| LED Digest 1520: Importance of the Title Tag |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest ................................................. February 18, 2003 Issue #1520 ................................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Optimizing for Search Engines [was: SE Spam] ==-- ~ Mike Beriault "...the Title tag is the single most important tag for the search engines..." ~ David Moore "...you just write up clearly what you offer...without having to get at all technical about it." ~ Steve Pronger "...the title tag is THE most important tag for SEO." --== Copyright Notices ==-- ~ Dr. Gary R. Ilmanen "The date should reflect the date that the work was created." ~ Anne McKay "...some visitors DO assume the date is when you last updated." ===== GEEK TIPS ================== --== Spam with Forged Headers ==-- ~ Martyn Gay ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Subscription Services ==-- ~ Ivan J. Jimenez ~ Steve Knilans ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Mike Beriault Subject: Search engines > While META tags are used by search engines, TITLE > tags are for humans - the people who visit your site. - Joann Chokrach, LED 1519 This type of sweeping statement combined with the other information in Joann's post simply leads to confusion amongst many of the new webmasters trying to optimize their own site. First of all the Title tag is the single most important tag for the search engines, in general it is one of the top 5 elements after page copy for top rankings. In the case of Google I would rank it in perhaps the #2 or #3 spot. Joann explicitly says, > Do not use keywords here, because if you do, your > user won't remember what it was they bookmarked > the page for in the first place. If no-one finds the site who is going to bookmark it? Will they really remember the name ABC Company in the title? Or that ABC is THE widget company? When searching for widgets I am going to click on a heading that says "We Sell Widgets" since I have no idea what "Come To ABC Company" will do for me. Once they click through to your site it is up to your web site to brand your company, not your title tag. This is a common argument I have with customers who feel their company name is vital. As mentioned in an earlier post if the site is properly designed you will automatically rank well for it without wasting valuable real estate in your Title tag. I hope this clarifies the importance of the Title tag, to summarize it should be one concise, keyword rich phrase that is pleasing to humans. Here is an example: "Fine Widgets: Offers Large Widgets and Limited Edition Blue Widgets". If you really feel compelled you can add your company name at the end to appease the masses. Mike Beriault Tired of Spam? scananddelete.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: David Moore Subject: SEO > ... all the major crawlers support the META DESCRIPTION > tag, to some degree... It is definitely worth using. - Joann Chokrach, LED 1519 I have only the vaguest idea of what Meta tags etc are, but I have found that if I want a particular aspect of our sevices to be picked up by the search engines I simply have to make sure that the relevant words are in the paragraph I have under the name of our school. About a week ago, having organised for an extra singing teacher to work from our school, I noticed that we weren't being picked up by Google for "singing lessons" in "Melbourne." We are now listed by Google as 15th listing for those keywords and number 4 for "singing teachers" &"Melbourne". We have also got hits from NineMSN listed as number 8 for Singing teachers & number 4 on Alta Vista for singing lessons. I'm pretty sure we must have been recently picked up by them also as I haven't seen those search words come up before. We are not yet listed on Yahoo, but they list us for all the other services which I list in that paragraph. My experience is that you just write up clearly what you offer and it gets picked up without having to get at all technical about it. David Moore http://www.alexanderschool.edu.au ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Steve Pronger Subject: SEO > Do not use keywords [in the title tag], because if you > do, your user won't remember what it was they bookmarked... - Joann Chokrach, LED 1519 Can't agree with you there Joann. Most SE experts agree that the title tag is THE most important tag for SEO. Leave your keywords out and there will be a negative effect on your rankings. If you're worried about bookmark titles add a JavaScript that will bookmark the page and add your own bookmark title. Here's the one I use: --------------------- <.script language="JavaScript1.2"> //configure the two variables below to match your site's own info var bookmarkurl="put your url here" var bookmarktitle="put your bookmark title here" function addbookmark(){ if (document.all) window.external.AddFavorite(bookmarkurl,bookmarktitle) else alert("You need IE 4+ to use this particular feature.") } <./script> <.a xhref="javascript:addbookmark()" title="Click here to add to your favourites">Bookmark this site!