Meta Tags

[znord737]

Can some kind person tell me how I can check the meta tags on a website?

Is it an easy job to add meta tags to an existing website?

I am using Vista Home with Internet Explorer

Thank you for your responses

znord737

[Gertrude the Wombat]

(1) View source, any browser will do this
(2) Yes, just edit the tags into the page

But why would you want to? - meta tags are just a partially-broken workaround mechanism for the failure of the page author to get what they want to into the headers properly. Anything you can do in meta tags you can do better just be putting the headers in the proper place.

[znord737]

Thank you for your response most helpful.

Reason I posed the question was that I have a friend who has recently had a web page designed to assist with their commercial interests in the Med Area. They run holiday apartments and are dismayed with the number of inquiries they have been receiving, (very low).

I did a search on Google and Yahoo their web site never appeared once.
When I typed their commercial name in the site came up straight away. Which leads me to believe that unless someone knows their commercial name their success on the search engines will be minimal. Their commercial name has no connotations with Holiday Apartments at all . I believe that by inputting the appropriate meta tags on the web site , should anyone search for Holiday Apartments or Accommodation etc etc the chances of them getting a larger response will be greatly improved.
Are my assumptions correct or am I completely off track on this issue?

Thank you

znord737

[Bushfiva]

These days, you're pretty much off track. You need links to and from reputable sites, optimise site layout so Google and Yahoo bots can traverse it easily, have content that the bots perceive as useful. Basically, in Google's case, you're trying to drive up your PageRank. You can install the Google toolbar in your browser to check pagerank, for example. Don't be tempted to buy links: if Google detects this, you'll be on page 7 bazillion forever.

Search Matt Cutts and read some of his stuff to get a feel for how it all works, and what Google wants to see.

Added: Depending on the quality of links, it could take anything from days to months for the bots to start finding the site. To give you some idea of what's ultimately possible, one of my sites is now indexed every 10 minutes or so.

[Gertrude the Wombat]

Ah! - you asked the wrong question.

You asked "tell me about meta tags" when you actually wanted to know "tell me about search engine optimisation", to which, as Bushfiva points out, meta tags are essentially irrelevant.

So my answer won't have been helpful ...

Here's how I get a very good Google listing for my services as a contract software engineer: put a popular free public service on my site which lots of people use and have linked to over the years ... and I was there before Google anyway.

[tired-flyboy]

SEO is an art form.

As Bushfiva writes site linking is one of the best ways to do this.

Another is to go to a forum (such as the hosting companies, or a design haven) and find the enivatible link to New Site (or site critique).

Put up the site for critique and you'll get a fair few hits. Will help the ranking slightly but not that much.

[znord737]

Lady and Gentlemen,
Thank you all for your various inputs, all very useful to a novice like myelf.
In the interim I am off to study what Matt Catts says about the web page ratings .

Thank you all once again

znord737

[BOAC]

znord737 - look at registering for the Google Webmaster service. Lots of help there.