5 mistakes with do it yourself SEO keywording and meta tags

Created with briangervais / create_destroy

I review a lot of sites every week. There are a lot of the same problems I see on websites. Some people may have meta tags set-up incorrectly or use meta tags that have no relevance. Here's my thoughts on the 5 top do it yourself SEO issues. Many do it yourselfers have at least one of these errors on their sites, most times there are a lot more. Hopefully this can help you avoid these costly mistakes and improve your ranking.

1) Keyword meta tag – A keyword meta tag is the place to put keywords that apply to your business in the header code. It is important to place the words that you put in the header tag, in the body of the web page as well., but not for any keywords. You can’t just stuff this tag with keywords that your entire site is related to.The tags should reflect keywords only on that particular page; not the entire site, not every keyword you think your site might be searched on. Also, include no more then 20 words in the tag. Do not repeat any word more than 3 times. If you sell cars, for example, don't write: Ford cars, dodge cars, mitsubishi cars and so on. Do use Ford, dodge, mitsubishi, cars, autos and so on.

2) Abstract meta tag – It is sometimes used as a replacement for or combined with a description tag. Mmore and more people are using these for keyword stuffing. Search engines like Google are interested in what is on the page, more specifically, what visitors can view. Some people feel the abstract tag has no place on a site, but that is just an opinion.

3) Description meta tag – The whole point behind this tag is to describe what the “page” is all about. The limit on words should be 20 – 25. Keywords related to the page should be implemented as well. Many website owners stuff this tag with keywords, and/or have a description that is entirely too lengthy. Stay within these guidelines and you will be fine.

4) Title meta tag – This, to me, is the most important tag. This is the first tag the search engine reads and the one that shows in the browser page title for website surfers to see. It tells the search engine what the” page” is about. Don't put your web address here or add your company name in the beginning of the tag either. Do not exceed 60 characters.

5) Meta content- Each page has it’s own keywords. The title tag, description tag and keyword tags. All of the keywords should be the same.If you notice, I keep commenting on relevancy to the page itself, not your overall site. Add all the keywords to your content as well. Do that and your page should be fairly well optimized.

Where do sites and site owners fall short? Usually very simple...Content is not optimized. Search engines for the most part, are pretty simple minded, so to speak. You type in a search term and it retrieves sites containing those terms while also taking a few other factors into account. So, if your site doesn’t have these terms, you will not be found. Over do it with keywords(keyword stuffing etc) and you will experience the same result, but for different reasons. Sometimes reading/studying everything about SEO can be bad. Trying too many tricks, tips or methods is like trying to fix a car with a bad engine, replacing all the parts in an engine without starting it each time to see if it's running better. In the end you can do more bad than good by trying to do too much upfront. There are very basic rules that should be followed by everyone. If in doubt, Always consult or hire an SEO professional.