Meta tags and Google

Hello groups.

I have a series of applet computer games on my homepage:

http://vredungmand.dk/games/erik-spillet/index.html
http://vredungmand.dk/games/nohats/index.html
http://vredungmand.dk/games/platfoot/index.html
http://vredungmand.dk/games/minorbug/index.html
http://vredungmand.dk/games/timbuktu/index.html
http://vredungmand.dk/games/taleban/index.html

I am trying to get them properly indexed and categorized by Google (and
their AdSense engine).

The surrounding HTML contains little text so I rely on HTML meta tags to
provide search engines the information they need.

If I search for the game "mr. Platfoot" I can see that Google is using the
meta description from my page:

http://www.google.dk/search?q=mr.+pl...-8&hl=da&meta=

However if I search for "Taleban vs. Robot" then Google is not using the
meta description:

http://www.google.dk/search?hl=da&ie...s.+Robot&meta=

If I take a look at the cached version, I can see from the source that
Google has a version with my meta description in it:

http://www.google.dk/search?q=cache:...hl=da&ie=UTF-8

Can anyone explain why Google is not using the meta description in the
latter case?

I also added meta keywords, whoever as far as I can tell they are completely
ignored by Google. Does anyone have any hints on how to get Google to use
this data? I would really hate having to use "hidden" text on my super
standards compliant HTML pages :-D

-- Christian

On Tue, 3 Feb 2004 18:57:36 +0100, "Christian Hvid" <chvid (AT) acm (DOT) org>
declared in
comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html,alt.internet.search-engines:

I also added meta keywords, whoever as far as I can tell they are completely
ignored by Google.

And most (all?) other search engines. They have been abused too much in
the past.

Does anyone have any hints on how to get Google to use
this data?

You can't. Have good quality text on the pages, and lots of quality
sites linking to it. That's it.

I would really hate having to use "hidden" text on my super
standards compliant HTML pages :-D

That's called spamming the search engines and will get your site dropped
altogether.
http://www.google.com.au/webmasters/guidelines.html

--
Mark Parnell
http://www.clarkecomputers.com.au

Christian Hvid wrote:

I also added meta keywords, whoever as far as I can tell they are
completely ignored by Google. Does anyone have any hints on how to
get Google to use this data? I would really hate having to use
"hidden" text on my super standards compliant HTML pages :-D

You could try feeding the Googlebot a different page to everyone else when
it comes spidering, but that's naughty. Or you could just create textual
pages for each game with a big screenshot, and make that a link to the
relevent game page.

Mark Parnell <webmaster (AT) clarkecomputers (DOT) com.au> wrote

On Tue, 3 Feb 2004 18:57:36 +0100, "Christian Hvid" <chvid (AT) acm (DOT) org
declared in
comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html,alt.internet.search-engines:

I also added meta keywords, whoever as far as I can tell they are completely
ignored by Google.

And most (all?) other search engines. They have been abused too much in
the past.

Uargh!

Does anyone have any hints on how to get Google to use
this data?

You can't. Have good quality text on the pages, and lots of quality
sites linking to it. That's it.

Uargh. It is an applet. There is no text.

If I put "good quality text" on the pages it will disturb and worsen
the overall user experiance. Instructions (if any) are displayed in
seperate page, in a new window. (See mr. Platfoot for an example:
http://vredungmand.dk/games/platfoot/index.html).

The problem is not getting a good ranking but rather getting a proper
categorization. If I don't get a proper categorization I can't get the
Google AdSense advertisement engine to display relevant ads.

Could an idea be to create a div element that is hidden by default,
but pops up with game instructions when the user asks for it? Or is
that non compliance with the good moral and ethics of the information
super highway? Maybe it just won't be indexed.

I would really hate having to use "hidden" text on my super
standards compliant HTML pages :-D

That's called spamming the search engines and will get your site dropped
altogether.
http://www.google.com.au/webmasters/guidelines.html

Oh.

Christian Hvid wrote:

Uargh. It is an applet. There is no text.

If I put "good quality text" on the pages it will disturb and worsen
the overall user experiance.

Are you sure, have you experimented with it?

http://vredungmand.dk/games/platfoot/index.html).

