Please give an example of proper Meta stuff as I don't think I'm doing
it right.  I have a lot of pages on the site, but if I could see
examples for the following two pages, I will figure out the others.
www.daymented.com (index)
www.daymented.com (any journal page in the last year)
I use Dreamweaver so I'm a bit fuzzy with each meta option and what
they do.  I'd like the tags to match the content most, then match me a
bit (but not be misleading, which I think they are now).
Also- if I have something totally general- like the links page or a
party page- what meta-stuff would I have on that page?  Any?
Everybody- any feedback would be great - just please don't trash me!

Hello expresso,

Trash you? Never! This is a very valid question, and one that comes up
more than you would think :-)

Of particular note, most meta tags are on their way out. Once the 'de
facto' standard for websites, they now hold very little added value.
Some smaller search engines still use them, and it really doesn't hurt
to have them. Inktomi is the last large search engine to support the
keyword tag. Here is exactly what the important ones do, and the
examples you requested:

1) Meta Robots : This tag tells search crawlers how to 'behave' within
your site. You can tell them where they can crawl, where not to crawl,
and if to crawl at all. Here is a sample:

<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX,FOLLOW">
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX,FOLLOW">
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX,NOFOLLOW">
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX,NOFOLLOW">

Index means to go ahead and index the page. Follow means follow the
links that are on the page. From there, the rest is self explanatory.

Here is a page dedicated soley to this tag:

Robots Tag
http://www.awakemm.com/christopher/knowledge/metatags/robots.html


2) Meta Description: This tag is still widely used. It is used to
offer a description of your site. If your site is about you, then by
all means, add a description of yourself. You want to ensure this tag
is accurate to avoid future indexing problems. Try to keep it around
20-25 words as the search engines only show a certain amount of the
text. Here is a sample of this tag in use for your site:

<META NAME="DESCRIPTION" CONTENT="Online Journal about the life of my
husband Sean and I. We are daymented, and offer insight to all seeking
it.">


3) Meta Keywords: This tag is not really in use anymore, but it's nice
to know how to use it. Typically you would have words that related to
your site. You would keep them under 30 words, seperated by commas.
Here is what your site may look like:

<META NAME="KEYWORDS" CONTENT="daily journal, diary, personal advice,
exotic trips, fun stuff, travel journal">


Almost all of the other meta tags that exist are ignored by the larger
search engines. Some of the very smaller ones still support them. For
your reference, here is a site that helps you decide which ones you
may want to include:

Optional meta tags
http://www.submitcorner.com/Guide/Meta/


And here is a site that will walk you through this process on your
own, so you can get a better grasp of how it all works:

Meta tag generator
http://www.siteannounce.com/tools/meta-tag-generator/


What do we have all together?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For your main page, we end up with this to put in between your HEAD
tags :

<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX,FOLLOW">
<META NAME="DESCRIPTION" CONTENT="Online Journal about the life of my
husband Sean and I. We are daymented, and offer insight to all seeking
it.">
<META NAME="KEYWORDS" CONTENT="daily journal, diary, personal advice,
exotic trips, fun stuff, travel journal">
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And this text for one of your journal pages :
(I picked http://www.daymented.com/11-02.htm)

<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX,FOLLOW">
<META NAME="DESCRIPTION" CONTENT="Online journal for demented. Today's
treat - Johnston Architects retreat and the fridge attack.">
<META NAME="KEYWORDS" CONTENT="daily journal, diary, personal advice,
exotic trips, fun stuff, travel journal">
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Again - the keywords don't matter. You can change them if you like,
but you will see very little difference in the way the page is
indexed.


Lets assume you have a page you do not want a search engine to crawl.
You also don't want it to follow any of the links on the page. Do you
know what tag you would use now? This one :

<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX,NOFOLLOW">

How about to follow just the links, but not index the page?

<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX,FOLLOW">


As for your other pages, you would just alter these portions of the
description and keyword tags :

CONTENT="Put what you want for keywords or a description here."

It's that simple! :-)


To help with this answer I searched Google for:

meta tags
://www.google.com/search?q=meta+tags

optional meta tags
://www.google.com/search?q=optional+meta+tags


I hope this helps clear some confusion. Should you need clarification,
or more resources, please ask before rating this answer as I would
love to be of further assistance.

Thanks for the great question!
SgtCory

---

Clarification of Answer by sgtcory-ga on 04 Dec 2002 17:40 PST

First of all thanks for the great rating and the tip! Let me hit your
follow up really quick  :

Q. Do they scan the entire content of each page?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yes - that's exactly what most do. Remember that a directory is much
different than a search engine. A directory doesn't index anything,
rather takes what input you give at the time of submission.

Q. Should I not bother with keywords?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For now it is probably a good idea to keep them since Inktomi still
uses them. There are many companies that have medium sized search
indexes that use Inktomi for their database supplements. (Espotting
does. They are a UK based Pay Per Click engine with lots of traffic.)

Hope this helps and thanks again!
SgtCory

Very helpful and fast.
Question, though.  If keywords are no longer needed, how does a search
engine find a site?  Do they scan the entire content of each page? 
Should I not bother with keywords?
Thanks!

> Should I not bother with keywords?

I wouldn't put a lot of time into META keywords. It is a waste of
bandwidth for the insignificant amount of traffic you may receive. The
META description tag on the other hand will be useful for
AllTheWeb.com. They include the description snippet in their search
result. Also, Google's nocache tag is useful when you don't want them
to hijack your content. (A must for eCommerce sites whose product or
service prices often.)

An excellent article on META tags can be found here:

Practical Web Design - Top 15 META Tag Tricks
http://www.webmasterbase.com/article/956