Canonicalization Element

I have been noticing that a lot of websites are now including the Canonicalization Element (CE).

This is a good thing for the robots to identify the ‘core’ or the ‘authority’ page of multiple duplicate content.

“A canonical page is the preferred version of a set of pages with highly similar content.” is Google’s definition of CE.

Now this definition is general, and the exampled they used was for a website that contain domain.com or putting the www’s infront of the domain name. Most websites with Windows Server have this problem, and it’s basically the same page but a different address/link.

The point of using the CE is to ‘hint’ to the robots which page  is the ‘authority’ out of a set of pages on your website that have HIGHLY similar content. If that doesn’t ring a bell in your head or have a lightbulb turn on, then you need to stop reading this post.

Blogs are NOTORIOUS for having d u p l i c a t e content. Let me explain…..

I write this post, and I include it in 1-2 blog categories, AND added a few tags. I also added the nice permalinks.

The issue is that this post will appear in my categories (2pages), tags (I have 4 tags=4pages), and of course the post link.

2 cats + 4 tags + 1 post link = 7 pages on your website with the SAME CONTENT. This is why it’s important to put a No Follow Attribute on category pages, tag pages, and the archives.

The Canonicalization Element is supposed to help avoid having this problem of duplicate content.

So on what page should you put this CE? I think it would make sense to ONLY put it on the actual post page.

If you put it all on the 7 pages, then the effect of the CE will be wasted. Now you’re back to square 1 in having the robots pick which page is the authority or core page out of the set of pages.

Here’s the definition again “A canonical page is the preferred version of a set of pages with highly similar content.”

The canonical page = Post page. Set of pages = categories, tags, and archives.

New definition = “The post page is the preferred version of the category, tag, and archive pages which display highly similar content”

Make sure to use this SEO factor the correct way!

HTML Meta Tag Description

Your HTML Meta Tag Description is very important if you’re looking to obtain more traffic from search engines. This is the second place where a vistor looks at to determine whether they will click on your website or not. Your sales pitch should be in your description tag not in your title tag. It’s important to pick a good description to have high click rate from search engines.

A SEO description tag is basically a description meta tag that has been optimized for the search engines. Description tags should contain your most important keywords, and should not be more than 2 sentences. It should be around 200 characters, and should have eye catching words that will convert search engine searchers to website visitors.

On my Meta Tag Title post I wrote about using SEO in title tags.

The example used was (not real)

Getting High Results with Lala’s Inc
Feb 1, 2007 … High results proven with Lala’s 10 year experience in the marketing industry. …
www.lala’sinc.com/ -

A lot of people wonder why a description will show the date with “…” following the the first/last part of the text. If your page does not contain a description tag then the search engines will pick one for you. In this case the search engines decided to use the date of the article, and the first sentence of the article. As you can see the description is vague, and it may not convert the search engine traffic to website visitors.

This is a better example

Getting High Results with Lala’s Inc
Receive high Search Engine Page Results with Lala’s 10 year experience in the marketing industry.
Convert Search Engine traffic to website visitors!
www.lala’sinc.com/ -

If we were to search ”High Search Engine Results” on a search engine then it would appear like this

Getting High Results with Lala’s Inc
Receive high Search Engine Page Results with Lala’s 10 year experience in the marketing industry.
Convert Search Engine traffic to website visitors!
www.lala’sinc.com/ -

If most of your description text is bolded then it would be a lot more appealing than the other results.

Here is a WRONG EXAMPLE of description tags. DO NOT stuff the description tag with keywords! It looks sloppy, and alot of search engine users can now spot a spammer with keyword stuffing.

Getting High Results with Lala’s Inc
Search Engine, SE, SEO, Search Engine Page, Search Engine Page Results, Traffic
www.lala’sinc.com/ -

One last thing is that many website owners confuse the title tag with the description tag. These two tags should be look at as writing movie titles. The title tags are the name of the movie, and the description is what describes the movie. Your SEO description should be short and concise. Make sure to use meta tag analyzers to view how your page will appear on Google. First impression is everything, so make sure to write something appealing in the description with 2 or 3 keywords.

