Webmaster Tips

Getting Listed in Search Engines Part 1: Meta Tags

So, how DO you make sure you're listed in all the search engines?

The first step is to set up your web site so it can be easily indexed.

Most search engines look at a couple of "meta tags" in the header of your page. If you have them, you get indexed. If you don't have them, they'll either pull the first 100 or so characters from your page or they'll skip right over you. If we built your site, we probably already included the meta tags.

Here's an example of the format of what you need on each page you want indexed:

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Sustainable Sources Environmental Website</TITLE>

<META Name="keywords" Content="building, sustainable, water,adobe, Earth, solar, straw, bale, rainwater, house, Materials, Green, roof, concrete, Design, construction, ENERGY, floor, strawbale, bamboo, systems, homes, insulation, compost, engineered, toilet, development, real estate, property, flooring, heating, Sourcebook, Wood, flyash, house, home, plans, recycling, habitat, windows, build, EcoTravel, Eco Travel,Intentional Community, natural, non-toxic, alternative, life cycle analysis, dwelling, safe">

<META Name="description" Content="Sustainable Sources - One of the world's best online collections of information on Sustainable Building, Eco Travel, and Latin American Environment. Keyword searchable.">

</HEAD>

The first thing, of course, is your page title. That's usually what gets displayed on the search engine. Make sure it's descriptive - you don't want to have it named "my home page" or "title goes here" (I've seen it happen!). If you can include the site's name in there, that's all the better (Greenbuilder.com: Building Sources)

The keywords meta tag contains a list of all the search keywords that you wish/expect to be found under. Order them from most important to least important, separated by commas as shown. 25 to 50 is a good number.

The description meta tag is just that - a description of your site in your own words. It can be up to 200 words, but we recommend that you keep it real brief.

Once you've got everything ready to go, check your site out by getting a "tuneup" at Website Garage. You can do a free tuneup of each page of your site. You'll want to be in the Good or Excellent range in most categories.

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