Lesson Seven: Preparing Your Pages for Search Engines

 

Once you have published your web site, you will want to make sure it is indexed by search engines so people can find it by performing a keyword search. There are two steps to accomplish this.  The first is to include meta tags that include keyword terms or a description of your page content within the html coding of the page header. Meta tags are also called invisible tags. The information placed here is not visible on the actual web page.  Instead, it is used by search engine spiders (a kind of software) to create a database of keywords connected to your web site address.

 

If meta tags with accurate, descriptive keywords are included on a page and the page is indexed by a search engine, traffic to that page can be increased. If you do not include meta tags, search engines usually index a page based on the first 100 characters found in the page.

 

Keywords should be specific to the page where the header is placed. The keywords and phrases must be separated by commas within the coding. Keywords should include the topics and concepts discussed within the page.

 

Coding:

<meta name="keywords" content="specific keywords go here,separated,by,commas">

 

Example:

<meta name=”keywords” content=”poetry,poet,writer,Jennifer Lagier”>

 

Meta tags can also be used to describe the content of the page.

 

<meta name="description" content="description of what this page is about">

 

Example:

<meta name=”description” content=”Biographical information and links to poetry and photography by Jennifer Lagier”>

 

There are other meta tags which may be coded to designate the encoding type and level of your page, the author of the page, copyright information, rating to indicate intended audience, what information on the page can be indexed by robots, and the title of the page.

 

<meta name="author" content="name of web page designer/author">

 

Example:

 

<meta name=”author” content=”Jennifer Lagier”>

 

<meta name="copyright" content="copyright information">

 

Example:

 

<meta name=”copyright” content=”c2004 Jennifer Lagier”>

 

<meta name="expires" content="date you want the document to expire and no longer be accessible from search engines">

 

To insert meta tags in your web page, open the html file in Word. Click View, HTML Source:

 

 

You will see the raw HTML code Word generates when it transforms your Word document into a web page.

 

 

You will see a series of meta tags in the head portion of the html coding. Place your cursor after the <meta name=Originator content=”Microsoft Word”> line of code.  Insert your meta tag or meta tags here being very careful not to delete or alter any existing lines of code. 

 

Once you have inserted your meta tag or meta tags, by sure to save your htm file. You will then need to publish the revised page to your server space to replace the original file, if you have already moved a previous copy of the file to the Internet.

 

Here are some links to related online resources:

 

Oregon State University META tags tutorial

http://oregonstate.edu/cws/tutorials/promote/search/meta.htm

 

Back to Basics: META Tags

http://www.webdeveloper.com/html/html_metatags.html

 

Web Page Header Template Instructions

http://oregonstate.edu/cws/tutorials/promote/search/metacode.htm

 

Publicizing Your Web Site

 

After you publish your site, you will want to let other people know it exists. There are a variety of ways you can accomplish this:

 

 

Here are links to various search engine URL submission pages:

 

Google

http://www.google.com/addurl.html

 

Yahoo

http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/

 

Submit Express

http://www.submitexpress.com/?source=google

 

 

For more information, visit the following resources:

 

Promote: Search Tools

http://oregonstate.edu/cws/tutorials/promote/register/

 

Submit FREE

http://www.ineedhits.com/add-it/free/

 

 

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C2004, Jennifer Lagier, Hartnell College, jlagier@hartnell.edu