I get asked about meta tags all the time. I always stated that meta tags had so little significance that it’s not worth spending time on them. But each time I optimised a website I felt a little bit guilty because I hadn’t spent more time on them. At last, I can feel guilt free!

Google has officially stated that meta-tags have no impact on the ranking of a website.

So, from now on, all the emphasis on meta-tags can be focused on the bit of text that appears in the search result sometimes - the first 140 characters from the meta-description tag. I recommend making that something enticing - something that will encourage visitors to click through to your website.

The ABC of Search Engine Optimisation

Below are the 3 main areas of search engine optimisation and the 4 most important factors to consider in each.

Area A. “Links” has the most impact - maybe about 50-60% or more of the SEO equation.
Area B. “Indexing” might represent about 20-30% and
Area C. “On-page” makes up the balance (possibly about 10-20%).

Point 1 in each section is the most important factor. Point 4 is less so but not necessarily the least important .

A. Links

1. The credibility of the site linking to your site
2. The relevancy of the site linking to your site
3. The text of the link pointing to your site
4. The overall number of links pointing to your site

B. Indexing

1. How easily search crawlers can work their way through your site
2. Search crawlers understanding of what’s on your pages
3. Depth of content
4. Past performance of search results featuring your site

C. On-page

1. Page titles
2. Page headings
3. Keywords in URL
4. Keyword density

I will hopefully write a bit on each of these 3 areas soon.

Fact 1.
Every link to your website adds a little bit of credibility to your site. The more links that point at a page, the more credible the page.

This is the basis upon which Google and other search engines have built their search results.

Fact 2.
The more credible the page, the more credibility it passes to the pages it links to.

Getting a link from a highly credible website can really improve a website’s search engine position.

Fact 3.
Most links point to a website homepage. So search engines regard most homepages as being the most credible on the site.

What the search engines find on your homepage carries the most weight with them. It is crucial to make the most of that opportunity.

Fact 4.
Most homepages have the potential to pass a lot of credibility to the pages they link to.

Fact 5.
Lots of homepages waste that potential.

Search engines need to find text that they can read on your homepage. So make sure that your homepage contains a few of the better keywords and phrases that you’d like to be found for.

Can the search engines find links on your homepage to your best content? Drop-down navigation bars, made with JavaScript or Flash, can completely hide links from the search engines. That can make all of the other pages on your site almost invisible to the search engines.

In the next article on this subject I’ll explain what to test to see how good a job your homepage is doing.