Meta Tags

[genuwine4532]

If you are inputting data into Meta Tags in a pre-built type website which has option for Title, Keywords and Description is this the information that will be shown on the search engine results?

I am not clear what the difference is between Meta Tag as above and the Ad Copy that is written for search engine submission.

 

[Linda Buquet]

It depends. Typically the meta title is what will show on the natural search results listing. The description is sometimes what you write in the meta, but some engines pull content from the page for the description.

Best thing is to look at some examples. Here's one using 5 Star and Google.

ACTUAL
Meta title: 5 Star Affiliate Programs - High Commission Best Affiliate Marketing Program
meta Description: 5 Star Affiliate Programs - Discover the best high commission, honest affiliate marketing programs. Best affiliate forums, blogs and tips too.

Using Google search "best new affiliate programs" where I come up #1.
Google says:

"5 Star Affiliate Programs - High Commission Best Affiliate
5 Star Affiliate Programs - Discover the best high commission, honest affiliate marketing ... This new affiliate program knows how to treat partners right.

SO above it took part of my description but then tried to pull something relevant about "best new" off the page.

WHen I searched for "best converting affiliate program" I also come up #1 BUT it says:

5 Star Affiliate Programs - High Commission Best Affiliate
DentalPlans - Top Affiliate Program - High Converting Dental Insurance Alternative. This is one of the web?s best converting offers because up to 75% of ...

So this time it didn't use any of my description - it pulled info from the page about just one of my programs trying to help the surfer find something relevent about "best converting".

So here is the key - make sure all the important on page ranking factors are consistent and include the main KW you are targeting. If a page is about green widgets and that's what you want to rank for and you know people also search for "best green widgets" the most, but additionally some search for little green widgets, big green widgets, cheap green widgets, best prices on green widgets. Be sure "best green widgets" is in meta title, description, at least one head tag and a few times in the copy. Additionally add those other keywords in the body or have subsections with an H3 subhead.

SO much to this topic but that's a little overview.

 

[genuwine4532]

Okay, thanks for the examples those really help me see better than just a description.

You mention MAIN KW, I actually used 3 KW in the title and description is that too many? I think I maybe overdoing it, because I have so many great kW.

And these descriptions are relevant to the actual landing page on my site, is that correct, like the home page has relevant KW for that page and page 2 has a different set of KW relevant to that page, that's how I'm doing it, is that right?

One more thing the Meta Tags are for Natural Rank, but when doing a PPC like ADwords you would then fill out a new set of Ads or does the PPC also use the same Meta Tags?

Thank you

 

[Linda Buquet]

"MAIN KW, I actually used 3 KW"

Sorry meant main key PHRASE and 3 or 4 words is fine as long as they are related, make sense and are something people would search for. In fact one or 2 word phrases are way too hard to rank for if there's any competition at all.

As far as PPC ads go - no they don't pull any meta data. You totally write the ad. However to get a good quality score on Google many things are taken into consideration including relevancy of the site to whatever it is you are advertising. I'm not sure if the algo looks at meta to be sure the ad is related to the site. But if you had a human review and the site was about birds, meta was about birds but the ad was about ringtones you would likely get a bad quality score and a jacked price.

When I do affiliate marketing related Key phrases in Adwords I always get a good quality score. If I lean more toward work from home or make money online type KW my score is not as good because my site is more directly related to AM. I'm not sure what the algo is looking at to determine the relevance - on page copy, meta, domain name or probably a combination of everything.

Does that make sense and help answer the question?

 

[genuwine4532]

Oh yes it is very helpful, clears up a lot. Thanks a lot Linda.
I feel a lot better because as I was doing this I felt like I really don't know what I'm doing, but I was on the right track and your examples really clarify a lot

 

[999affiliates]

if you are using 3 or 4 keyword phrases, I find its better to combine them when possible, and especially in the title tag. it give more emphasis on those words

 

[genuwine4532]

Thanks 999!

I did that, I actually had to rewrite the ads a couple of times, after I wrote 20 of them the flow became much easier.