Not sure if this belongs here or in Social Networking but I just noticed the quirkiest thing on Facebook - and it's more proof that you should take care of your meta tags as a part of good common sense SEO.
I just "liked" a page of my website on Facebook - still testing to see how that works and slipping in a little self promotion on my news feed - but I couldn't figure out where Facebook was pulling the paragraph showing under the link and next to the photo.
After poking around for a couple of minutes, I realized that it was my meta description... but aren't those supposed to be dead and useless? <evil grin>
Considering that Google uses these descriptions in the SERPs - and now Facebook uses them as well, why don't we all take the time to optimize them to really draw in our target audiences?
How have you seen Meta Tags work for you and against you?
Do you bother with them?
Any tips or tricks?
(Other than don't spam them full of keywords....) @txshellie Hi, I don't know that I would know where my meta tags are being drawn from on Facebook. Any tips on how to access them? Is it just my bio description?? I'm a very reluctant Facebook user but I realize it's a necessity so I dutifully comply...however begrudgingly. <grrrr> Thanks for the heads-up. Quote: Originally Posted by lakecityagent @txshellie Hi, I don't know that I would know where my meta tags are being drawn from on Facebook. Any tips on how to access them? Is it just my bio description?? I'm a very reluctant Facebook user but I realize it's a necessity so I dutifully comply...however begrudgingly. <grrrr> Thanks for the heads-up. Facebook is drawing them from the source code for your webpages.
If you look at your website in Firefox you can "View -- Page Source"
Right at the top of the page are your meta tags - it looks like yours are filled in - either automatically or someone did that when your site was first created.
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Madison WI real estate | Madison homes for sale | Jolenta Averill | (563) BUY-SOLD</title>
<meta name="description" content="Guide to Madison real estate. Your one-stop shop for buying & selling Madison real estate, buyer & seller tools, Madison real estate news, Madison MLS listings, market statistics, & more!" />
<meta name="keywords" content="Madison real estate, buying in Madison, selling in Madison, Madison WI market statistics" />
<meta name="verify-v1" content="d5LB672AHqI8MmsmvRZXwJrZoyzWgIdyoCYXTFZ13 18=" />
<meta name="y_key" content="67f9315a56b0fcea" >
You might want to check your website development interface to see if there are some fields that you can fill in to put custom info in for these variables. Or touch base with your developer on how to update these fields.
Facebook just pulls the info from your html - just like google and the other search engines.
Hope that helps Oh, I didn't realize it pulls my info from my website. I thought maybe Facebook had its own tags. Thanks for the info. Shellie, there is also a way to make sure that each blog posts shows the description as you would like it to show. When you are using WordPress, unless you use something that creates the description for individual blog posts, FB will pull the first parts of the content for the description. To prevent this, I use FV Simpler SEO so that I can CHOOSE what the description will be for each post. Quote: Originally Posted by Cricket Shellie, there is also a way to make sure that each blog posts shows the description as you would like it to show. When you are using WordPress, unless you use something that creates the description for individual blog posts, FB will pull the first parts of the content for the description. To prevent this, I use FV Simpler SEO so that I can CHOOSE what the description will be for each post. Thanks for the tip! I'll go research that now.
90 seconds later and I've installed that plugin.
Well... that was easy. Quote: Originally Posted by txshellie Thanks for the tip! I'll go research that now.
90 seconds later and I've installed that plugin.
Well... that was easy. This is the one that I use.
http://foliovision.com/seo-tools/wor...n-one-seo-pack
The place to add the description for individual posts is at the bottom of the page before you publish it. Any tips on how to access them? Is it just my bio description?? I'm a very reluctant Facebook user but I realize it's a necessity so I dutifully comply..... Quote: Originally Posted by onlycube Any tips on how to access them? Is it just my bio description?? I'm a very reluctant Facebook user but I realize it's a necessity so I dutifully comply..... There are some threads on what meta tags are here in the V7N forum
http://www.v7n.com/forums/google-for...-meta-tag.html
Once you get them updated on your website - which is done on a page by page basis - Facebook pulls the information automatically. Regarding Facebook, no further action is required on your part.
Sorry if I'm not answering your question very well. This thread is a little over the "too old to reply to" mark but it is related.
