Title, Meta Keywords, Meta Descriptions

[hamncheese]

Hello,

I am building a another online retailer and wanted to get some thoughts on proper title tags, meta descriptions, and meta keywords

I know what keywords I want to rank for and am building the site and all the category pages accordingly.

My questions are:
1. How many keywords to target per page
2. How long (# of characters) for: Title Tags, Meta Descriptions, Meta Keywords
3. Best keyword density in Meta Description?

Thanks in advance!

HP

 

[Linda Buquet]

1. One keyword PHRASE per page. The phrase could be 2 words to 5 or 6 if you are targeting the long tail.

So if your main KW for the page were "Bass fishing lures"
the title could be "Discover the best Bass fishing lures"

2. Not sure. I'd look at Google descriptions, count the characters to see

NOTE: Don't use meta keywords. Most engines don't look at the tag and they find KW in your content. It can look like over-optimization to the engines.

3. Don't over optimize. Write the description to attract PEOPLE not spiders. No need to repeat your main keyphrase here. Don't KW stuff it won't help here and could hurt.

 

[OnlineDownloads]

Still, search engines do consider META tags. I don't think it should be avoided.

 

[Linda Buquet]

To be clear I didn't say avoid META tags. I was only talking about the META keyword tag.

 

[djbaxter]

Still, search engines do consider META tags. I don't think it should be avoided.

Which ones?

The title tag, of course, though not a "meta tag" per se, is important in ranking.

The meta description tag is NOT a factor in ranking but is important and even critical in clickthrough rates since it will frequently be used as the snippet in your search listing.

As far as I know, none of the search engines that matter consider the meta keywords tag at all any more. So, while it may not hurt for many web pages to include it, it won't help with your rankings - but it will reveal to your competitors what keywords you are trying to optimize for.

About the only use the meta keywords tag has at all now is that some web directories will look for it to extract keywords to assist in categorization of the site/page.

 

[diytechblog]

To keyword or not to keyword

That is the question. I made that up, really I did. I need to get a feel for what "over optimization" is? Or what constitutes over optimization, any good reading on the subject?

 

[djbaxter]

A good example of "underoptimization" is your signature link:

DIY Tech Glenn
Raven Technologies - IT Services, Technology Installation & Support for Businesses in Maryland, DC and Virginia

You have a link with no anchor text. That's going to contribute next to nothing to your search ranking for any of your important search terms.

 

[Linda Buquet]

I need to get a feel for what "over optimization" is? Or what constitutes over optimization, any good reading on the subject?

Over optimization is just over doing it with every SEO trick in the book.