Newbie - Help with Meta tags please!

[lsfinewines]

Hello all
I am building a site for my new wine business and have recently registered my URL with Google and Alta Vista. I know from my web server "stats" page that Google has picked me up. A search of my company name brings up a result in Google, but a search using any of the words/phrases that I added as meta keywords in Actinic does not bear fruit at all. Clearly, something is amiss and I need to rectify this, as it is important for potential customers to find me using keywords such as the name of a particular wine producer or "appellation", or even the name of a particular wine.

Using the View>Source menu in Internet Explorer, I looked at the source for a few other sites, to see if my keywords looked any different and noticed that the HTML code was all compacted (understanding HTML is another matter altogether, for me). Clutching at straws, I looked through my settings in Actinic and noticed that in Design Options>Miscellaneous, the "Compact HTML/CGI box was checked, so I unchecked it and updated my site. Of course, if this was the problem, it may not be resolved until the search engines crawl by again. But I would appreciate it if any of you good people could let me know if I am on the right track, since until my keywords start showing up in searches, I have little chance of Joe Bloggs finding my site www.lsfinewines.co.uk/

Additionally, I notice from the Actinic help menu that the meta descriptions and keywords from pages other than the home page only work when using "frames". Being a total novice at web building, I still haven't got my head around the concept of frames, and I am currently just concentrating on building up my store and brochure pages, albeit in a very simple layout, using the standard Actinic fetures. I have borrowed a book on web building, as I am eager to learn to use HTML for links and wrapping text around images and so on.

I have tried checking the "use frames" facility, but all that seems to do is add another navigation bar alongside the left pane, with the result that you have to use a horizontal scroll to read through the main pane. Obviously, I want to maximise the way in which my meta tags are picked up by the search engines and, if using frames is the only option, then I may have to do that. But I hate having to scroll sideways, every time I want to read a page, and it spoils the look of my site.

Sorry for the long post (believe me, it could be the first of many!) but any advice would be much appreciated.

[chris ashdown]

Looks like you are on the right lines.

The search engines will find you quite quickly but will not enter you into the search side untill they next update it which would appear to be about every 4 to 6 weeks.

Dont forget the sections each have a place to enter your specific section details and meta keywords.

I would suggest you spend a few pounds say £1-2 per day and use Google Adwords with your keywords, it is very easy to use and you get instantanious results. the more you pay each click through the higher you apear on the right hand side of the search engine

As google has been seen on these pages to give over 50-60% of all hits the money spent on Addwords is well spent.

Regards

Chris

[lsfinewines]

Thanks for the reply, Chris. I'd never heard of Google Adwords before (although, of course, we have all clicked on them)! It is certainly a tool to consider, in order to get my sales moving.

As for my questions on using frames (ie. must I use them to get my keywords, from pages other than the home page, picked up by the search engines?) does anyone have any ideas? My problem is I have a left hand pane that is totally unused in my brochure pages and used only for half a dozen sections in my shop pages. Therefore, a quarter of the screen is hardly used and it seems pointless to add another pane/navigation bar next to it, with the resulting annoying horizontal scroll. Or am I missing something obvious here?

[cdicken]

Additionally, I notice from the Actinic help menu that the meta descriptions and keywords from pages other than the home page only work when using "frames".

You don't need frames - they just have the effect of making your store less visible to search engines rather than more.

If you do not have frames, then the meta tags you enter in the 'Meta tag' tab of a section will be used in that section page. Apparently, different meta content in different sections is seen as a good thing.

To be honest, very few search engines use meta tags nowadays - they are more interested in page titles (see this knowledge base article) and the descriptions you use for your products.

[lsfinewines]

Many thanks for that reply, Chris. It is nice to know I am on the right track and don't need to concern myself with that stuff! I guess all I can do is check my keywords and descriptions one more time, then just sit back and wait.......
Cheers.

[Mike Hughes]

If you want to appear well in google you need to do a few things.

1. Don't worry about the meta tags (but do use them as they're very important for Inktomi - and hence yahoo in the near future).

2. Make sure your keywords appear in the content on your pages. Write a few 'content' pages specifically to get the search engines attention. (i.e. write a page on 'fine wines from France', etc that should include keywords in prominent places (in headers, links, text, images 'alt' tags).

3. Get links to your site from other wine sites and the major directories (Yahoo, DMOZ, etc).

4. Make sure you publish the sitemap. It's a shortcut to getting your whole site indexed.

Google will often take a few weeks to index a whole site after picking up the front page. Follow the few steps above and you'll be fine.

Mike

[lsfinewines]

Thanks for that advice Mike. As ever, much appreciated. You mention I should "publish" the site map. It is there for all to see, and I include advice to use it, on my home page, but is there something else I should do to make it more visible? Can you elaborate, please? Sorry if I appear dumb!
Thanks again.

[cdicken]

Don't worry.

As long as your site map is online, and you have a link to it on your home page, your site will be indexed fine.

[Mike Hughes]

Chris is right. By 'publish' I just meant 'include'.

Mike