eDirectory User Manual » Optimizing Your Site Using Meta Tags http://www.edirectory.com/manual/v7 your ultimate guide to the leading online directory software Tue, 17 Aug 2010 06:43:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Optimizing Your Site Using Meta Tags http://www.edirectory.com/manual/v7/archives/669 http://www.edirectory.com/manual/v7/archives/669#comments Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:51:32 +0000 Content Writer http://38.127.130.63/?p=669 Adding Meta tags is proven to be an effective way of optimizing a site. We do not want to mislead you that these Meta tags would bring your directory to the number one spot in the search engine results. They are just a tool that will help improve your standings in search engines. Use them with other search engine optimization (SEO) strategies to garner more page views.

A Meta tag is a hidden tag that lives in the <head> of an HTML document. It is used to supply additional information about the HTML document. To view a sample Meta tag code, right-click on any page of the directory front, and select View Source or View Page Source option. After doing this, the source code (image shown below) will be automatically opened in an editor.

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Meta tags that are specifically designed to improve a site’s standing in search engines are the following:

<meta name=”description” content=”Dev Custom work Area”>

Use this tag to describe what your page is about. Engines that use it will supply the content of this tag when displaying a list of links.

<meta name=”keywords” content=”Dev Custom work Area”>

Use this tag to help search engines to categorize your site, and to allow people to find your pages more quickly.

What’s good about the eDirectory application is that it provides the interface where you can just input the content values (e.g., Dev Custom work Area). Once these values are submitted, the Meta tag code like what you see on the example above automatically changes.

The web pages that could be optimized directly in the directory application include the main pages (e.g., Listing Home, Event Home, etc), the category, the location and the item pages. The optimization procedures can be performed on the Site Manager account’s SEO Center, a white-hat method designed to make the SEO efforts easier without having to go into the actual software code.

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Category page is the one you see when you are browsing by category in the directory front, while location page appears when you are browsing by location.

Another important thing to remember in optimizing is that most search engines look at the page title. Be sure to always have a relevant <title> on your pages (shown also in the image above). This will improve your ranking more than just Meta tags alone. Title appears on the top of the browser and window as shown below:

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To optimize a main page, do the following:

  1. In the left navigation panel, click on the SEO Center menu. After doing this, a page will appear like the one shown below:

    OPTIMIZING_YOUR_HOMEPAGE_img3

  2. Click on the link that appears in the Homepage Optimization area. After doing this, a page will appear like the one shown below:

    OPTIMIZING_YOUR_HOMEPAGE_img4

  3. Click on any sub-menus on the top of this page (e.g., General, Listing, etc.)
  4. Select the page that you want to optimize by clicking on the Page Name or the seo icon. After doing this, a form will appear like the one shown below:

    OPTIMIZING_YOUR_HOMEPAGE_img5

  5. In the Title box, type the text that you want to appear on top of the browser or window where the page is opened.
  6. In the Description and Keyword boxes, provide the content values for the Meta tags that will be embedded in the page. Description can be in a sentence or paragraph form, while Keywords are commonly a set of words separated by comma.

    DOCUMENTATION_CONVENTIONS_img1We advise you to have the Title, Description, and Keyword available in all enabled languages in your directory so if you change your default site language, they will also change in accordance with the language.

  7. Click on the Save button.


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To optimize a category page, do the following:

  1. In the left navigation panel, click on the SEO Center menu.
  2. Click on the link that appears in the Category Optimization area. After doing this, a page will appear like the one shown below:

    OPTIMIZING_YOUR_HOMEPAGE_img7

  3. Click on any sub-menus on the top of this page (e.g., Listing Categories, Event Categories, etc.)
  4. Select the category that you want to optimize by clicking on the Category Title or the seo icon.
  5. In the SEO Center area (image shown below), do the following:

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    1. In the Friendly Title box, type the text that you want to appear in the browser as the category’s friendly URL. Friendly URL is the feature available in eDirectory which allows Site Manager and Members to create search engine URLs.