Meta Tag Title

Your Tag Title is VERY important when ranking on the Search Engines. You will notice whenever you search something on Google that the top 10 results will have your search terms in the Title tag. Google also will bold the search term keywords that are in the Title tag. (title tags are different from meta tag title)

One of the biggest mistakes that most ‘SEO experts’ make is placing a company name in the title tag.

Let’s suppose you search on Google for a key term ‘lala’s inc’. This is what the listing may look like (example not real)

Getting High Results with Lala’s Inc
Feb 1, 2007 … High results proven with Lala’s 10 year experience in the marketing industry. …
www.lala’sinc.com/ -

You will notice that the keywords Lala’s and Inc are bolded

A lot of people will jump up for joy when they see that their website is ranking on the search engines for their company name.

So what’s the issue here? The issue is “Who searches for a company name to find a product they’re looking for?”

Unless it’s a well known brand name…it doesn’t seem there’s a lot of people who search for a company name.

Users search for keywords, and not company names. I understand that most companies want to build their ‘brand’ but it will hurt you more than it will help you with SEO

Placing irrelevant words in your title tag is a waste of space. Make sure to use keywords, and for goodness sakes don’t use the whole dictionary to spam the title tag. Most experts agree that anything over 80 characters is too much.

I don’t try to put more than 3 set of keywords in the title tag. If there are too many keywords for that page then you need to write another page for that specific topic, and use specific keywords for that page. This is also better for SEO on ranking for that term, and of course building more content on your website.

On this web page you will notice that I used 2 sets of key terms, and I’m using the “|” symbol when separating my key terms.

Meta Tag Title | Meta Tag Help

Using commas makes the whole title look spammy. Make sure to use keywords that are found in the content of your page.

ALSO, make sure to use keywords that get searched for, and to use it in the order that it gets searched.

I was planning to name my page Title Meta tags, but a quick search shows that Meta Tag Title is the common way everyone searches it. When someone searches it on Google they will see that G will bold the keywords, and it will be in the order they searched. If you have it scattered throughout the title then I would assume that people will be less likely to click on your link. Meta tag title is different from the title tag element. I used the keyterm meta tag title because it seems that’s what everyone searches for.

If you change your titles to the correct way/order it should be in, then you will see a pretty good change in your rankings.

Using Bold or Strong tags

SEO Tip: Never ‘bold‘ a page or a paragraph. Whether using b or strong it’s important ONLY to bold keywords or links with anchor text.

I see a lot of websites that ‘bold’ the whole page or a whole paragraph. Many do this to make the letters stand out, but it will only hurt your web page. You will lose the effect of using these tags, and there will not be an emphasis on the words you may to stand out for your readers. You should use b or strong tags to emphasize keywords on a page, and not irrelevant words.

It’s like driving on a road, and you come across a speed bump. The speed bump is unnatural to the road, and the point of it being there is to tell you to slow down. Spiderbots scan your page looking for these speedbumps (tags), but if the whole page is bolded then it will lose the effect of this tag.

Also, make sure to bold an anchor text link. SEO for Dummies <<<< like that. There are a few emphasis on this link. The first part is that it’s a link pointing to my homepage which is also known as internal linking since it’s done ‘internally’. The second part is that it contains keywords, and doesn’t just say ‘click here’ or only shows the URL.  The third part is that it’s bolded. I always use this format when it comes to anchor text links especially if it’s a backlink. If you’re writing a blog, I wouldn’t recommend using it if you’re using a sentence as an anchor text. I would recommend using this in a 1-4 keyword phrase.

Here is a video of Matt Cutts going over using b or strong. Matt Cutts states that Google treats the b and strong tags with the same weight.