Page 3 - GaryTheScubaGuy's Top 12 SEO Tips for 2008

Guys, Guys...lets not beat up this thread too bad , if I need to refer back to it; the less pages of BS to sort through the better

Just my two cents...whatever makes you all happy I suppose .

and thanks Gary, nice work so far!

5. Write your meta descriptions

Meta descriptions are part of the off-page code you find when you go to a page and look at your source code - usually near the top you'll see '<META NAME="Description" CONTENT='. This is another element the search engines look at to determine the theme of the site. More importantly they almost all use it to describe the page in your search results. So if you are searching for 'blue widget', the results you will get have that keyword in bold. This will make it stand out more and increase conversions. It will also bold the partial word (I.e. buy blue widgets in Akron) in the title and the URL as well.

6. Check your internal canonicalisation

Websites can have more than one URL. (e.g. http://www.bluewidgets.com and http://www.bluewidgets.co.uk). If you have been around for a while and people are linking to you they could be linking to either URL. By designating a primary it gets 100% of the above benefits. Go to Google's Webmaster Central and in the tools section designate one as your primary. Do a 301 redirect on the non-primary page to pass on any backlink juice, PR and authority that the page has to the primary page. Internal navigation needs to be checked to be sure all links go to the correct version as well. Bad navigation is common, especially with websites constantly being populated or worked on by many individuals. Pick one and use it throughout.

Next: 7. Finding What Terms Are Converting Into Sales/Tracking Keywords to Conversion With Weighting

Gary I am following this thread from the beginning,but haven't found any thing to post (as all suggestions are excellent).
But I would like to say something on this point.
I agree that good description along with the SERP (snippet) is really helpful to get a good conversion rate.
But as per my knowledge, Google show the most relevant textual part of the content with the searched terms;show as snippets.It may be the description or may not be.In place of putting more concentration on the description part, I think if we concentrate on the body content part it will serve the same purpose.Isn't it?
May be I am wrong,but this is what I feel.
Please correct me if I am wrong at any point.

nice info
thnks

...and if your term isn't in the Meta - what will it do?

...increases bonafide conversions - or is this merely "fluff" to help justify the rational for using it.

... I'm quite disappointed that someone with a wealth of background in Longtail targeting would post this as a top tip...

...is it your advice that SEOs are at their best when they only cover up problems?

My thinking is -- fixing the underlying problem is a better course of action than covering it up.

Bad snippets... aren't bad because search engines want them that way or desire you to use Meta Descriptions - bad snippets are usually bad because the person responsible for site appeal doesn't know any better OR can't see the snippets as longtail searchers do.

Meta descriptions are for amateurs that can't figure out page layout issues.

Lastly, how does one determine "increase conversions"? YOu must have data to support this conclusion... or is this merely an assumption to support the tip?

It amazes me that "stickyeyes" would design their website appropriately showing text cache so that when the query searched isn't in the Meta Description a darn good snippet appears...

I would think that's an important "STEP" missed in your top tips... BECAUSE most people use Meta Description to hide bad snippets...

By merely stating "use Meta Description - it will increase your conversions" is IMHO irresponsible and morally wrong.

Your teaching people that don't have your expertise to hide the problems of their websites rather than fixing them.

The Stickeyes website will likely never have a poor snippet seen by anyone because of the div layout... NOT because it uses Meta Descriptions.

...other websites are not that fortunate - primarily because people just say "use Metas".

That's bad SEOING.

I didn't... I said - that's a site that was designed correctly - I'm sorry if you thought I meant you did something correctly!

I don't agree with Gary on the whole logo Google link thing. Seems like a quick way to get blacklisted (unless what he really meant was to change the link from "/" to "http://www.fulldomain.com", but even then I'm not sure how that would help)...

But I'm a self proclaimed idiot, so I've got nimble there

I'll refrain from commenting on the use of meta descriptions for conversions and snippets - Gary and fathom pretty much cover both attitudes and everyone should be able to make up his own mind based on their statements.

But another point in Gary's list caught my attention:


This sounds as if you're saying that meta descriptions actually have an influence on the SERPs, since they are supposed to help the SEs to determine the topic of a page. Regardless of the major debate about meta description above, so far basically everyone here has agreed that the meta description has no influence on the SERPs. Can you clarify your statement here?

And finally: Thanks for taking the time to compile and present such a good list of things to consider in SEO, Gary!!!

I won't speak for Gary but I think everyone agreeds that Meta Description will in some small way influence ranks... that is to say in a non-sense world of tests on a term "00dkrysjn74nhjdkjf" will appear even if it only in the Meta Description content area...

...but that's a far cry from aiding real world results even on the most obscure "qualified term".

In the top 30 of anything remotely worthy of a "legit click" -- it won't affect a single placement change.

Okay let me just say, SEO isn't all SERP's, its also about converting the traffic that you do get.

Meta descriptions will not improve your SERP's...I never said that they did. What I said was;