11 Jul Meta This. Meta That…. Back To The VERY Basics

Sometimes, the basic and rudimentary things on the internet can be forgotten. Me forget? Well, yes… sometimes. But here is my excuse….

WordPress is a phenomenal tool. The templates can also be great. But make sure you do not make the mistake I did and forget to look for template hard-coded meta tags.

Meta tags were originally designed to help a search engine “know” what the content of a page is about. Today, search engine algorithms are SO advanced that it is questionable how much of those algorithms actually are influenced by Meta Tags.  Still, most search engine optimization experts still rely heavily on their presence and advise inclusion in your work. I do too!

Here is a recent screen print from 7/10/08 …

As you can see, zexengen refers to the name of the template creator. The Meta tag for the description is hard coded into the template! Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this. After all, this was a FREE theme I picked up. However, for my SEO benefits, I will leave credit everywhere he mandates and opt to change the meta description.

1. First, I go to the Presentation link in my WordPress admin panel:
2. Then to the THEME Editor, where you will be looking for “Meta name description” FOUND IT! and it indeed was the wrong tag description.

From there, I updated the code and saved a new description more conducive to the promotion and search engine optimization goals of Black Internet Marketing lessons!

I will make sure I comment back once it gets updated in Google!