wow...confused about SEO advice

danielwayne34 · #1 05-11-2008

I have done alot of reading this weekend. With all the Q & A on all kinds of message boards, I seem to be more confused than when i started. One thing I have NOT ran across though is how the pages are to be made. Should they be made with ".HTML" or ".PHP" and if either, which works best?

I keep hearing about meta tags and such, what about comment tags, for example...
. This never shows up on the page, just within the HTML. A few extra brownie points i would assume.

What about subdomains. From what I have read, yoursite.com will only count twice when (and if) google picks it up, so for each subdomain created, there is another 2 correct?

beu · #2 05-12-2008

Welcome to SEW! PHP is a scripting language used in many case to produce HTML dynamically. Google should treat subdomains the same as subdirectories.

cryptblade · #3 05-12-2008

wow, what you're asking is a loaded question. very loaded question. actually lots of answers here in THIS forum.

...as for the comments question, not sure where you got that. if you are asking if comments help you rank, no. neither do meta tags.

as you read, don't think. just absorb. then experiment. as Nobutada said to Tom Cruise in the last samurai - "too many mind...no mind"

Marcia · #4 05-12-2008

Quote:

Should they be made with ".HTML" or ".PHP" and if either, which works best?

It makes no difference for rankings what the file extensions are, but it's probably best to use .htm or .html (which is technology independent) in case a site should change technology.

chuck Miser · #5 05-12-2008

I think that I have to disagree that meta tags don't count. Take your description and title out of your meta and then the engines are receiving no guidance to what you think the site-page is about. So then they do keyword analysis of heading title and content and the terms that come up more often are what they will assume is your subject.

Comment tags don't do anything that I have noticed. In the past people would put them in as well as copy write info and some other little add ons to get more keywords into the meta tags but that is all in the past now as it gives no benefit that I am seeing.

metasynman · #6 05-12-2008

You can build pages in HTML, XHTML, XML, PHP, .NET, or whatever you want. The point isn't what code is being used, but HOW it is being used. Following SEO guidelines when building any code for a site is what is really important.

Comment tags are entirely ignored now, so don't bother with those except to, well, make actual comments about your code.

Meta tags are important in terms of what the engines display, but not for the actual rankings.

Subdomains are entirely acceptable assuming they're completely separate content. If you have a main site about widgets, you don't want to make a subdomain just for the blue ones. Having more content under one domain is better for overall content quality measurements with the SE's. Save subdomains for something completely separate like widget forums or widget customer support.

JohnW · #7 05-12-2008

>I think that I have to disagree that meta tags don't count. Take your description and title out of your meta and then the engines are receiving no guidance to what you think the site-page is about.

There is really no proper use for the meta title,IMO,you should only use the HTML title tag. As to description meta tag, it has uses but has really has no effect on ranking at Google, other than to hurt you if you screw it up.

>so for each subdomain created, there is another 2 correct?

No. Used to be true, but not any more.

Chris Boggs · #8 05-12-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnW

No. Used to be true, but not any more.

Tell that to Google Check out this search: http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...US237&q=google or even http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&r...236US237&q=msn or http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&r...6US237&q=yahoo.

Not sure where the quote is but Matt Cutts (from Google if you are a newbie and don't know better ax someone) backpedaled a bit when asked if the "no more than one subdomain" listing (plus and indent) was going to be the rule. For brands like the above that have capitalized on subdomains over the years and built tons of links and traffic to them, the sky is still the limit with subdomains. Will this work if you start now? Who knows...

Meta keywords tag probably doesn't matter...but it can help with some enterprise site-search systems...I still think the title and Meta Descritpion do matter.

Marcia · #9 05-12-2008

Quote:

For brands like the above that have capitalized on subdomains over the years and built tons of links and traffic to them, the sky is still the limit with subdomains. Will this work if you start now? Who knows...

Chris, they may all be indexed, but is big-brand subdomain spamming still working for long tail search terms like it was for years, hogging 60% (or more) of the search results?

Indexing and clustering for queries are different issues.

cryptblade · #10 05-13-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by chuck Miser

I think that I have to disagree that meta tags don't count.

I think you deserve to be eviscerated for saying that.

But to give you the benefit of the doubt, let's break down what you did say. Meta DESCRIPTION doesn't help you rank. Yes, it's important - because when you DO rank, you want the best description displayed for click-through.

