Search Engine Optimization FAQs
An abundance of incorrect information is circulated about search engines. We usually do a couple of articles, but this month we’ll give you one big fat piece on the frequently asked questions that we receive.
Do I need to submit my site to search engines every month?
Nope. You don’t even really need to do it once. The main way that the leading search engines find new sites is via links from credible, quality sites.
How many keywords should I include in my meta keywords tag?
None. Many people are suprised when we tell them that you don’t need any. You could have no meta keyword tag and still get great search engine rankings! The reality is that the keyword meta tag has been abused for many years, to a point where the top search engines simply ignore it. Put them there for aesthetics if you want to, but don’t expect them to be giving you any extra search engine grunt.
Do I need to include a meta description tag?
Yes! Search engines need a snippet of text for their search engine results pages (SERPs). They’ll often take the snippet from somewhere at the top of the page, but they also regularly use the meta description. Not including a meta description can contribute to your search result page listing getting a dud snippet.
Why does my site have an irrelevant description on the search engine results page?
As per the previous question, first stop is to check you have a good meta description. If you do, but are still getting inane SERP snippets, then the next thing to consider is the first few paragraphs of text that appear on your homepage. It’s extremely useful to include a compelling and keyword-infested description. This technique will also often contribute to giving you better rankings.
What’s the best automated link building program to sign up to?
None. Don’t do it. The top search engines consider this cheating. They prefer nice natural links into a site and can penalise members of ‘link farm’ type networks. It gets tricky when you try to succinctly define exactly what constitutes a link farm, but for starters it’s good to avoid any automated system. Ideally, you want to encourage other people to naturally link to you simply by the virtue of your unique content.
How important is keyword density?
Keyword density used to be a hot topic in search engine optimiser circles, but these days it’s not as important as it used to be. There are a number of key factors that contribute to top search engine results; from our experience and research the positioning of the keywords far outweighs a simplistic keyword density percentage.
How many domains should I have?
For most companies it’s best to put your resources into building and marketing one powerful domain, rather than diluting your focus. Sometimes people pick up extra domains for good reasons. If you do have multiple domains pointing at the same content, then make sure that only one of these domains has sites linking to it. Ideally this will be the domain that you want to come up on the search engine results page.
Subscribe.