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Social Media and Gustav

It is really fascinating to watch the deployment and preparations for Gustav from my computer. Twitter allows me to follow CNN reporters, disaster doctors “tweeting”, people on the ground, and the various emergency networks coming together online. Several new networks such as one on Ning.com and others are being set up and people are being asked to pass the word to the “non-geeks” as well.



Video Optimization

With all the video websites around these days, following the success of YouTube, it is no wonder that Video optimization would appear.

When people upload videos to YouTube, MetaCafe, or DailyMotion, the process asks for a title, description, keywords, and a category. Unfortunately, many people do not know what to do and just plug in anything that strikes them.

Videos, like other media on the Web, need to be catalog and categorized so that others can find them as well. The items asked for are basically the same as the meta tags and title tag. Those of us who understand this can then get their video found in both the video search engines as well as in the search function on the video sites.



What are Meta Tags?

While the most important tag on your website is the title tag, don’t forget the meta tags. The meta tags are the description and keywords tags.

The description tag is often used as the snippet of text in the organic search engine results. The best description tags are clear and concise. I recommend two sentences, with your most important keywords first. As an example, the description on the MySearchGuru site states:

We specialize in organic search engine optimization, social media optimization, ghost blogging, and other techniques to drive targeted traffic to your web site, and maximize your visibility in the search engines.

I have bolded the keywords that are in the sentence. You will notice that I spelled “web site” as two words, and mentioned “search engine” and “search engines.” This is on purpose. Google sees singular and plural as two different words. I use the spelling “website” on the site itself, and in the keywords tag.

While Google and some of the larger search engines no longer use the keywords tag, it is a myth that the tag itself is no longer used. The smaller engines use it as does Yahoo. The keywords tag should only have 20-25 keywords in it, with the most important keywords first.