Meta KWs don't help you to rank

Title tags are not meta tags

Meta "SEO" doesn't exist nor do most any meta tags, particularly recognized by Google:

http://www.google.com/support/webmas...topic=&type =

It's not going to help you to rank but if you do it improperly, it could hurt you, as JohnW already pointed out.

Marcia · #11 05-13-2008

So then cryptblade, Google is the only crap game in town anymore?

meta keywords = identification purposes only (by one engine at least, that was mentioned publicly by one of their moguls)

meta description = maybe we should think again about that one. If the OP should be eviscerated, maybe others should be lobotomized.

JohnW · #12 05-13-2008

>Tell that to Google

Yeah, good catch. Still happens sometimes when you use the domain/company name as the term but I haven't seen it helping for regular searches in a long while.

beu · #13 05-13-2008

Matt Cutts on Sub vs. Dir:
http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/015621.html

How Google uses meta:
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogsp...meta-tags.html

cryptblade · #14 05-13-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marcia

So then cryptblade, Google is the only crap game in town anymore?

There are other search engines?

*shrugs*
Word is, the latest Google-Killer is gonna blow this whole meta tags out of the water! It's called Powersecret... or Powerset... or UnlimitedPower

...yeah...sometime in the year 2000, we'll all be singing a different toone...I mean tune.

Marcia · #15 05-13-2008

Believe it or not, there are sites making respectable income from search engines other than Google.

cryptblade · #16 05-13-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marcia

Believe it or not, there are sites making respectable income from search engines other than Google.

I do. But facetious is as facetious does. Some days I feel punchy and give punchy posts. Other times I don't.

danielwayne34 · #17 05-15-2008

Ok well, a friend of mine keeps telling me to start making tons of HTML pages for my site. Since this is for advertising purposes and I am a markeeting idiot, what folder must i create or where do i put these pages so they to can be index by crawlers so they can be listed.

Let me tell you alittle about me, this may shed some light on the help that i need...

My wife and I own a site and have had it for the last 4-5 yrs or so and we are making nothing on it and dont know why. I drive truck and make it home every weekend to spend time with our 15, 12, 2 yr old girls plus try to find the time to do this. Been doing this for the past 3 yrs. I think its obvious i have no idea what i am doing, marketing wise or we would be making a few hundred bucks at this time i would think. Did i happen to mention my wife is 3 months along. The i work for carried no benefits at all except 1 which i can be home every weekend. I make between 500-700 bucks a week so cant really afford to quit.

I quess i am not wanting to become a millionaire or anything, just to match what i make now make is all in case something were to happen to me. Just a little guidance since i am really not sure what to do. I have submitted our main site to a bunch of engines but YAHOO is wanting a ton of money i read just to be "considered" for inclusion.

Here is what is going through my head, this may help...

I hear engines will only list your site twice. Dont matter if its like http://yoursite.com or http://yoursite/folder/.

So then i read about the subs like http://folder/yoursite.com, and http://folder2/yoursite.com, etc, etc. From what i have read, each of those are picked up twice as the spiders sees those as different sites. So repeating this and having say 500 different folders, you can be listed 1000 different places? Plus the name of the folder, say http://dating/yoursite.com. 'DATING', 'FORUM', etc would be considered another crucial word from what i have read. If not for google, there are other engines or does this not work for anything?

When i make the html pages for my wife for advertising, do i try and never repeat a word thats on a previous html page i make.

Would i put all these pages into the same folder, seperate folders or just throw them all into where my main folder where my /index.php file is. Maybe i am making things more difficult than i need to but WELCOME TO MY LIFE!

I would love for my wife to be able to do this fulltime while i am out driving but if i have no idea, how am i going to give her a clue on how to do it

Our site has its own directory built in, a place for articles, stories, news. I would post it to give you an idea but i dont want to get kicked out of here for people thinkin i was spamming.

Anyways, better go get dressed. Going for the babies first ultrasound today .

Later...

~Daniel

danielwayne34 · #18 05-15-2008

I also was told by my friend to link all pages together. Email all related sites and ask for link trades.

BOSE is a good name so if i had a speaker business for an example, would a search engine pick up the same kind of importance and list it accordingly if i did the subs like http://bose.example.com I am just trying to understand how this all works and not trying to cheat anyone. There is just so much and its all an ongoing process.