We've long stated that "Content is King" and today, more than ever, content is being used as a driver behind search rankings. Google may not, for example take into account the word "Marketing" as a Meta Keyword, but it may take the total number of times the word "Marketing" appears in a website as an indicator of how valuable the content is to people searching for the word "Marketing". Other factors include the number, and quality of links coming into your site. If your website ends up on the home page of the NY Times, or CNN, for example those would be high-quality in-bound links to your site which should increase your search ranking. If you don't have the budget to swing that kind of PR quantity is also thought to be a factor. A website about "Marketing" with in-bound links from 50 other sites about "Marketing" should rank higher in search results than a website with fewer in-bound links of equal quality.

Knowing your key-words is still immensely valuable. Clearly identifying which keywords fit your target market and using those specific keywords consistently in your website content (Headings, articles, image titles and link titles) has always been important. Now, its even more-so.

For strategic web marketing advice, search engine optimization and search engine marketing, contact us for a free consultation.

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September 22, 2009

Death of the Meta Keyword

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In a video recently posted on Google's blog, Google confirms what many may have already feared. Keywords are meaningless to Google Search. This is not to say that Meta Keywords have no value. Google, albeit the largest search engine, is not the only search engine and many others may continue to use Meta Keywords as a point of reference in ranking their web search listings. Google's move to not use search keywords is in-part to stem "Keyword Spamming" or the use of keywords to gain an unfair advantage. For example, if another local marketing company wanted to compete with MDI, they may choose to put the keyword "MDI" in their Meta Keywords, operating under the assumption that this would influence Google Search results so that anyone searching for MDI would find their site instead. Because of this type of activity Google does not use keywords, which are by their nature hidden from the website visitor's view, in their search listing. It is strongly believed that Google takes a number of other factors into account the most significant of which is content.

We've long stated that "Content is King" and today, more than ever, content is being used as a driver behind search rankings. Google may not, for example take into account the word "Marketing" as a Meta Keyword, but it may take the total number of times the word "Marketing" appears in a website as an indicator of how valuable the content is to people searching for the word "Marketing". Other factors include the number, and quality of links coming into your site. If your website ends up on the home page of the NY Times, or CNN, for example those would be high-quality in-bound links to your site which should increase your search ranking. If you don't have the budget to swing that kind of PR quantity is also thought to be a factor. A website about "Marketing" with in-bound links from 50 other sites about "Marketing" should rank higher in search results than a website with fewer in-bound links of equal quality.

Knowing your key-words is still immensely valuable. Clearly identifying which keywords fit your target market and using those specific keywords consistently in your website content (Headings, articles, image titles and link titles) has always been important. Now, its even more-so.

For strategic web marketing advice, search engine optimization and search engine marketing, contact us for a free consultation.