Meta Keywords

[Chrissy Morris]

Hi,
I hope someone out there can help me please.

I am trying to update our meta keywords on our site for the whole site.

When I view page source from the main page I see:
<meta name="keywords" content="Aircraft Kits Engines and Accessories Wood Radio Equipment Materials - Brass, Foam, etc.

Where do I edit this?

I have changed the keywords in includes/templates/mytemplate/common/html_header.php but the new words are not showing in page source, nor are we ranking any higher on google when I search on the new words (the point of me trying to do this ).

When I look at the head section in includes/templates/mytemplate/common/html_header.php the meta tags keywords & meta tags description are both blank.

Can someone please point me in the right direction of which file(s) I should be editting?

Website is www.blackburnmodels.com

Thank you in advance,
Christine

[mc12345678]

The bulk of this in a properly built ZC template is covered in using the language override file meta_tags.php and/or in the product/category entry area when inside the categories/products area of the admin site by clicking on the icon that relates to Meta Tags Defined as shown at the top of the screen.

To support future efforts of modifying the file, the file should exist in includes/languages/YOUR_LANGUAGE/YOUR_TEMPLATE/

If it does not, then copy it from: includes/languages/YOUR_LANGUAGE/ and place the copy in the YOUR_TEMPLATE directory where YOUR_TEMPLATE is the template folder name for the template used on your site. If that folder does not exist, then create it as part of the process.

Then edit includes/languages/YOUR_LANGUAGE/YOUR_TEMPLATE/meta_tags.php to suit your needs. The file itself contains "instructions" about how to apply meta tag information based on the destination page... Ie:

// Per-Page meta-tags. Follow this pattern for individual pages you wish to override. This is useful mainly for additional pages.
// replace "page_name" with the UPPERCASE name of your main_page= value, such as ABOUT_US or SHIPPINGINFO etc.
// repeat pattern as necessary
  define('META_TAG_DESCRIPTION_page_name','');
  define('META_TAG_KEYWORDS_page_name','');
  define('META_TAG_TITLE_page_name', '');

So to embody the suggestion of say ABOUT_US a define would need to exist in that file as follows:

// Per-Page meta-tags. Follow this pattern for individual pages you wish to override. This is useful mainly for additional pages.
// replace "page_name" with the UPPERCASE name of your main_page= value, such as ABOUT_US or SHIPPINGINFO etc.
// repeat pattern as necessary
  define('META_TAG_DESCRIPTION_ABOUT_US','my description properly formatted');
  define('META_TAG_KEYWORDS_ABOUT_US','my keywords also properly formatted');
  define('META_TAG_TITLE_ABOUT_US', 'the meta tag title to be presented');

There are also tools that can support the easypopulate of mass import of data related to this.

But... All that said, there have also been statements made that such tags are not the end all be all of page ranking where instead primarily content should be the driver, but at the moment I'm not interested in getting into that part of the discussion.

[Chrissy Morris]

Many thanks for your reply.

The bulk of this in a properly built ZC template is covered in using the language override file meta_tags.php and/or in the product/category entry area when inside the categories/products area of the admin site by clicking on the icon that relates to Meta Tags Defined as shown at the top of the screen.

To support future efforts of modifying the file, the file should exist in includes/languages/YOUR_LANGUAGE/YOUR_TEMPLATE/

This file does exist, however it is different to the file mentioned below.
The file below shows the correct meta_tags.

If it does not, then copy it from: includes/languages/YOUR_LANGUAGE/ and place the copy in the YOUR_TEMPLATE directory where YOUR_TEMPLATE is the template folder name for the template used on your site. If that folder does not exist, then create it as part of the process.


Then edit includes/languages/YOUR_LANGUAGE/YOUR_TEMPLATE/meta_tags.php to suit your needs. The file itself contains "instructions" about how to apply meta tag information based on the destination page... Ie:

// Per-Page meta-tags. Follow this pattern for individual pages you wish to override. This is useful mainly for additional pages.
// replace "page_name" with the UPPERCASE name of your main_page= value, such as ABOUT_US or SHIPPINGINFO etc.
// repeat pattern as necessary
  define('META_TAG_DESCRIPTION_page_name','');
  define('META_TAG_KEYWORDS_page_name','');
  define('META_TAG_TITLE_page_name', '');

So to embody the suggestion of say ABOUT_US a define would need to exist in that file as follows:

// Per-Page meta-tags. Follow this pattern for individual pages you wish to override. This is useful mainly for additional pages.
// replace "page_name" with the UPPERCASE name of your main_page= value, such as ABOUT_US or SHIPPINGINFO etc.
// repeat pattern as necessary
  define('META_TAG_DESCRIPTION_ABOUT_US','my description properly formatted');
  define('META_TAG_KEYWORDS_ABOUT_US','my keywords also properly formatted');
  define('META_TAG_TITLE_ABOUT_US', 'the meta tag title to be presented');

I have editted this file & included MAIN_PAGE, however when I view source on the main page of the site what I see for the meta name keywords & meta name description is different to what I have just included in the MAIN_PAGE meta tags in includes/languages/YOUR_LANGUAGE/YOUR_TEMPLATE/meta_tags.php

There are also tools that can support the easypopulate of mass import of data related to this.

But... All that said, there have also been statements made that such tags are not the end all be all of page ranking where instead primarily content should be the driver, but at the moment I'm not interested in getting into that part of the discussion.

I appreciate what you say about meta tags, however for the sake of what (I hoped!) to be something simple I thought it was worth doing.
With google for example, if I search for balsa wood we are number 4 on the list (balsamart.co.uk is also us), but if I search for radio controlled models we are half way down page 2 .
I would like google to recognise the keywords radio controlled models (& others) & these keywords are not showing on the page source.
Thanks again for your help, much appreciated.
Best wishes,
Christine

[mc12345678]

Many thanks for your reply.



I appreciate what you say about meta tags, however for the sake of what (I hoped!) to be something simple I thought it was worth doing.
With google for example, if I search for balsa wood we are number 4 on the list (balsamart.co.uk is also us), but if I search for radio controlled models we are half way down page 2 .
I would like google to recognise the keywords radio controlled models (& others) & these keywords are not showing on the page source.
Thanks again for your help, much appreciated.
Best wishes,
Christine

To be sure that we are speaking the same language regarding file changes that were made, for the balsamart.co.uk site the meta_tags.php file (which is not specifically for product but instead more general items/parts) would be in the includes/languages/english/xxxxx_responsive folder and not specifically the includes/languages/YOUR_LANGUAGE/YOUR_TEMPLATE folder. The xxxxx represents a commercial supplier of the template, but looking at the file/folder structure the path should now be clear.

With regards to keywords, again it is important to recognize that just because words show up in the meta data doesn't mean that they are associated to the content of the page and as I was eluding, the content should be/include the information that would lead to those keywords.

Also looking at that site, there does (now?) appear to be keywords for various product and categories. I didn't look through the remainder of the content to bounce/support improved usage of terms. That would require a more in depth review.

There appears though to be an issue with the lightbox section of the html when product pages are reviewed with the w3 html validator for starters and possibly with other parts of html validation (sequence of closing/opening html tags, etc...).

[RodG]

I would like google to recognise the keywords radio controlled models (& others) & these keywords are not showing on the page source.

Warning. If those keywords don't appear on the page(s) where you'd like them, DO NOT, and I mean this sincerely, DO NOT just go in and add them to the metatags. Google will *penalise* rather than reward you as it considers this as "keyword stuffing" (a popular technique used many years ago to drive folk to sites that even though the keywords had no relationship with the site contents). Google got wise to this and now checks to ensure that any meta keywords actually exist on the page.

I'm sure that some folk will be willing to argue/debate me on this, but I will not be drawn into any such discussions. The choice is entirely yours, but at least you have now been warned.

Cheers
RodG

ps. Just add those words/phrases to the page(s) themselves. Google *will* find, index and rank them, even without the metatags.
pss. DO make use of the meta descriptions - Google uses these for SERP (basically what is shown in the search results - The meta descriptions often make more sense than Google trying to create its own descriptions based on page content, however, there are no guarantees that Google *will* use the meta description. Lots of variables involved.

[schoolboy]

Most search engines now ignore what's in the meta keywords list. I don't even bother with them and either leave it empty, or allow zencart to populate it using defaults.

MUCH more value is SCHEMA.ORG structured data rendering (microdata).

I use the plugin that renders this using JSON-LD

Here's an example in the header of one of my websites.

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "http://schema.org",
   "@type": "Product",
    "brand": "TFP-Brass-Pet-Tags",
    "mpn": "tm-brass-20mm-disc",
    "productID": "29",
    "url": "https://tagmakers.co.uk/brass-tags/brass-disc-tags/brass-disc-tag-20-mm",
    "name": "Brass Disc Tag 20 mm",
    "description": "These 20mm brass pet tags are ideal for quick and easy identification of pets, with enough room for your name, address and telephone number. Visit Tagmakers now. ",
    "image": "https://tagmakers.co.uk/images/brass-pet-tag-20mm.jpg",
   "offers": {
    "@type" : "Offer",
    "availability" : "http://schema.org/InStock",
    "price" : "4.95",
    "priceCurrency" : "GBP",
    "seller" : "Tagmakers",
    "itemCondition" : "http://schema.org/NewCondition",
    "inventoryLevel" : "300",    
    "deliveryLeadTime" : "2-3",
    "category" : "Brass Disc Tags",
    "itemOffered" : "Brass Disc Tag 20 mm",
    "eligibleRegion" : "",
    "acceptedPaymentMethod" : [ "http://purl.org/goodrelations/v1#MasterCard,http://purl.org/goodrelations/v1#VISA,http://purl.org/goodrelations/v1#PayPal,http://purl.org/goodrelations/v1#,http://purl.org/goodrelations/v1#,http://purl.org/goodrelations/v1#" ]    
}       
}

and

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "http://schema.org",
    "@type": "Organization",
      "url": "https://tagmakers.co.uk/brass-tags/brass-disc-tags/brass-disc-tag-20-mm",
      "logo": "https://tagmakers.co.uk/includes/templates/westminster_new/images/logo.jpg",
      "contactPoint" : [
{      "@type" : "ContactPoint",
        "telephone" : "+44-(0)1111111111111",
        "contactType" : "customer service",
        "areaServed" : "",
        "availableLanguage" : "EN"
}],
      "sameAs" : [ "https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tag-Makers/329030820555772","","","https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBqd0OJaYubUGXLM04D-lGw","https://www.pinterest.com/tagmakers/","https://twitter.com/Tagmakers_Tags"],     
      "duns" : "",    
      "legalName" : "XXXXXXXXX Ltd",
      "taxID" : "",
      "vatID" : "",
      "email" : "[email protected]",
      "faxNumber" : "",
   "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
      "streetAddress" : "XXXXX XXXXX",
      "addressLocality": "XXXXXXX",
      "addressRegion": "XXXXX",      
      "postalCode": "XX23 4XX",
      "addressCountry" : "UK"
}                                  
}