Title Tag & Keywords

The First Words out of our Mouths…50,000 years ago! Neanderthal man

The human race has been using words to communicate for over 50,000 years. From the first words out of Neanderthal man’s mouths to the complexed languages we now speak, keywords have not changed. Neanderthal may have said “uggh, errr, uuhh…RAAAAAH” and the context was completely understood by listeners. When we communicate today we interpret context of what we read, hear and see. Context is not difficult for humans to grasp but is it possible for machines to understand context?

How much Does Google Understand?

There is no doubt Google is the most advanced search technology available to the public. If you take a Google Understandsfew moments and ask Google a few questions.

1) There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch

2) Ask Dan Russell from Google’s Search Quality team about the art of field study

You’ll quickly see that there is some very interesting forms of AI (artificial intelligence) blended with QC being used that seem to mimic what a human think. If you try a few searches in Google images you can also see a clear indication of Google understanding concepts.

1) Black bear with teeth

2) Fat person with skinny person

Note: In some cases it’s easy to figure out how Google knew it was a Black bear with teeth. In other cases there’s nothing spelling out (to an engine in words) that is it a Black bear with teeth. How Does Google Know?

Why Does this Matter?

It does not matter if you are just a friend of mine, reading this article to kill some time. However if you are looking after a website, knowing more about how the machine thinks will help you fair better with search engine ranking. There are no deep, dark hidden secrets that are your magic bullet to the top ten fold. It will be a complete repertoire of steps you take prior to and after publishing your pages. Make no mistake it is extra work and effort to employ good, whitehat SEO practices.

“SEO techniques are classified by some into two broad categories: techniques that search engines recommend as part of good design, and those techniques that search engines do not approve of and attempt to minimize the effect of, referred to as spamdexing.” Source

My Number Choice One For SE Ranking

The Title Tag is the part of web page creation that I like to spend extra time on. After all, the page title is what, almost always, displays in search engine result pages. In other words, it’s all people will ever see before they make their click choice.

This HTML Page Element of Critical Importance is how…

  • A search engine generally displays your webpages using the page title
  • Users bookmark your page…it is the page title that is the memory hook
  • Factor into Search Engine’s over-all keyword placement in their algorithms
  • You direct visitors to your website

If you want to rank for desired keywords it starts with you telling the engines what you want to rank for. Your page title plays a major role in the engines deciding on your natural search engine placement. I like ALL my titles to be unique and very descriptive of each webpage’s content. If you play your cards right the engines will catalog/ categorize your site in most suitable (profitable) way, naturally. Additionally, people that enter keywords into search engines will not only find your site, they’ll click your result over millions of others. WHY? Because you have taken the time to speak right to the person the is entering the keyword. What are they thinking and how can I create a perfect elevator sentence for them?

Parting SEO Thoughts

  • Search engines hate websites without page titles (yes they have emotions)
  • Keywords found to have high repetition rates in documents are spam flagged
  • Not all SEO techniques are created equal
  • Your SEO is NOT working if you are nowhere to be found in result pages
  • Marketing misspelled terms is a waste of time. Google has a great spell checker built into search algorithm
  • Webpage titles should be at the top of your ON-page SEO list
  • Headings (<h1,2,3,4>), bold text (<b>)& bulleted text (<li>) are also treated differently by search engines
  • Your page title is almost always how the engines display the contents of a web page
  • Be careful with weighting of keywords in the text
  • If it’s not relevant don’t put into on your site

OPINION on Meta Tags

I keep hearing it…”Meta tags don’t matter anymore”. I think they are still a part of good web manners and score point in spelling out context. It’s really your own beliefs in what works and what doesn’t that matters. I urge you to always verify information in SEO before you execute any techniques you have not used before. Sometimes you think you are doing good things for your website, when the opposite is true. Google is always fine tuning quality control. Buyer beware and new SEOers need to understand the simple principles (marketing and conversion)…the rest is common sense!

Happy SEOing

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