META Tags

Wizardandwarrior · Post by **Wizardandwarrior** » Wed Sep 18, 2002 8:51 pm

I recently discovered that my website was indeed in the Google search database, but the only way I could find it there was to search for my exact address. Does anyone know good META Tags and keywords I can put in my homepage that will make it get better results from search engines? Anyone know what works well?

Chascraw4d · Post by **Chascraw4d** » Wed Sep 18, 2002 10:54 pm

A lot of search engines actually ignore META tags any longer since they've been so heavily abused. People who have the best luck with search engines generally have long and expressive rants that account for much of their search-engine traffic. As a rule, don't rely on any text that isn't clearly visible on your page to generate traffic for you.

ZOMBIE USER 11268 · Post by **ZOMBIE USER 11268** » Thu Sep 19, 2002 2:52 am

When I search for my site in Google, what pops up to the viewer is 'LATOMB is hosted by Keenspace, a free...'.... I'm thinking that maybe some white text hidden next to the banner would replace this?
That way, nobody can see my search description but it would still generate more hits.

-chris "c"

Chascraw4d · Post by **Chascraw4d** » Fri Sep 20, 2002 4:05 pm

Possible, but search engines also tend to ignore text that appears to be deliberately hidden. For example, most search engines will ignore text that's printed using the same color as the background color. It's safe to assume that any technique that conceals the search text from the readers of the page will will eventually be abused to the point that the major search engines will be tweaked to ignore it. So even if you could find a method that works, the odds of it working for any length of time are slight.

When I search for my site on Google, what pops up is '... Welcome to Bookwyrms, the online comic. ... All rights reserved. Bookwyrms is hosted on Keenspace, a free webhosting and site automation service for webcomics. ' Since that text is just about perfect, I see no point in tweaking it.

Really, rants that are posted on your main index page (as opposed to inside a Frame or I-Frame) are probably your best bet.

Wizardandwarrior · Post by **Wizardandwarrior** » Fri Sep 20, 2002 4:12 pm

How about the <comment> tags? Anyone been able to use those to their advantage?

Wizardandwarrior · Post by **Wizardandwarrior** » Fri Sep 20, 2002 4:13 pm

How about the <comment> tags? Anyone been able to use those to their advantage?

Seven3 · Post by **Seven3** » Sat Oct 12, 2002 12:46 pm

/*Nah, they're ignored by browser and search engine alike, ever more so than meta tags as far as engines are concerned. Their only purpose is to enable you to make sense of what your code is trying to do.*/

It's pretty much as Charlie said, it's only text on the actual page that counts; this stops pr0n sites, warez sites and the like from loading the dictionary into their meta tags. Your best bet is to put a tag line (descriptive but brief) near the top of your page, just under your logo.