      DOCUMENTATION_CONVENTIONS_img3The Category “Computer” with Friendly Title “computers_for_sale” will be available through the URL: http://demodirectory.com/listing/guide/computers_for_sale; and its Sub-category “Software Development” will be available through the URL: http://demodirectory.com /listing/guide/computers_for_sale /software-development.

    2. In the Meta Description and Meta Keyword boxes, provide the content values for the Meta tags that will be embedded in the category page. Meta Description can be in a sentence or paragraph form, while Meta Keywords are commonly a set of words separated by comma.
  6. We advise you to have the Friendly Title, Description, and Keyword available in all enabled languages in your directory so if you change your default site language, the title and the content values for the Meta tags will also change in accordance with the language. To do this, go to the Language area (image shown below) and do the following:

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    1. Select the language by checking the option (e.g. Portuguese, Espanol, and Francais).
    2. Provide the information being asked in the Friendly Title, Description, and Keywords boxes as what you did previously in Step 5. (For now, ignore the Title and Keywords for the search boxes found also in the page.)

      DOCUMENTATION_CONVENTIONS_img1Selecting a language in this area does not mean changing the default site language. It just means you are making the SEO information available in the selected language.

  7. Click on the Submit button.


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To optimize a location page, do the following:

  1. In the left navigation panel, click on the SEO Center menu.
  2. Click on the link that appears in the Location Optimization area. After doing this, a page will appear like the one shown below:

    OPTIMIZING_YOUR_HOMEPAGE_img11

  3. Click on any sub-menus on the top of this page (e.g., Countries, States, etc.)
  4. Select the location that you want to optimize.
  5. Click on the Edit button.
  6. In the SEO Center area (image shown below), do the following:

    OPTIMIZING_YOUR_HOMEPAGE_img12

    1. In the Friendly Title box, type the text that you want to appear in the browser as the location’s friendly URL. Friendly URL is the feature available in eDirectory which allows Site Manager and Members to create search engine URLs.

      DOCUMENTATION_CONVENTIONS_img3The Location “United States” with Friendly Title “united-states” will be available through the URL: http://demodirectory.com/listing/location/united-states; and its State “California” will be available through the URL: http://demodirectory.com/listing/location/united-states/california.

    2. In the Meta Description and Meta Keyword boxes, provide the content values for the Meta tags that will be embedded in the location page. Meta Description can be in a sentence or paragraph form, while Meta Keywords are commonly a set of words separated by comma.
    3. Click on the Update button.


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To optimize an item page, do the following:

  1. In the left navigation panel, click on the SEO Center menu.
  2. Click on any link under Item Optimization area. After doing this, a page will appear like the one shown below:

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    The page varies depending on the link you select.

  3. Select the item that you want to optimize by clicking on the seo icon. After doing this, a form will appear like the one shown below:

    OPTIMIZING_YOUR_HOMEPAGE_img14

  4. In the Page Name box (under Friendly URL), type the text that you want to appear in the browser as the item’ friendly URL. Friendly URL is the feature available in eDirectory which allows Site Manager and Members to create search engine URLs.

    DOCUMENTATION_CONVENTIONS_img3The Item “John Auto Repair” with Friendly URL “john-auto-repair” will be available through the URL: http://demodirectory.com/listing/john-auto-repair.html.

  5. In the SEO Description and SEO Keywords areas, provide the content values for the Meta tags that will be embedded in the item’s page. Meta Description can be in a sentence or paragraph form, while Meta Keywords are commonly a set of words separated by comma.

    DOCUMENTATION_CONVENTIONS_img1We advise you to have the SEO Description and SEO Keywords available in all enabled languages in your directory so if you change your default site language, they will also change in accordance with the language.

  6. Click on the Submit button.


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Why You Need To Optimize Your Site, Submitting Your Site To Search Engines

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