<./a> --------------------- Steve Pronger http://www.stevepronger.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Gary R. Ilmanen Subject: Copyright > What does (c) 2002 - 2003 mean? Does it mean that > after 2003, the material is no longer copyrighted and > people can copy it? - Thomas Yoon, LED 1519 The date should reflect the date that the work was created. A work that is created after 1978 is automatically protected from the moment of its creation, with registration optional. The copyright is ordinarily effective for the author's life plus 70 years. For works made for hire, and for anonymous and pseudonymous works, the duration of copyright will be 95 years from the date of publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter. Dr. Gary R. Ilmanen http://woodcarversweb.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Anne McKay Subject: Copyright Hello :-) Regarding copyright - copyright should read (c) DATE. Name of person holding rights. So - (c) 2003. Anne McKay. All rights reserved. is fine. And yes, some visitors DO assume that the date is when you last updated. But I would recommend doing it the right way regardless. Now, regarding the question: > What does (c) 2002 - 2003 mean? Does it mean that > after 2003, the material is no longer copyrighted and > people can copy it? Absolutely not!! This means that portions of the site were created at different points during this period. NOT that the copyright expires. So you might see something like this, even - "(c) 2000, 2002-2003. This would mean that some of the material was created in 2000, some in 2002, and some in 2003. Hope this clarifies. Anne McKay Divinity Design divinitydesign.com ===== GEEK TIPS =================================== From: Martyn Gay Subject: Forged spam > The URL of the offending site is > http://www.factorymanagement.com. - Dudley Dix, LED 1519 Dudley, You should report such spamming activity to the host responsible... not just where the mails are sent from, but the company hosting the website too. Point out to them that they are aiding and abetting credit card fraud and other illegal activities. A quick look at this site will reveal that it is selling stolen US credit card numbers along with a whole load of other nasty things. And what kind of company would be happy to host such a customer?... lets have a look! A quick traceroute reveals: www.factorymanagement.com (161.58.39.136) The site is hosted on Verio. Normally I would suggest reporting to them but with Verio I'm afraid you don't have many options. Despite the acceptable use policy posted on their website Verio will let criminals like these do just about anything on their network so long as they pay their bills. All I can advise is visit www.blackholes.us, use verio.blackholes.us to block all Verio traffic to your network (you'll see an enormous reduction in spam) and hope Verio finally realises the damage they are doing to innocent people by hosting sites like this. If any of you out there happen to be a Verio customer, it's worth noting that increasing numbers of system administrators are being advised to block all Verio traffic due to Verio's tolerance for spamming and criminal activity on its network. See http://www.blackholes.us/verio.html for more information. With all this blacklisting going on it poses a more serious question... the internet grew in popularity because of the ease and low cost of anyone being able to contact anyone else on the network. Increasingly the blocklisting we are forced to add to protect ourselves against spam and hackers is resulting in fragmentation of this dream. The people who will ultimately suffer are those that probably had most to gain from the internet... those living in poorer parts of the world, which happen to have the worst problems with abuse and hence blacklisting. Regards, Martyn Gay www.cactushop.com ==== BILLBOARD ==================================== From: Ivan J. Jimenez Subject: Subscriptions > I am looking for a service which will provide... the > ability to accept payment for a one time only entrance > into specified area of my site. - Wanda Crews, LED 1519 Hi Wanda, I'd go with the very cost-effective and easy-to-implement http://www.paypal.com. All the best, Ivan J. Jimenez cosmicbreath.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Steve Knilans Subject: Subscriptions This is NOT a subscription. In reality, both Clickbank and Paypal work as you just said! The ONLY thing is that you must either change your URL, or use the IPN, etc, only once, within a span of time. You should always use the IPN, or whatever, only once anyway, because otherwise people will bypass payment. Bear in mind that people should always be able to get what they paid for. If they paid to see your newsletter issue, for example, they should have an adequate time to view it or download it. The next issue would require another payment. A subscription is where that other payment would be paid by default. Steve Knilans ------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1995-2003 Adam Audette. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- |
