SEO in ASP.NET 4 Websites - Page.MetaKeywords and Page.MetaDescription

 http://davidhayden.com/blog/dave/archive/2010/01/10/SEOAspNet4.aspx

It used to be that the HTML Keywords and Description Meta Tags on your web pages really meant something. Search Engines, like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc., would use the Keywords and Description Tags to properly index your website in their search results, allowing search engine users to better find the information they were looking for. Problem is that web designers and web developers abused the HTML keywords and description metatags, making them utterly useless as a reliable form of data.

That being said, I wouldn't ignore the html keywords and description tags. Setting these HTML tags issearch engine optimization and internet marketing 101. Use them meaningfully in your website for that less than 1% chance that Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other major search engines might actually take them into account.

In ASP.NET 4, Microsoft web developers will be happy to know that it is a bit easier to properly set these html tags using a couple of properties on the Page Class, Page.MetaKeywords andPage.MetaDescription. This makes it much easier to set the keywords and description tags from fields in a database or another dynamically generated fashion.

This is pretty simple to do:

• Page.MetaKeywords = “keywords,separated,by,comma“
• Page.MetaDescription = “An enticing little description of this incredibly valuable content.“

Again, I wouldn't use this as your ownly means of SEO optimization and Internet Marketing for your ASP.NET website, but certainly if search engine ranking and traffic generation is important to you, use this and every other SEO technique at your diposal. The new Page.MetaKeywords and Page.MetaDescription Properties are much easier than previous techniques for Microsoft .NET Developers.

 

Hope this helps.

David Hayden