The Title Tag

2006-07-16T14:05:00.000-04:00

The title tag may be the most important tag within your web page html.

Open your favorite search engine and search for any phrase. The search engine will display its results using the following format:

"A Bold Line To Click"
"Several lines that describe the web page"

"A Bold Line To Click" will be the text within the title tag of that page. The title tag therefore becomes the first element of your page that influences your viewer. The viewer will click on the results that emotionally appear to answer their "search reference phrase."

Researching that title link indicates that search engines display 65 characters or less and truncate longer title tags using 3 dots. Search engines also will give the title tag a higher value if the words also appear in the text of the page. In fact, many search engine experts believe that the search engine will devalue the page if the title tag words do NOT appear in page text.

To change or create your title tags is usually as simple as choosing "page properties" within your web site creation software and adding the correct text. If you don't change the tag it may default to the first words on the page, use a generic phrase such as "new page", or leave it blank.

Choose a key word phrase or even a few phrases from your page text. Edit the phrases by removing generic adjectives, non-valued words, or even your company name. Remember to keep the final text to 65 or less characters. The resulting tag should be the search terms that you believe someone would use to find this page in a search engine.

The title tag will not guarantee that a page will climb to the top of the search rankings, however it guarantee that you have 2 chances. One, if it does show up in search results, the viewer will know what the page is about and offer them a good opportunity to click on your page. Two, the search engine will "read" your title tag, find the same key words on the page, and the title tag will be a positive influence within the search engine matrix.

John Henderson
www.inetmarketing.com

Webmasters Should Learn HTML

2006-03-07T15:48:00.000-05:00

With all the software available that automatically creates web pages, it is still important to learn HTML.

While not a true programing language, HTML is a system of tags that communicates between your browser and the web server. The tags indicate how the text and images are to be displayed.

Consider the typewriter. Hold down the key and the text will be capitalized until you release the key. Formtating HTML tags have a beginning tag to start the formatting and an ending tag to return to the default stage. Example: <>Bold These Words< /b > While a page can become complicated, learning a handful of tags will allow you to understand most pages.

The Why!
The first question I ask a new client is "Do you have any sites on the Internet that you like?" We then walk through a series of "What do you like best?" and "What would you do different?" I can view the HTML of those sites to see how the example sites were built. Remember that the text and images are copyrighted but I can learn how they got there.

Willie Nelson tells the story that he wrote "On the Road Again" on a blank napkin in just a few minutes. I have a problem getting a great idea from a blank screen. But I can take a few sites that a client likes, pull together an idea or 2, and create a working site with a positive head start that the client will like. I will already know what colors to work with and the level of technology that is within the client's budget.

Overtime I have created a folder of shortcuts. HTML coding that I have used before to create special formatting or on-screen actions. Regardless of my authoring software, I can open the "HTML code" view and simply cut and paste bits of HTML tags instead of recreating new tags. Pasting code in not an option in the design or "what you see is what you get" view.

HTML Class Samples provide a few beginning lessons from my HTML seminar. You can view the source code of each lesson and work out the new tags. A step by step explanation of HTML is also posted.

I-Net Marketing

The Title Tag

Webmasters Should Learn HTML