and user-friendly description of the site when viewed in some search engines. If you want to receive hits from search engines, you should be sure that the description, the title, AND the keywords all contain what you consider the most important feature of the site -- like, say, "lowrider corgi."
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
I tried to copy&paste the meta tags from my blog, but it won't let me. However, if you do a View Source you can see them. The blog is here: http://home.earthlink.net/~xnera/
I don't use the title meta tag, but I do have the description and keywords.
Basically, title would be the title you want your page known as, and the description is a short description that comes up in Google results for your page. Keywords should be self-explanatory.
I don't know what they mean by Masked, though. Someone else will have to field that one.
Posts: 1805 | Registered: Jun 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
Well I know the masking hides the actual messy web address http://sjonesce.home.comcast.net so that people think www.corgipages.com is the real address. I'm not sure about the rest though. Here's what I've got for each of the boxes.
Masked Title: Cardigan Corgi Kennels
Masked Description Meta-Tag: Main page for Kingsbury and Lowryder Cardigan Corgis
Masked Keyword Meta-Tag (keywords should be separated by commas): cardigan, corgis, cardigan corgis, corgi, kingsbury, lowryder, kingsbury cardigan corgis, kingsbury cardigans, lowryder cardigan corgis, lowryder corgis, lowryder cardigans
sound good? Do I need to put all the permutations in there? And I didn't mess with paying to make sure that the website gets out to the search engines, is there a way to do that without paying for it?
posted
Is it going to matter that I've got "Corgi" singular in the title, and then Corgis plural in the description? "Cardigan Corgi" or "cardigan corgis" is definitely the key bit of information, I think, more so than the actual kennel names.
posted
hey once you buy the domain name the subdomains are free through godaddy too as well as the masking so they don't see the ugly site address it's really at.
posted
What you're doing is setting up a masking page -- not necessarily something you want, but possibly (where is the actual page hosted?).
Since its being masked (using frames), search engines won't respond properly to the meta tags on the actual site, so you need to provide them to be placed on the framing page. The meta tags are as Tom described. The most important ones nowadays are Title and Description. Few search engines place any importance on keywords, most just mine the page to determine likely keywords. However, using keywords is still useful on occasion.
If you can, you should consider getting it hosted somewhere where you don't need it masked; it will improve its google and other search engine rankings.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
We get a sizable account free from being comcast cable modem subscribers. Well not exactly free, we pay good money for the priveledge of being able to plug our cable modem into the wall, but the alternative is DSL from SBC which I loathe like few other companies around.
So I don't feel like actually paying for a nicer host since I haven't yet even started to approach the 25MB limit. The problem is that the comcast site has a few more letters and word complications than someone trying to look at the dogs probably wants to deal with. Plus it has no meaning and isn't catchy. So I decided to go the Masking route for the moment. If I do get more sophisticated (which I doubt) then maybe paying for another host would be worth it, but right now it isn't.
I don't care about hugely high ratings on google, I just was wondering how it worked.
1) You probably don't need every conceivable permutation of corgi vs. corgis, "cardigan corgi" vs. "cardigan" and "corgi," and so forth. In fact, while some search engines will reward this repetition, many search engines now punish this approach.
2) Your description tag can be -- and probably should be -- a bit longer. I'd suggest leaving out the "Main Page" bit, since that's probably self-explanatory, and would mention that it's a breeding kennel.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
It isn't so much the size of the space on the server, but the (likely unmentioned) size of your bandwidth that might start cramping your style. If more than a few dozen people start visiting your site regularly you may experience some problems (or not, they could provide plentiful bandwidth). A lot of it will also depend on how many pictures you host (that will use up your space quick if you do as well).
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I've been reducing and saving all of the pictures as gifs, which yes would make poor quality reproductions, but are adequate for the website. The other thing is that I don't ever expect this to be a hugely high traffic site,nor do I particularly want it to be, so I'm not too worried about bandwith. Also Steve, who I trust who knows a heck of a lot more about it than I do, though maybe not quite as much as Tom says it is adequate. I was figuring out the meta tag stuff at work, which is why I posted to hatrack since his job frowns on excessive personal calls and when he does have computer acesss he only has intranet acess, that can't get out to the internet.
It is geared to a fairly narrow audience by its very nature. a)Those who know of me, my friend or our dogs from reputation in dog show circles, b) personal friends of ours who want to see the latest info on our dogs c) someone looking for information about cardigan corgis (and so far our site doesn't go into a lot of info specifically about the breed)
In reading the fine print it said it would take up to 48 hours to actually get the address working properly. I'm going to wait until that happens, before I start tweaking my meta tags again, because I think right now tweaking them might delay the process. I'll get rid of the redundancy of the words then.
I also don't think I've actually put meta tags on the main site, because those have to be incorporated deliberately on purpose right? And I know I haven't done it on purpose, since I've been working mainly on layout and the basic page content, and not worrying about anything more sophisticated. If they somehow create themselves automatically in Dreamweaver then they might exist but otherwise no.
AJ
Another thing, I know people might search for specific dog names like, Kingsbury's Carbon Copy for example, who is my dog's mother. (She is the most famous dog of the breed in history.) I actually have most of the specific names imbedded in graphics, because I wanted them to look "pretty". But I guess that means the text recognition programs aren't going to see them. Should I include name's like that in my meta tags?
posted
Changing the meta tags won't affect how quickly it happens. That's an orthogonal consideration dependent on the aggregate behavior of name servers around the world.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Kiss]](graemlins/kiss.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
says it is adequate. I was figuring out the meta tag stuff at work, which is why I posted to hatrack since his job frowns on excessive personal calls and when he does have computer acesss he only has intranet acess, that can't get out to the internet.
