Tags: every page or just home page?

Should one place meta tags on only the home page, or all pages??

meta tags, such as Keywords, are not as important to Search Engines as they
used to be. But for those that do factor them into their rankings, you
would want them to be on all your pages and not just the home page. The
Description tag IS important, so whatever your ranking, when you ARE found
in the Search Engine listing, a user can get an idea of what is on the page.

--
E. Michael Brandt
www.valleywebdesigns.com
home of JustSo PictureWindows 3


"Jenna" <jennaw707 (AT) NOSPAMhotmail (DOT) com> wrote

Should one place meta tags on only the home page, or all pages??

Thanks!!


"E Michael Brandt" <michael (AT) valleywebdesigns (DOT) com> wrote

meta tags, such as Keywords, are not as important to Search Engines as
they
used to be. But for those that do factor them into their rankings, you
would want them to be on all your pages and not just the home page. The
Description tag IS important, so whatever your ranking, when you ARE found
in the Search Engine listing, a user can get an idea of what is on the
page.

--
E. Michael Brandt
www.valleywebdesigns.com
home of JustSo PictureWindows 3


"Jenna" <jennaw707 (AT) NOSPAMhotmail (DOT) com> wrote in message
news:cc278o$32v$1 (AT) forums (DOT) macromedia.com...
Should one place meta tags on only the home page, or all pages??

Jenna wrote:

Should one place meta tags on only the home page, or all pages??

It's a variable, at least for me. If the interior pages are such that I
want them to show up in a search engine or directory, yes, definitely.
But there are interior pages I don't especially want to be "noticed"
except in context from the outside shell of the site or subsite. I don't
tag those.

As an example, I have a university athletics site that I manage.
Obviously the home page is tagged extensively. So is each section tag
but some of the student-athlete information pages aren't. If they
bookmark them once they get there, fine but I'd rather a newcomer
entered through the front door. Likewise with all the team subsites.
Their index are heavily tagged, described and they are functionally
front pages. The inside pages aren't tagged at all. I know folks
bookmark the stats and gallery pages - which is fine - but I don't have
any need for those interior pages to appear in a search engine by
themselves. Which doesn't mean they don't, only that I didn't go looking
for it.

I guess the bottom line is that you want to tag and describe the pages
you want to be found via the search engines and directories.

O.

If the pages are linked they will be found and ranked whether you want them
to be or not. The only way to prevent this would be to have a robots.txt
file that directs the spiders not to scan the page.

--
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Team Macromedia Volunteer for Dreamweaver MX
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
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"Oreb" <nospam (AT) through (DOT) net> wrote

Jenna wrote:

Should one place meta tags on only the home page, or all pages??



It's a variable, at least for me. If the interior pages are such that I
want them to show up in a search engine or directory, yes, definitely.
But there are interior pages I don't especially want to be "noticed"
except in context from the outside shell of the site or subsite. I don't
tag those.

As an example, I have a university athletics site that I manage.
Obviously the home page is tagged extensively. So is each section tag
but some of the student-athlete information pages aren't. If they
bookmark them once they get there, fine but I'd rather a newcomer
entered through the front door. Likewise with all the team subsites.
Their index are heavily tagged, described and they are functionally
front pages. The inside pages aren't tagged at all. I know folks
bookmark the stats and gallery pages - which is fine - but I don't have
any need for those interior pages to appear in a search engine by
themselves. Which doesn't mean they don't, only that I didn't go looking
for it.

I guess the bottom line is that you want to tag and describe the pages
you want to be found via the search engines and directories.

O.

Murray *TMM* wrote:

If the pages are linked they will be found and ranked whether you want them
to be or not. The only way to prevent this would be to have a robots.txt
file that directs the spiders not to scan the page.

Indeed. But not necessarily. If I have pages in a directory where none

of them is tagged, they seem to stay nice and anonymous. If they're
linked from pages that are tagged (or in a directory where the index is
tagged), you're right; they show up.

I've just done some research and come to the conclusion that, indeed if
one wants higher search engine scores, one should use tags on interior
pages. But not just copy and paste from the front page; each should
reflect what's actually there.

So. For my public pages, I stand corrected. I won't promise to go back
and add tags to the thousands of pages on my primary site but I will
likely add them as new pages are created, especially if they're
important information pages.

Good topic and good thread.

O.

Oreb:

I've just done some research and come to the conclusion that, indeed if
one wants higher search engine scores, one should use tags on interior
pages. But not just copy and paste from the front page; each should
reflect what's actually there.

This is consistent with advice that is commonly given here. Thanks for the
reinforcement. But - meta tags are definitely not the key. Content and
semantic markup are the king.

--
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Team Macromedia Volunteer for Dreamweaver MX
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
==================
news://forums.macromedia.com/macromedia.dreamweaver - THE BEST WAY TO GET
ANSWERS
==================
http://www.dreamweavermx-templates.com - Template Triage!
http://www.projectseven.com/go - DW FAQs, Tutorials & Resources
http://www.dwfaq.com - DW FAQs, Tutorials & Resources
http://www.macromedia.com/support/search/ - Macromedia (MM) Technotes
==================

"Oreb" <nospam (AT) through (DOT) net> wrote

Murray *TMM* wrote:
If the pages are linked they will be found and ranked whether you want
them
to be or not. The only way to prevent this would be to have a
robots.txt
file that directs the spiders not to scan the page.

Indeed. But not necessarily. If I have pages in a directory where none
of them is tagged, they seem to stay nice and anonymous. If they're
linked from pages that are tagged (or in a directory where the index is
tagged), you're right; they show up.

I've just done some research and come to the conclusion that, indeed if
one wants higher search engine scores, one should use tags on interior
pages. But not just copy and paste from the front page; each should
reflect what's actually there.

So. For my public pages, I stand corrected. I won't promise to go back
and add tags to the thousands of pages on my primary site but I will
likely add them as new pages are created, especially if they're
important information pages.

Good topic and good thread.

O.