META Tags Are the Key

In the internet world, it's not enough to make an attractive web site with good content. You have to get the word out to attract traffic to your web site. One of the ways to promote is through submission of your web site to search engines.

Through detailed research, and using specific software, I discovered a formula that worked for me.

GET A GOOD DOMAIN NAME

First, I bought a domain name that says this is who I am and this is what I do. Royaltyfreeart.com is both my domain name, and a description of my products. I wanted people to be able to go to a search engine and use the three keywords "royalty" "free" and "art" and come up with my web site in the results. I designed and uploaded the beginnings of my web site.

PEEK AT THE COMPETITION

Second, I used several of the major search engines to see who was in the number one slots when my prime three keywords were used. I went to the sites listed as #1 results from Hotbot, Excite, Magellan, and Altavista, and I downloaded their home pages for research purposes.

WRITE YOUR META TAGS

Next, I opened those home pages in Windows Notepad to see what kind of meta tags they were using, and looked at their content descriptions and keywords. These meta tags, keywords, and descriptions became a starting point for my own meta development. I didn't copy their metas, which would be unethical or illegal.

I totally rewrote them to fit my own site by deleting all the words that did not apply to my site or did not seem important. I also added my own descriptions and keywords to make sure that search engines would narrow in on my site and push other sites underneath mine on search results pages. When I finished, the keywords lists and content descriptions were, I felt, pretty strong indicators of what is at my web site.

CHECK YOUR META TAGS FOR COMPLIANCE

The next step was using the free service at Meta Medic, located at http://www.northernwebs.com/set/setsimjr.html. This utility told me that my metas were not compliant with some search engines. The Meta Medic was specific. I had too many repetitive words, too many words in my content description, low keyword count, etc. I used this utility four or five times, each time pruning and honing my meta text until it was both very descriptive and condensed enough for compliance. I also had to add some text on my home page to make sure that more intelligent search engines would see that the meta tags matched actual content that appeared on my home page. Finally, the Meta Medic awarded me a little Site Inspector Approved smiley face icon to display on my home page at royaltyfreeart.com.

SUBMIT YOUR SITE TO SEARCH ENGINES

 This site will submit your website URL to 40 top search engines for free http://www.submitexpress.com/submit.html  

FOLLOW UP ON YOUR PROGRESS

About two weeks later, I tested various search engines and was shocked and pleased that several search engines listed my site at the top 10 results, when users search for royalty+free+art."

Check out two such listings:

http://search.excite.com/search.gw?search=royalty+free+art

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=royalty%2Bfree%2Bart

You can peek at Paludan's meta coding and get some free samples of buttons and other royalty free art at http://www.royaltyfreeart.com .

I am a graphic artist, web designer and web promoter with lots of tips for other web designers. I have tons of free stuff at my site, including press releases will tell you can reprint in your ezines, FREE OF CHARGE! Come and visit my site for free stuff like an Ansel Adams Grand Canyon Screensaver, buttons, templates, and more. My press releases will tell you how I got to the top results of search engines, how to pick a domain name, and much more.

The links and information in this article have been updated to reflect current Internet listings and to be in compliance with the Foundation's endorsement policy