Should I MetaTag Every Page?

As a Webmaster or an Internet website promoter, it seems that every day you are playing the page views and visitors game. Not a day goes by where you don’t try every little trick, every single technique that you can think of in order to get more people to visit your website. Whether it is advertising via banner ads, buying space in e-mail newsletters, or, sometimes the most tedious task of all, advertising via search engines, you spend countless hours trying to inch that access counter a little higher.

I know… I do the same thing as well :)

One of the many tricks webmasters and promoters use to try to increase page views is Meta tagging their websites. By placing and tags in webpages, hopeful webmasters try to give search engines more reasons to give their works higher placements in search results.

Let’s backtrack… for those who do not know what Meta tagging is, it is the process of singling out specific keywords and a descriptive phrase that describe one’s website. These tags are placed in the section of a website and try to guide search engines into indexing a site based on the keywords placed inside the Meta tags. This means that when someone types a keyword placed in your Meta tags, search engines may rank your webpage higher in the results screen. Some search engines use these tags, some don’t, but it’s common knowledge to go ahead and use these tags anyway for those search engines that do place an emphasis on such text.

Although most webmasters take great care in making sure their index pages are Meta tagged with descriptive keywords and an appealing description, many question the need to spend as much attention on other pages of the site. After all, isn’t it the goal to get people to visit a website through its front page, not through its side doors? Doesn’t the front page have the most useful information about a website, including its purpose, and hopefully, a good navigation system? Why bother with the side pages when one can spend their time concentrating on the site’s home?

Because, my friend, in the webpage numbers game, it doesn’t matter whether or not people come into the site through its front door, windows, attic, back door, or basement! The goal is to get people to visit the website – period - via any page possible.

Nevertheless, many webmasters question whether or not they should Meta tag every page on their site. My answer is a resounding YES!!!!! A website is not one page (unless it’s a very small or poor one). A website is a collection of pages, each page geared towards different subjects and possibly different audiences. Why settle with having just one page on a search engine, one page that is geared towards a general audience, when you can have lots of pages on a search engine, each geared towards specific audiences?