Meta Data in Action

Here is an example of how meta data helps search engines find you and return your page as a top result. Remember we used a search criteria of insurance + Raleigh earlier. The first local insurance agency that came up in the organic Google search results the day I did that was the Durfey Hoover Agency. I think they came up 7th. Here is how you can look at sites to determine why they came up and what you might need to do to be returned higher than they are.

First, click through the search results and go to that site.

You will notice that both of our search words appear on the page that was returned. Below you see Insurance in the agency name and Raleigh in the address.

Next go to the view menu in your browser's top command line bar. Select “View Source”

Here is the Title. It has both search terms in it.

Here is the Description. It has both search terms in it.


Here are the Keywords. They have both search terms in them.


Notice that this page is not really about just one thing. Yet it still comes up on the first page of a search. Think about how, with only the things you have learned so far, you might change this page to get an even higher placement in this search.

What if you were only about insurance in Raleigh instead of all the other terms in the Keywords? What if you had more text on the page that was about insurance and Raleigh?

Both of these would help. In the next section I’ll bring up a couple of more things that will also help.