How to auto-generate relevant keywords for all pages on a site?, I think I'm looking for a script that will parse all the pages... Options

[lunghd]

Hello - I think this is the correct forum to ask this in... I'm a script hack & far from expert so forgive if I cross up my terminology as well...


I'm trying to find a means of generating keywords for the pages on my site rather than have to go in, read the content, decide which keywords are best and then edit / update each page's meta-tags on an individual basis.

If this could be done as an 'include' it would be great but I can't find a simple (or even complex...) means of parsing all pages on my site then generating decent keywords and actually 'patching' / including those keywords in the page.

I don't care if this is done 'on the fly' as the pages are loaded... or page by page with the changes actually added to the page's html - I can happily do this as routine maintenance after updates but don't want to edit each page one... by one... by one... argh.

Brilliant or even semi-brilliant ideas are welcome!
Heck - I'll take just plain obvious to everyone but me if it works...

Follow up q: If there isn't a means to do this on the server as an include... Are there any HTML editors that have this ability built in?
EX: If I could find an editor that had these functions; "Scan HTML / Content For Keywords", "Edit Results" and "Paste In New Tags" I'd gladly do it on a page by page basis. I'm just trying to automate this as much as possible.

Thanks for any and all input.

[Brian Chandler]

Hello - I think this is the correct forum to ask this in... I'm a script hack & far from expert so forgive if I cross up my terminology as well...


I'm trying to find a means of generating keywords for the pages on my site rather than have to go in, read the content, decide which keywords are best and then edit / update each page's meta-tags on an individual basis.

If this could be done as an 'include' it would be great but I can't find a simple (or even complex...) means of parsing all pages on my site then generating decent keywords and actually 'patching' / including those keywords in the page.

I don't care if this is done 'on the fly' as the pages are loaded... or page by page with the changes actually added to the page's html - I can happily do this as routine maintenance after updates but don't want to edit each page one... by one... by one... argh.

Brilliant or even semi-brilliant ideas are welcome!
Heck - I'll take just plain obvious to everyone but me if it works...

Follow up q: If there isn't a means to do this on the server as an include... Are there any HTML editors that have this ability built in?
EX: If I could find an editor that had these functions; "Scan HTML / Content For Keywords", "Edit Results" and "Paste In New Tags" I'd gladly do it on a page by page basis. I'm just trying to automate this as much as possible.

Thanks for any and all input.

What's this for? The way to get pages listed on search engines is to have accessible content - Goggle and like will index _all_ the words in it. There's no reason to imagine you can write an algorithm that extracts keywords any better than the Googlebot does already.

If you want to put human-decided keywords in the meta tag (this means really what the page is importantly _about_), then do, but only because you are adding genuine information that _may_ be useful for some applications. It won't make any noticeable difference to search engine results, because of overreaction to abuse.

[pandy]

I guess a script can decide what the most frequent words are or even to some extent judge their importance (if they occur in headings, are emphasized or whatever) but I don't see how a script can decide what the best keywords are. Anyway, I've seen such scripts and Windows programs too. Here's one (just the first I found, know nothing about it).
http://hotscripts.com/Detailed/61057.html

I think this is an exercise in futility since search engines basically don't use keywords anymore and haven't in many years now. They just adds bytes to your pageweight.

[lunghd]

Thanks for the input.

I get conflicting input on the relevance to keywords especially when it comes to google. Google appears to change it's algorithms on a rather frequent basis as a result of the abuse that does go on. My understanding of how the search engines work (based on what I've read on SEO sites) is that some relevance is still applied to the keywords but not nearly as much as it was. (They do look for padding of keywords as part of the algorithm.)

This page contains a lot of the general info I've come across but I have no real way of debating it's validity other than anecdotal references to similar things on other sites:
http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/internet/g...ing-factors.htm


My site isn't a big money making venture - it's just a hobby site so I'm not trying to flood keywords to fool google, etc. The reason I want to add the keywords is to is primarily for what Brian mentioned: info that may be useful (hopefully when someone is searching for the subject I have covered in that particular page).

I really appreciate the input!

Pandy - I'll go scope out that link now.

This post has been edited by lunghd: Jan 27 2007, 10:25 PM

[pandy]

Keyword Meta Tags Will Not Increase Rankings by Lioness Consulting
http://www.lionessconsulting.com/Tips.htm
Death Of A Meta Tag
http://searchenginewatch.com/sereport/02/10-meta.html
Revisiting Meta Tags
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/sereport/02/12-meta.html
An End to Metatags (Enough Already, Part 1) - Traffick.com
http://www.traffick.com/article.asp?aID=102
Google Uses Meta Tags Sparingly, But Should You? (Enough Already, Part 2) - Traffick.com
http://www.traffick.com/article.asp?aID=105

[lunghd]

Link on that page no longer valid but the name of the script itself was extremely useful! Googling for "Dynamic Metatags" got results which appear much more relevant to sort thru tomorrow. One .asp script looks like it would do the trick but I've not touched anything .asp in my life...

Thanks again - Just having the correct terms to search for gave me MUCH better results - thanks! (Hmmm - Cool deal - that's also what I'm trying to accomplish with this on my site.)


Edit: Yeah, I've seen the arguements on both sides of this. Both camps seem as vehement about it as the other. I, being virtually illiterate on this, watch it something like a caveman viewing a tennis match. It looks interesting but which one of those crazy people do I club to get that lemon they're smacking around?

This post has been edited by lunghd: Jan 27 2007, 10:43 PM