Etips is a publication of:
Your Guide to Professional Web
Site Design and Development
Hello,
Welcome to this week's edition of Etips.
When listing your site within the search engines, the description that is
displayed with your listing will play a major role in determining the number
of click throughs your link will receive. However, as many search engines
generate the description on their own, trying to change it can be a difficult
task.
In today's edition of Etips, Robin Nobles will assist you in changing your
listing description within the Google search engine.
I hope you will enjoy the publication.
To your success!
Sponsor Message
 Pleased with Your Google
Description?. . . if not, consider these tips for getting the Google description
that YOU want!
Part One of Two
By
Robin
Nobles Copyright © 2004
When it comes to describing your
site, Google assembles what is known as a snippet description to display
in their search results. Sometimes it's a good description - one that prompts
potential visitors to click on your link. Other times, it isn't. Take the
case in point where the following page (ranked at #1) in a keyword search
for scuba dive "entices" the potential site visitor by listing the various
PADI locations from around the world ...
PADI - The way the world learns to dive PADI Americas - English, PADI Canada
- English, PADI Europe - English, PADI Nordic - English, PADI International
Limited - English, PADI Japan - English, PADI Asia ... Description: The largest
and most recognized diving organization around the world with courses ranging
from Snorkeling... Category: Recreation > Outdoors > ... > Dive
Organizations > Training Agencies www.padi.com/ - 9k - Dec 27, 2003 -
Cached - Similar pages
Oops! ...oh, well - at least their Description, taken from their editor-assigned
ODP directory description, is relevant - but their snippet leaves something
to be desired.
Can the snippet be changed to entice users to click on your listing?
Of course, this is important because potential site visitors are judging
whether to click or not based in part on those snippets. So, how can one
go about changing Google's snippet advantageously? Let's take a look and
see.
For starters, we've found that Google actually pulls the snippet description
from several different places on your Web page. Let's think about this for
a minute. If we could determine where Google is pulling our description,
perhaps we might be able to change that wording to "produce" a description
that more accurately describes our page.
Where is Google pulling the snippet description?
Currently Google is pulling the snippet from any one or combination of the
following areas:
1. META description tag (although Google doesn't use contents to determine
relevancy).
2. First ALT text found on the page.
3. First text found on the page (which may be a heading tag, body text,
etc.).
4. Additional heading tags on the page.
5. Additional body text found on the page.
6. Additional ALT text on the page.
7. Navigation bar on the left-hand side of the page (which is rarely a relevant
description of a site!).
8. Copyright information at the bottom of the page.
9. Wherever the keyword phrase is found.
Important Note . . .
One thing that's very important to note is that the snippet is determined
by the search term. In other words, if you search for your company's name,
you'll get a different description than what you would get if you search
for a keyword phrase that is relevant for your site. Generally, Google appears
to be pulling the description from areas of the page that surround the usage
of that particular keyword phrase. The obvious question is, Is it the first
usage of the keyword phrase? Usually, but not always.
Another Important Note . . .
Since most people aren't going to be searching for the name of your business,
don't try to change your Google snippet description based on a search for
your company name. Instead, search for the most important keyword phrase
for each important page of your site, and then make changes accordingly.
Let's look at some examples . . .
If you search for "search engine seminars" (no quotes) at Google, you'll
find these results:
Search Engine Seminars--your path to success on the Web! ... Search Engine
Seminars. Is your Web site achieving the success that you want, or that it
deserves? ... At our Search Engine Seminars . . . you learn by doing. ...
www.searchengineworkshops.com/articles/search-engine- seminars.html - 8k
- Cached - Similar pages
Here's the first text on the page:
Search Engine Seminars
Is your Web site achieving the success that you want, or that it deserves?
Are you getting any traffic? Is that traffic converting to sales? Have you
considered attending a search engine seminar to learn how to take a struggling
Web site and bring it to the top of the rankings?
Search engine seminars, conducted by Search Engine Workshops, are held at
various locations across the globe. These seminars are totally different
than attending a large search engine conference, where you listen to a speaker
discuss theories from the front of the room.
At our Search Engine Seminars . . . you learn by doing
And, here's the head section of that page, which shows the META description
tag:
Please note the opening and closing brackets have been removed from the HTML
tags to enable the code to display properly.
HEAD
TITLE Search Engine Seminars--your path to success on the Web! /TITLE
META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="search engine seminars, conferences, workshops,
CONFERENCES, WORKSHOPS, Conferences, Workshops"
META NAME="description" CONTENT="Have you considered attending a search engine
seminar to learn how to take a struggling Web site and bring it to the top
of the rankings?"
/HEAD
The META description tag is obviously not being used as the snippet description
for this page under the keyword phrase, "search engine seminars." Could it
be because the plural version of the keyword phrase, which is what we searched
for, isn't found in the META description tag? Possibly.
So where is the snippet being pulled from?
Here's the snippet description again:
Search Engine Seminars. Is your Web site achieving the success that you want,
or that it deserves? ... At our Search Engine Seminars . . . you learn by
doing. ...
