A Billion Wrong Librarians
by Ross R. Lasley
When people start to think about marketing a web site they often recall an article or two they may have read in a newspaper or magazine. Site owners become quite focused on their 'keywords' - which are part of a web pages meta tags.
Meta tags are hidden in the source code of any web page and they supply various information - the title of the page that appears at the top of your browser window, what language the page is in - and, the one most people know about - the keywords meta tag.
Keyword manipulation was the real meat of the SEO (search engine optimization) industry for years and there are many theories on what works and what doesn't. If you talk to people about websites they will be very concerned about the keywords tag, how often they should adjust the words, what words other people are using, etc.
Here is the problem with all that: search engines haven't even looked at the keyword meta tag in more than a year.
I've read some articles that have talked about this - but I haven't seen any info on why the keyword tag is dead.
Keywords are dead because a billion librarians are wrong. Search engines today have become a pretty unique animal in the world of computer programs. They are designed from the ground up to deal with and index the largest database ever created by humans - also known as the world wide web. It depends how you count but today there are roughly four billion (yes that's billion with a B) pages on the web. Think about that for a second - there has never been a company with a billion customer records in a database, or anything like that much data to process. Each search engine has their own system for indexing this data and creating something that is supposed to actually be useful.
The way the meta tag was supposed to work was that when someone searched for 'lamps' the engine would return all the pages with the word lamps in the meta tag and that'd make a nice list of sites. This worked pretty well for quite some time - but you can't ever take the humans out of the technology problem. I recently found out what it took to be a librarian - you know, one of those helpful people who were always there when you needed to write a paper in school - and of course it is a very complex process. Six years of school, loads of memorization of standards - pretty much of all of which is focused on the idea that when you go to a library in San Diego you'll find information in pretty much the same place as you would in a Philadelphia library.
The Keyword Meta Tag allows every site owner to be their own librarian - and they really screwed it up. Humans lie and site owners are of course much more interested in the position of their site than they are in the quality of the web generally.
Ever go to a search engine and the first 15 results were the same site?
Ever search for yarn and get sites about pets?
Ever go to a site called the hardware store that didn't sell nails?
These, and many other fun and exciting errors have been brought to you by the worlds worst librarians - web site owners. Search engines abandoned the keywords tag because it just stopped working.
Rubber Meets the Road - what does this all mean?
Search engine optimization - SEO - has always been a complicated process.
5 years ago it was all free, 5 years from now it will all cost money. When working on optimization and search engine strategy please remember to disregard everything you have read about techniques and practices (because it is usually all out of date within 10 days) and focus on what you can really know about - statistics.
Keeping your eye on your stats is the best way to understand relative search engine position and usage for your site - the only simple way to know that you rank well in Google but have almost no relevant presence in Yahoo.
We specialize in taking the fear out of technology by providing incredible service. KISS is Cape Cod's #1 Local Website Design and Development firm - we sell everything you need to put your business on the web.
Domain Names, Web Site Hosting, Amazing Graphics, Compelling Animations, Shopping Cart Solutions, Complete Sites, Internet Marketing Services, Maintenance Programs, Do-it-Yourself Updater Systems, Audio/Video Encoding, Site Analysis, Online Database Systems, and Smart Simple Solutions!
See More on Our Web Site
|
 Tech Tip |
|
The best spam killing solution out there is , and has always been, email filters. Email filters don't prevent you from getting spam, they just make it so you never see it. Filter all messages with the subject Viagra right in to the trash.
Tech TV's Article on setting up Filters in Outlook Express . |
|
 FREE Tip Sheet |
|
"Understanding Your Target Market"
What do you know about your customers? Learn how to pinpoint the demographic of your customers to increase sales. |
|
|
|
You'll need Adobe Acrobat to open this file. Download it now if you don't already have it. |
|
Download your FREE
