I think it would be great to have a forum like this so that we could help each other share tips and boost our SEO.

Maybe I'm just missing it?

If you want one, then make one. I do SEO and have a tutorial on my website.

Check it out at:

http://www.innovatewebdevelopment.com/support.html

contact me if you have any questions, but its a pretty good little tutorial.

Thanks for that, it was helpful. I do have a question about the meta tags...

After reading about the repeating of words, I fear I might be doing that too much. My understanding of meta tags was that you would want meta tags that were what people would be searching. So I've repeated fabrication several times because of the various phrases that could be. Is that not the case?

Here's my meta data:

First problem is that you are limited to 23 words, so you have too many. Second, you are correct in the types of words to include, but you do not want to repeat a word more than three times because then google will de-rank you because it thinks you are trying to "spam" its bot. The idea of keywords is this: find 23 of the best keywords that describe the content on "that page!" From there you want to match your content to your keywords. So if your page is on the "coffee cup html editor", you will want to use that specific phrase often in your content (and it should be in your keywords as well.) Don't use, for example, "the html editor" or "the editor". The goal is to repeat your keywords listed in your meta tags in your content.

The reason for this is that when search engines spider your site they are looking for relationships between your meta data and your content.

Hope this helps.

I thought the 23 word limit meant 23 "phrases?" I was always told that you could have multiple words separated by a comma and then that "phrase" was one keyword? Meaning "metal fabrication denver" is one keyword. No?

That is correct. However, ultimately there are character limits. I have been told the same thing, but the way it has always been presented has been unclear. For example, if you read Google's guide to SEO it states "23 keywords", but they don't differentiate any further. Therefore, in order to "make sure" and protect myself I error on the side of caution (so I don't get de-ranked) and use 23 keywords (WORDS). I must admit I did not count the words the first time and now see you have 24 keywords (phrases). Also remember that if you use a phrase you are held to that phrase, which is why it is good to use single words at times too.

Also, take advantage of your meta-description. Some believe that is equally important.

Also, not sure if I mentioned this in my tutorial or not, but yahoo and google search differently. My research indicates that yahoo tends to focus on the title tag keywords when bringing up search results, where google focuses on keyword matching and description.

I have read that the major search engines don't rely heavily on the meta tags, if at all, and rely more on the content of your site. But like Eric stated, your page content must match the page meta data if the search engine uses it. Too many folks were cheating the system in the past so the search engines changed the rules.

I didn't rely heavily on meta tags. One thing that appeared to shoot one of my sites up in the rankings was using SiteMapper. Shortly after adding the site map, my rankings went way up. Most of the words/phrases used for searching the site showed up in the top 10, but did have a couple that were still below 40.

I can't say it WAS the site map, but is appeared to be.

That's good to hear, Lowell.

Yes, sitmapping is also very beneficial.