Cute little game!

The problem is not getting a good ranking but rather getting a proper
categorization. If I don't get a proper categorization I can't get th
Google AdSense advertisement engine to display relevant ads.

Right now I see ads for "wooden puzzles" and "crossword puzzles". I
guess it takes that 'puzzle' hint from the META description, so you
might actually have some luck with a more 'categorically correct' META.


Matthias

Christian Hvid wrote:

Uargh. It is an applet. There is no text.

If I put "good quality text" on the pages it will disturb and worsen
the overall user experiance. Instructions (if any) are displayed in
seperate page, in a new window. (See mr. Platfoot for an example:
http://vredungmand.dk/games/platfoot/index.html).

The problem is not getting a good ranking but rather getting a proper
categorization. If I don't get a proper categorization I can't get the
Google AdSense advertisement engine to display relevant ads.

Could an idea be to create a div element that is hidden by default,
but pops up with game instructions when the user asks for it? Or is
that non compliance with the good moral and ethics of the information
super highway? Maybe it just won't be indexed.

I wouldn't play around too much with hiding my text. You never know if
Google already bans it or will in the future. What I would suggest is
e.g. using a div with a fixed height and overflow to auto, somewhere to
the left or bottom or right of the Java applet (which looks great, by
the way). You absolutely must do that in order to have AdSense show
relevant ads. Now what are relevant ads? You should figure that out. It
will probably be people advertising for their games. So in the game
instructions write text like this:
"This is a freeware Java applet game that can be played using your
browser. This online game in the category Jump and Run is ..."
etc.
If you enter above text into Google you will see the ads to the right,
which might be along the lines of what your AdSense would serve.



--
Google Blogoscoped
http://blog.outer-court.com

"Christian Hvid" <chvid (AT) acm (DOT) org> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:cda9e44d.0402040057.6c938dca (AT) posting (DOT) google.com...

If I put "good quality text" on the pages it will disturb and worsen
the overall user experiance. Instructions (if any) are displayed in
seperate page, in a new window. (See mr. Platfoot for an example:
http://vredungmand.dk/games/platfoot/index.html).

Hey I don't understand what you mean - adding a box of text (with a very
short overview over the game and the instructions) below the game would IMO
definitely improve the overall user experience. The user experience is not
olny about how nice things look but also about how easily information is
found (and I am sure you are able to make the text box look nice anyway).

A rule of thumb: What is good for the search engine is usually good for the
user, too.

--
Markus

Christian Hvid wrote:

Uargh. It is an applet. There is no text.

Why not?

Just write some copy that describes your game, and place it between your
<applet> and </applet> tags. It will serve two purposes - people who are
using non-Java browsers, or who have disabled Java for whatever reason,
might be intrigued enough by your description to return to your site with
either a different browser or with Java enabled. Also, search engines will
see it.

Oh, and while you're there - ditch the <applet> and replace it with
<object>. <applet> has been deprecated for ages.

sherm--

On 4 Feb 2004 00:57:37 -0800, chvid (AT) acm (DOT) org (Christian Hvid) wrote:

You can't. Have good quality text on the pages, and lots of quality
sites linking to it. That's it.

Uargh. It is an applet. There is no text.

If I put "good quality text" on the pages it will disturb and worsen
the overall user experiance. Instructions (if any) are displayed in
seperate page, in a new window.

Turn your idea on its head. Put good quality text on your instructions
pages, ensure they link to each other (directly or via an index page),
and include a link from each set of instructions to the game itself.
Voila!

--
Stephen Poley

http://www.xs4all.nl/~sbpoley/webmatters/

"Matthias Gutfeldt" <say-no-to-spam (AT) gmx (DOT) net> wrote

Christian Hvid wrote:
Uargh. It is an applet. There is no text.

If I put "good quality text" on the pages it will disturb and worsen
the overall user experiance.

Are you sure, have you experimented with it?

Did plenty of experimentation with good quality text - they all failed :-D

No, seriously.

I will try first putting something in the applet tag and then maybe under
the applet as short 1-2 line description.

Thank yer all for your good suggestions.