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Meta Tags and Google.


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My site was indexed by Google for the second time and the search result's have droped from page 1 to page 7.

 

I posted on another thread and have been advised that I need to do something with the meta content as there is none!!

But doesnt this mean that the meta tags are working against you then?

If the site was getting good results for keywords on page one, you install a meta contribution and a few weeks later its on page 7 is there any real point in using the meta tag controllers at all?

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Adding meta tags will have an affect on your keyword density for that page. It could be that when you added them, you used too many keywords ( a common mistake) or the wrong ones. Or it could just be google moving things around and youjust happened to see it. They do this all of the time and your position may or may not change. Google doesn't use meta tags as some other SE's do so it may not have been that at all. Competition for the #1 position is tough and it could be that your competitors just made changes that caused their sites to rise.

 

Jack

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Adding meta tags will have an affect on your keyword density for that page. It could be that when you added them, you used too many keywords ( a common mistake) or the wrong ones.  Or it could just be google moving things around and youjust happened to see it. They do this all of the time and your position may or may not change.  Google doesn't use meta tags as some other SE's do so it may not have been that at all.  Competition for the #1 position is tough and it could be that your competitors just made changes that caused their sites to rise. 

 

Jack

 

Jack any idea why Google would drop the description and site title from my results and use one URL?

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Products Page Title: What goes in here because there is already a page title, do I use the same title as the product?

 

Page Header Description: What goes in here?

 

Product Keywords: Fairly straight forward.

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For the title put something that you want the user to see if they search for your product, the product name for sure. Description, just elaborate on your title a bit more include the product name and a bit more info about it. Some times the description will be displayed in the search results so make it attractive to read for the users. Keywords, I wouldnt waste to much time just put stuff related to that particular product. Keywords get ignored by most search engines. For all of them I would keep it targeted to that particular product and avoid over elaborating with tones of keywords, just target one or two for each page. You sould also try and ensure that stuff in your header tags is also actually on the page.

As i have said earlier I reckon you lost your listing because you changed the product name. You are using the Ultimate SEo URL contribution, this makes your product name part of your urls. Changing the name changes the URLs also.

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Jack any idea why Google would drop the description and site title from my results and use one URL?

NO, not really. Google doesn't use the meta description to describe your site except in some situations where they deem it necessary. It could be that you are seeing the listing from an old database they have switched to while they update their other ones. If that is the case, it will fix itself in a few weeks or so.

 

Jack

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Im talking about your product names not the meta tag title. If you change your product name by 1 character then because of the URL contribution you also change the url. Google would have already had your old url which was made up from the product name, when google next checked that URL it would have found the no product found page instead of the page where your product was because the URL for that product had now changed. The bots would pick up the new URL eventualy but that could take ages. If you needed to change a product name then I think you could do a redirect, which would tell the bots the new URL so they would find it easily.

I think though that using this contribution then you should avoid changing the product names if possible. I am no expert but I cant see how changing the URL of a page can be a good idea unless you put the proper things in place to deal with the situation it will cause.

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Im talking about your product names not the meta tag title. If you change your product name by 1 character then because of the URL contribution you also change the url. Google would have already had your old url which was made up from the product name, when google next checked that URL it would have found the no product found page instead of the page where your product was because the URL for that product had now changed. The bots would pick up the new URL eventualy but that could take ages. If you needed to change a product name then I think you could do a redirect, which would tell the bots the new URL so they would find it easily.

I think though that using this contribution then you should avoid changing the product names if possible. I am no expert but I cant see how changing the URL of a page can be a good idea unless you put the proper things in place to deal with the situation it will cause.

 

OK Mike I may have to take a hit on this one because my urls are all far too long and I need to get rewrite working on my site which will change all the urls :(

Be good long term though :D

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