How to Optimize for Inktomi in 2004 - Meta Tags, Keywords, and Robots... Oh My!

(Page 4 of 7 )

Meta Description Tag

The description tag is the best place to formulate a more detailed explanation of the page that is being optimized. Keep in mind the following when crafting your description.

1. The description tag should be a in between 15-20 words and should emphasize the keywords used in the title tag.
   
   
2. Keep the description concise and specific to the contents of the page.
   
   
3. DO NOT use the same description for every page, make each one unique.
   
   
4. Not all descriptions are going to be the same length, some will require more words and others less.
   
   
5. Use keywords or topics found in the body text of the website to enhance the description.

Example:

Gas powered grass lawn mowers in Sometown, Texas. Check out the lawn movers and lawn tractors from such manufacturers as John Deer, Murray, Black & Decker, MTD, and Yard Man.

Keywords Tag

Use of the keyword tag in Inktomi should be utilized. This tag serves as the location for your key terms and phrases on topics that are covered in the document. The best advice for use when utilizing the keywords meta tag is to highlight QUALITY keywords in your list. Keep in mind the following when creating the keywords tag.

1. Use quality keywords that are specific to the page
   
   
2. Avoid board keyword uses such as, "internet", "news" or "mp3".
   
   
3. Formulate the keywords tag as if someone would be searching for information contained within. Do not randomly stick in keywords for the sake of filling up the keywords tag.
   
   
4. Include misspellings and other ways keywords could be used in the keywords tag.
   
   
5. DO NOT use the same keywords tag for every page of your website.
   
   
6. Begin you keywords tag with the primary keywords you are wishing to target. For example if your page is targeting "lawn mowers", being your keywords tag with "lawn  mowers, lawn tractors, etc....."
   
   
7. DO NOT use punctuation in the keywords tag such as "Harry Potter's Wand". Instead, think of how a search would be performed: "Harry Potter Wand".
   
   
8. USE COMMAS in the keywords tag. While these are not necessary for other search engines, Inktomi recommends their use in separating keywords or keyphrases.

Robots Tag

While not the most important tag inside the head of the document, its fair to mention its role in guiding the Slurp robot to the correct pages that you wish to be spidered and those that you do not. If you are not using Robots.txt on your website then I would consider inserting the Robots Tag in the page you optimize for Inktomi. The following robots tag will tell the Slurp robot to INDEX the page into the database and FOLLOW all links contained within.

<meta name="robots" content="index,follow">

Next: URL, Page Names, and On Page Elements >>
 

More Search Optimization Articles
More By Benjamin Pfeiffer

Comments On: How to Optimize for Inktomi in 2004

>>> Be the FIRST to comment on this article!