Getting Your Website Ready For Search Engines

It is not uncommon for a website homepage to include the following:

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<title>Home</title>
<meta name="description" content=" " />
<meta name="Keywords" content=" "/>
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The contents of the three (3) lines of HTML code above can make all the difference between making a website easily visible for search engines and rendering it the world wide web equivalent of a needle in a haystack. If anyone ever accidentally finds a website with the above three (3) lines of HTML code, there is a very real possibility that the website will be lost again in the user's bookmark file.

The "title" for a webpage, especially the homepage of a website, is like a headline for a newspaper story.

For a listing on most seach engines (i.e., Google) the "title" is the first line for the listing.

For a visitor's personal bookmark file the "title" becomes the bookmark name that is seen when the list of bookmarks is displayed.

The "title" for any webpage, especially the homepage for a website, should be written as a headline rather than the default "title" of "Home", which is the case with many web design tools.

When the "title" is viewed as a headline the web designer will also know to avoid writing a "title" that begins with "Welcome to" because such a "title" uses the leading characters of what may be the most valuable space on the entire webpage.

A well written "title" for a webpage, especially the homepage of a website, provides the headline for every search engine listing for the website. In addition, the "title" becomes the text that is saved in a user's bookmark file. In both cases a well written "title" can mean the difference between being found and being lost in a sea of webpages.

It is important to write a meaningful "title" for every webpage on a website because each webpage on a website will be indexed by search engines and the "title" will be displayed for each webpage when it appears on a search engine listing.

The "description meta tag" for a webpage, especially the homepage of a website, is like the lead paragraph of a newspaper story. You want that lead paragraph to be something that will grab the reader and make them read more.

In the case of a website you want that lead paragraph to be something that will make someone viewing the description on a search engine listing want to click through to view your website.

When the "description meta tag" is blank, as is the case in the example above, a search engine will grab the first bit of text found on the webpage and display that text below the "title" in a search engine listing. On most website webpages, especially the homepage, the first displayed text may not be the description for the webpage. The "description meta tag" must be something that fully and briefly describes exactly what information a potential visitor might find on the webpage.

In the case of a website homepage it is important to provide a "description meta tag" that describes what a visitor can expect to find on the website.

Each webpage on a website should have a meaningful "description meta tag" to ensure that each webpage of the website gets indexed by search engines and that the "description meta tag" for each webpage describes exactly what can be found on the webpage because that is what will appear on a search engine listing.

The "keywords meta tag" for a a webpage, especialy the homepage of a website, is like the glossary of a textbook.

For a webpage you want your glossary to include the most important terms used on the webpage because that will aid any potential visitor in finding exactly what they are looking to find on the web.

When someone goes to a search engine they enter keywords to look for on the web. The search engine's role is to sort through all of the indexed webpages available on the search engine and return a list that best matches the request entered by the user.

When the "keywords meta tag" is blank, as is the case with the example above, or missing altogether a search engine will view all text on your webpage as a potential keyword. At first that might not sound like a "bad" thing, but search engines are looking for the most targeted results for the user, so more keywords that do not meet the user's search criteria the position of a webpage goes down the list. Being on a search engine list in position 1,354,567 is not good, and as a result most search engine users will never see a webpage with a blank or missing "keywords meta tag".

For any webpage, especially the website homepage, it is best to select perhaps seven or eight keywords that will attract the most potential visitors that could actually benefit from viewing the webpage or website. Remember that fewer keywords is better because each keyword is weighted to bring in a specific type of website visitor.

Every webpage on a website should have a meaningful and targeted "keywords meta tag" to ensure that each page on the website gets indexed to best advantage for both website owner and website visitor by search engines.

Following these basic guidelines for webpage "title", "description meta tag", and "keywords meta tag" can aid any website in being well ranked and easily found on any search engine listing. The result is that traffic coming to the website will be the traffic that can most benefit from viewing the content found at the website.

One thing every Squidoo Lensmaster can feel good about is the fact that when creating a Squidoo Lens the Lens Generator automatically creates a "title", "description meta tag", and a "keywords meta tag". Specifically, the "title" for each Squidoo Lens becomes the "title" for the created webpage, the "Introduction" for each Squidoo Lens becomes the "description meta tag", and the "keywords" for each Squidoo Lens becomes the "keywords meta tag". So, it is doubly important that care be given when creating these important elements of every Squidoo Lens because not only do they aid Squidoo visitors in finding a specific Squidoo Lens but also they aid the entire web population in coming to Squidoo for information.