Anne Smarty posted this today written specifically for Wordpress sites but also contains some interesting information about how Facebook selects the image it uses when someone likes your page:
Quote: When you
I just "liked" a page of my website on Facebook - still testing to see how that works and slipping in a little self promotion on my news feed - but I couldn't figure out where Facebook was pulling the paragraph showing under the link and next to the photo.
After poking around for a couple of minutes, I realized that it was my meta description... but aren't those supposed to be dead and useless? <evil grin>
Considering that Google uses these descriptions in the SERPs - and now Facebook uses them as well, why don't we all take the time to optimize them to really draw in our target audiences?
How have you seen Meta Tags work for you and against you?
Do you bother with them?
Any tips or tricks?
(Other than don't spam them full of keywords....) @txshellie Hi, I don't know that I would know where my meta tags are being drawn from on Facebook. Any tips on how to access them? Is it just my bio description?? I'm a very reluctant Facebook user but I realize it's a necessity so I dutifully comply...however begrudgingly. <grrrr> Thanks for the heads-up. Quote: Originally Posted by lakecityagent @txshellie Hi, I don't know that I would know where my meta tags are being drawn from on Facebook. Any tips on how to access them? Is it just my bio description?? I'm a very reluctant Facebook user but I realize it's a necessity so I dutifully comply...however begrudgingly. <grrrr> Thanks for the heads-up. Facebook is drawing them from the source code for your webpages.
If you look at your website in Firefox you can "View -- Page Source"
Right at the top of the page are your meta tags - it looks like yours are filled in - either automatically or someone did that when your site was first created.
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Madison WI real estate | Madison homes for sale | Jolenta Averill | (563) BUY-SOLD</title>
<meta name="description" content="Guide to Madison real estate. Your one-stop shop for buying & selling Madison real estate, buyer & seller tools, Madison real estate news, Madison MLS listings, market statistics, & more!" />
<meta name="keywords" content="Madison real estate, buying in Madison, selling in Madison, Madison WI market statistics" />
<meta name="verify-v1" content="d5LB672AHqI8MmsmvRZXwJrZoyzWgIdyoCYXTFZ13 18=" />
<meta name="y_key" content="67f9315a56b0fcea" >
You might want to check your website development interface to see if there are some fields that you can fill in to put custom info in for these variables. Or touch base with your developer on how to update these fields.
Facebook just pulls the info from your html - just like google and the other search engines.
Hope that helps Oh, I didn't realize it pulls my info from my website. I thought maybe Facebook had its own tags. Thanks for the info. Shellie, there is also a way to make sure that each blog posts shows the description as you would like it to show. When you are using WordPress, unless you use something that creates the description for individual blog posts, FB will pull the first parts of the content for the description. To prevent this, I use FV Simpler SEO so that I can CHOOSE what the description will be for each post. Quote: Originally Posted by Cricket Shellie, there is also a way to make sure that each blog posts shows the description as you would like it to show. When you are using WordPress, unless you use something that creates the description for individual blog posts, FB will pull the first parts of the content for the description. To prevent this, I use FV Simpler SEO so that I can CHOOSE what the description will be for each post. Thanks for the tip! I'll go research that now.
90 seconds later and I've installed that plugin.
Well... that was easy. Quote: Originally Posted by txshellie Thanks for the tip! I'll go research that now.
90 seconds later and I've installed that plugin.
Well... that was easy. This is the one that I use.
http://foliovision.com/seo-tools/wor...n-one-seo-pack
The place to add the description for individual posts is at the bottom of the page before you publish it. Any tips on how to access them? Is it just my bio description?? I'm a very reluctant Facebook user but I realize it's a necessity so I dutifully comply..... Quote: Originally Posted by onlycube Any tips on how to access them? Is it just my bio description?? I'm a very reluctant Facebook user but I realize it's a necessity so I dutifully comply..... There are some threads on what meta tags are here in the V7N forum
http://www.v7n.com/forums/google-for...-meta-tag.html
Once you get them updated on your website - which is done on a page by page basis - Facebook pulls the information automatically. Regarding Facebook, no further action is required on your part.
Sorry if I'm not answering your question very well. This thread is a little over the "too old to reply to" mark but it is related.
Anne Smarty posted this today written specifically for Wordpress sites but also contains some interesting information about how Facebook selects the image it uses when someone likes your page:
Quote: When you