In this example, the snippet appears to be pulled from the first heading
tag ("Search Engine Seminars" at the top of the page), followed by the first
sentence in the body text, followed by the next heading tag ("At our Search
Engine Seminars . . . you learn by doing . . ."). Notice that the second
heading tag is not the second instance of the usage of the keyword phrase.
In the second paragraph of the body text, the keyword phrase is used as a
hyperlink.
So what am I going to do with this knowledge?
In this example, nothing, because the description accurately describes the
Web page. I'm not going to change a thing.
If the snippet description of your page accurately describes the page, leave
it alone!
Sponsor Message
Let's look at another example:
In a search at Google for the keyword phrase "search engine marketing training"
(no quotes), you'll find these results:
Online Search Engine Marketing Courses ... experts and trainers you can trust
do the research for you? Through our search engine marketing training courses,
you'll learn: ... www.onlinewebtraining.com/ - 33k - Cached - Similar pages
Search engine marketing resources training optimization software Professional
search engine marketing training, Web site optimization education optimization
software, and search engine marketing resources. ... Description: Search
engine marketing resources. Category: Computers > Internet > Web Design
and Development > Promotion www.academywebspecialists.com/ - 8k - Cached
- Similar pages
Onsite search engine workshops taught by industry leaders Robin ... ... top
ten positions within the major search engines;. ... Earn search engine marketing
certification of your skills ... for jobs for professional search engine
marketers;. ... www.searchengineworkshops.com/ - 37k - Dec 27, 2003 - Cached
- Similar pages
In the first example (onlinewebtraining.com), the snippet description is
being pulled from further down in the body text, which is the first instance
of the use of the keyword phrase.
In the second example (academywebspecialists.com), the snippet description
is being pulled straight from the META description tag, which is the first
instance of the keyword phrase on the page.
The third example (searchengineworkshops.com) is the most interesting of
all (and the most confusing). Here are the search results again:
Onsite search engine workshops taught by industry leaders Robin ... ... top
ten positions within the major search engines;. ... Earn search engine marketing
certification of your skills ... for jobs for professional search engine
marketers;. ... www.searchengineworkshops.com/ - 37k - Dec 27, 2003 - Cached
- Similar pages
On the page itself, the only place that the keyword phrase is being used
is in the first ALT text on the page. However, Google isn't pulling the snippet
from that area. Instead, it's picking up bits and pieces of the body text
and combining it to make the description. This description would obviously
be more difficult to change, if we wanted to do so.
Let's try a slightly different approach. Let's search for the name of one
of the companies above, and let's see what snippet description is being used
then.
In a search for "Search Engine Workshops" (no quotes), here are the search
results:
Onsite search engine workshops taught by industry leaders Robin ... Onsite
search engine workshops offer personalized SEO training and certification
in search engine marketing strategies. ... Search Engine Workshops . . .
... www.searchengineworkshops.com/ - 37k - Dec 27, 2003 - Cached - Similar
pages
Look at the differences in the snippet description compared to the other
snippet description for the same page! Remember that the snippet description
depends largely on the keyword phrase, so your page could have a different
snippet description based on whatever keyword phrase you're searching for.
In our example above where we searched for the name of the company, the snippet
description was pulled from the META description tag and the first heading
tag on the page.
And the moral of the story is . . .
Visit Google and search for your most important keyword phrase for each of
your Web pages. What does the description look like? Do you like it? Determine
from where on your page Google is pulling the description. You'll probably
notice that, in most (but not all) cases, Google pulls the first text surrounding
the usage of the keyword phrase, wherever that text may appear on the page.
If you don't like the description, try modifying the area where Google is
pulling the description, and see if Google will pick up the changes and use
the new description as the snippet in the search results.
Why? ...because your description plays a crucial click factor!
Remember that the description of a page is crucial when it comes to increasing
click throughs to your site. If your description is compelling and designed
to produce clicks, you may even get more traffic than a competitor who is
ranked higher.
To a greater degree than most are aware, you can manage some control over
your Google descriptions. This is clearly a case where a little research
and some easy tinkering can make a big difference in how your site is presented
to potential customers, thereby increasing your click-through traffic coming
from Google.
Give it a try!
(Writer's Note: This article offers tips for changing your Google description
in order to increase the click throughs to your site. However, this has nothing
to do with trying to increase your page's search engine rankings.)
This article will be continued in part two.
Copyright 2004 Robin Nobles. All rights reserved.
About the Author:
|
Sponsor Message
| Web Design
Course |
 |
FR*EE Intensive 10-Day Web Site Design
Email Course. Learn how to design a professional web site.
|
| Tip of
the Week |
|
Branding will play a major
role in your success. Make sure you place your company logo and slogan in
the top left corner of each page. This will not only assist your visitors
in remembering your site, but it will also give your pages the same look
and feel.
Today's tip is an excerpt from the highly acclaimed
Web Design Mastery series.
|
| Syndication
Feeds |
|
| Internet
Marketing and Promotion |
|
| Business
/ Sales |
|
| Web
Design |
|
| Dr. Kevin
Nunley's Biz Tips |
|
| Web Site
Design Tips |
|
|
Sponsor Message |
Web-Source.net
Products: