Proposed Solution for Meta Tags

ccraft

Hi there,

I know the issue of meta tags (re: the smugmug meta data coming up in Google searches) has been debated in the past but I wanted to offer two suggestions for resolving this issue that will hopefully be win/win for both smugmug and the photographers it serves.

Since I understand that Smugmug needs to advertise itself (and offers a great service) and wants to have info listed in the meta tags, I was wondering if it would be possible to have the pro's meta tags listed first and Smugmug's listed second. That way the pro's meta information will be listed when someone does a search on Google.

If not...

I was wondering if it would be possible to modify the meta tag information Smugmug uses, which comes up as follows for my (and everyone else's site)

The Nature Stock Photography Library
The ultimate in photo sharing. Easily create online photo albums. Share, store, organize and print.

Note how the word "smugmug" doesn't actually show up in the top fold of the meta information so the advertisement/product placement is lost on the audience. Plus, the meta description is not relevant to my actual site (or most other pro accounts). Here's some proposed meta data content that may be more effective (for both Smugmug marketing and for the pro photographer's marketing):

The Nature Stock Photography Library
This site is powered by Smugmug - the ultimate service for photographers to share photos, create online galleries, organize and sell their work.

I think this is at least general enough so that it can apply to all photographers and it sells Smugmug a little bit better. This wording is also a bit more accurate and less misleading to the audience who will stumble upon the current meta wording. I also think adding "powered by smugmug" to the meta data would also increase Smugmug's brand recognition and possibly increase its own search ranking - so there would be a bonus for both photographers and Smugmug.

In a past life I was involved in web marketing/SEO/user interface design for large high tech companies (for almost 10 years). All of the interface design / web marketing conferences I've attended have all said the same thing "you really need to deliver what you say you're going to deliver." You don't want to disappoint your audience into thinking they're going to click on a link and find out how to "build an online gallery" - meanwhile, the user is simplly visiting a pro photographer's website. And the only likely way a user will see the meta data is if they are performing a search on a search engine (and the meta data comes up).

Just my two cents. Would love to find out if this is at all possible.

Cheers!

P.S. Keyword suggestion in meta tags for *pro accounts only* (if pro photograhpers can't have our own keyword meta tag first - it just reorganizes things so that the word gallery comes up as more important than "photo sharing" - which a pro's site does not actually offer):

****** name="keywords" content="photo galleries, photo gallery, photos, photographs, online gallery, picture gallery, picture galleries, online galleries, online photo albums, albums, photo albums, photo, smugmug gallery, smugmug, smug mug, smugmug photos, images, image galleries, image gallery, gallery hosting, galleries hosting, hosting, photo sharing, photo hosting, photo storage, sharing, picture sharing, share photos, " />

Andy

ccraft wrote:

Hi there,

I know the issue of meta tags has been debated and answered (I believe it was turned down)

Not true. But nothing's been done yet, you are correct on that.

Thanks for the great suggestion, I'll be sure the team sees this.

ccraft

Woops... sorry about that. I thought I saw a thread about it... I stand corrected.

Thanks Andy!

ccraft

bump

ccraft wrote:

Woops... sorry about that. I thought I saw a thread about it... I stand corrected.

Thanks Andy!

Andy

ccraft wrote:

bump

Hi, the team has seen it

ccraft

Andy wrote:

Hi, the team has seen it

Hi,

Sorry to be bothersome with this post... I was wondering if there is a response from the team. If not, no worries.. I know how swamped everyone is.

Thanks muchly!
Christina

sunione

Actually there was a discussion on this issue, but in the PRO SALES SUPPORT forum. You can find it here: Sticky: How To Maximize Your Findability (Search Engine Stuff) As far as I can tell the suggestion to change the metatags got a thumbs down during that discussion.

I think that the suggestion posted here is a very reasonable solution. Maybe it should be reposted in the PRO SALES SUPPORT FORUM?

HELLO TEAM......how about some action!!

Andy

sunione wrote:

As far as I can tell the suggestion to change the metatags got a thumbs down during that discussion.

Nothing got a thumbs down, it's certainly a possibility....

sunione

Andy

Perhaps there are programming issues that some of us do not understand. Is changing that problematic meta tag line is a major headache? I know that SmugMug's people have been really responsive to our needs in the past (and present!) so I'm guessing that this is not an easy work-around. Could you elaborate on what the process might be to change that pesky line of code?

Thank You

Andy

sunione wrote:

Could you elaborate on what the process might be to change that pesky line of code?

Thank You

I'm sorry I can't - the feature request has been made, our engineers, product manager have been made aware. I wish I had a better answer for you.