Pages

Search Optimization

 (not available in some versions of the site builder)

Meta Tags are used to store information usually relevant to browsers and search engines.  There are several kinds of meta tags, but the most important for search engine indexing are the Keywords meta tag and the Description meta tag.  The Keywords meta tag is used to list the words or phrases that best describe the content of the page.  The Description meta tag is used to add a brief one or two sentence  description of the page.  Both the Keywords and the Description are used by search engines in adding a page to their index.

The Edit Meta Tags tab enables you to add Meta Tags to your page.

Meta Tags:

Title

The name that will be displayed in the Title Bar when the page is displayed.  If omitted, the page name will be used.

Keywords

Text to fill the Keywords meta tag.  Some search engines (though increasingly fewer) use this for search indexes.  Most search engines now get their keywords from the body (i.e. this is the text boxes) of the pages.

Description

Text to fill the Description meta tag.  Some search engines also use the Description to show the searcher a summary of the contents of the page.

Keyword Density

A keyword density map is shown to give you an indication of how often words are used on your page.  One technique for optimizing search is to pick the most important words that you believe will be used when people are searching and would be interested in your page and to use these words as much as you can within the text of your page.  Finding creative ways to use these keywords in context is part of the art of search optimization.

Site Maps

Google allows you to create a map of your site such that it can optimize the intervals at which it "crawls" your site to look for updates.  Creating a site map won't make your site rank higher but it can mean that it will end up being more up-to-date in Google's index.  To find out more about site maps visit the Google site.

The site builder can create a site map for you each time you publish your site.  You will be offered the option of producing the site map when you go to publish.  The site map options are:

• Exclude From siteMaps - do not publish an entry for this page in the site map
• Change Frequency - How often you plan to update the page
• Priority - The relative priority of this page over other pages in your site
• Verification - A place to paste in the verification code that you will be given by Google after you submit your site map to them.  This ensures that you have control over the site and that no one can submit a site map on your behalf.