Search Engine Robots

[Cartman]

Wondering if one of you search engine gurus can help me. On phpWebsite you can automatically set up your meta tags for all pages in one location. For the category "Robots", they have a drop-down with four choices. Since I don't know what they mean, I had a hard time choosing which one I wanted. Anybody know what these choices mean?

"all"

"none"

"index, nofollow"

"noindex, follow"

Thanks for any assistance!

[SpoonFrog]

Hey there Cartman,

I ALWAYS choose 'index and follow'.

If you go here: http://www.spoonfroggraphics.com/metatags.htm I have a handy little 'dictionary' for all the little tags and what they mean! Just click on the title of the tag in the right bar. :D

I hope this helps!!

[Cartman]

Thanks, Dawn! That helps a lot!!!! :D

[SpoonFrog]

COOL! And, you are very welcome!! I am glad someone is getting use out of that section of my site. It took me a LONG time to do all that research!! :D

[Mr T.C.]

You really only ever need use robot instruction when telling spiders what NOT to index. You could use a robots text file for this too. Instructing robots to follow links is pointless. Whether they index a page is not for you to tell them. Google will crawl and index virtually every page on your site. Giving instructions to "index, follow" is like telling the Pope to "pray, believe". It's an engine spider, that's kinda what it was going to do anyhow! Some engines will only index a few pages for free (like AltaVista UK) and this is not something you are going to alter with a robot tag.

Anyhow - Cartman.. SORRY SORRY I was going to do something for you. I got busy busy. Still want that?
Also, do you have a 120x60 graphic? I have re-built the cover site and it doesn't have the Webmaster friends page on it. I'm going to link to people from the new link page instead and include a graphic if you want.

[Cartman]

Hey Guys!

Dawn! That's a wonderful service!!!! I've always been told to put this or put that, but nobody ever spelled out why or what it all meant, unless I had the time to search a bunch of sites ... and unless you know "specifically" what you're looking for, you know what those searches are like! :roll: Thanks, again!

T.C. -- I forgot what you were going to do ... oh, yeh, the card thingie! No, that's OK. I actually got my old card shop script to work within the framework of phpWebsite. Took a bit, but we got there. I appreciate it, though. :D

I'll get that graphic to you. Speaking of which ... I don't have the WS Friends thing up any longer either (probably because I don't use WS any longer), but PLEASE ... feel free to come to the site and click on "Links" and add your site or if you have a 88 x 31 button, give it to me and I'll add you to my affiliates (which is really no more than friends sites, anyway!) Your choice. That goes for all you guys!!! Just put your site under the proper category and it will appear, whenever someone pulls up something in that or a related category.

Guess what? I was approached, out of the blue, yet again to assist in a major marketing campaign. This time by Warner Home Video ... to participate in their promotional campaign for the release of the South Park Complete 2nd Season boxed DVD set. They sent me all kinds of graphics, ads and banners for my site. Paid me with "goodies" for my collection. Too cool! Just to show you what half-way decent search engine placement can do for you! :wink:

[Flash ho]

Karen that is great news! Props to you !

meta tags for SE rankings are pretty much a thing of the past. Quality content and quality links are major to Google and Yahoo, once on those , other SEs will follow. Pope prays, Bishops prays, people flock ... nevermind.

My recent editorial about metatags generated some helpful reader responses. My basic point still holds. Metadata as currently structured, in the context of a non-ideal world, is open to spam and deception, and most search engines give meta tags very little weight. The overworked site owner would probably find it a relief to simply stop using meta keywords and possibly descriptions entirely.
from
http://www.traffick.com/print.asp?aID=105

[DJ]

Karen! COOL BEANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's really great news! Are you so excited you can't stand it???????

[Cartman]

Hi DJ,

Ya know ... last year when ElectricArtists invited me to participate in the promotion of South Park's 5th Anniversary, I was sooooo stoked that I was literally impossible to live with (ask my husband! :lol: )

But, then I sat back and thought ... hmmm ... they are getting more out of this "affiliation" than I am. I mean, I'm doing all of the promoting. They're not promoting me. But, I got some hard-to-find, much-sought-after promotional freebies to give away, so I was happy.

This time ... I kinda knew how the game was played. They have folks on their promotional teams that work just with the Internet. It's another media avenue (other than print ads, TV ads, etc) to get the word out. So, they search for sites that are "popular" with the demographic of folks they are trying to target and they write them and ask them to participate. I would assume that they find us by putting in keywords in SEs and seeing who comes up at the top (which, in some cases, doesn't mean that they are the most popular or the best).

Then, they send you all of this "stuff" and ask you to place it on your site. Then, they come back and take screenshots of where it's placed and how, I guess to show to some higher ups to prove that they've made progress and gotten people to participate. Then, they write you an email and say: "Looks good! Thanks!"

I look at it as a chance to maybe get some insider info about an event BEFORE someone else does. Does wonders for your credibility as an "authority". Other than that ... I'm sure that they get more out of it, than you do (in sales of DVDs). But, it's fun! Again, too, they may have gotten my site from ElectricArtists ... so, maybe it's good to be on the inside of things.

And, like I said ... you get some promotional freebies that are not sold to the general public and ... as a collector, that's always COOL!