How to Research Competitor Keywords with NO Meta Tags due to CSS?

[abrandt]

Hello Forum:

I am new to this forum after just purchasing Peter Hale's: Total Web SEO Videos, which I begun to seriously study... but have run into what looks like a significant BOTTLE NECK from the very start.

It is highly recommended that efficiently determine the optimal KEYWORDS for a website, that one research and study the top 30 major Meta Tag keywords and phrases that appear within a competitor's website.

This solid advise appears to be mute when it comes to CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) in that META TAGS are not used at all (telecheck dot com and crosscheck dot com.

I am developing a niche marketing website within the payment systems industry in the U.S. The two major competitor websites I have attempted to study for keyword analysis utilize CSS (no Meta Tags).

:?: Is there another methodology that will work to analyze SEO ranking for CSS websites?

Thank you in advance for a prompt and detailed (brilliant) response!

Alan

[TWD-Tony]

META tags are not used in the CSS, they are used in the HTML of the page which calls the CSS...
All CSS does is but all your formatting (style) in one place (the stylesheet) and then the HTML references the stylesheet instead of repeating format code... THe actual content and META tags of a page are not effected whichever method of styling you use...

[peterjhale]

Tony is right - the meta tags are in the html - just "view source" of the page you want information upon to see what they have done

I had a look at the 2 sites you mention. The first is not optimised at all really and has really messy code (really messy). The second has the following:
<title>Check Guarantee, Payment Guarantee, Conversion: CrossCheck, Inc. -</title>
<META NAME="Keywords" CONTENT="check guarantee, payment guarantee, check verification, check approval, crosscheck, Electronic Check Processing, Transaction Clearing, check services, merchant account, pay by check, internet check processing, check processing, Online Check, checks, internet payments, phone check approval, phone payments, guaranteed, Payment Services, Check Verification, Checknow, Check Now, checks by net , ChecksByNet, Cross-Check, Inc, phone checks, fax checks, Internet check services, electronic check conversion with guarantee, bad checks, bounced checks">
<META NAME="Description" CONTENT="Payment and check guarantee services, by CrossCheck, designed to increase sales for merchants in retail, automotive and e-commerce businesses ">

[abrandt]

Hello Peter:

Thank you very much for the detailed data.

(May I kindly request that the company names I mentioned above be EDITED out.)

I did find the Meta info for c.r.o.s.s.c.h.e.c.k... however on t.e.l.e.c.h.e.c.k. I did not find any Meta info in Page Source.

Request permission to PM or YIM for brief discussion (industry sensitive).

Thank you in advance for a prompt response.

Gratefully,

Alan

[abrandt]

Hello Peter & TWD-Tony:

I was able to find the META Tags for c.r.o.s.s.c.h.e.c.k. dot com which you posted above... however this is not the case for t.e.l.e.c.h.e.c.k. dot com.

HOW can one research a competitor's KEYWORDS if there is no Meta info?


2. The processor I represent owns the PATENT to the only CHECK GUARANTEE service combined with a 90-DAY PAYMENT PLAN.

HOW might I best conduct KEYWORD RESEARCH for an ALTERNATIVE PAYMENT PLAN... target marketed to high-ticket B2C Merchants... who would like to expand sales to the "B" to "D" Consumer credit rated market segment, which they are currently losing (because they can't pay by credit card and don't qualify for conventional financing)?


This is an industry sensitive matter, so I would appreciate any responses be communicated via PM, please. Upon closure, I would be happy to post what is learned in generalized format.

Thank you in advance for a prompt and detailed response.

Gratefully,
Alan

[fisicx]

Do not rely on metatags for analysing keyword data. The search engines do not bother with the metatag so anything you find there is irrelevant.

You should also consider the longevity of your competitors. If their sites have been around for a while they will usually beat you to the top slot for specific keywords.

Why not adopt an alternative tactic by concentrating on the niche market. Thinks about the unusual search phrases: 'alternate cheque payment plan', 'payment without credit card' or maybe 'cost effective cheque payment'.

Think about what a potential customer would search for then do that search. See who your competitors are and work on those key phrases. you might also want to use the overture keyword checking tool to see who is searching for what.

If you still want to check your competitors keywords then this is a good tool


A few ideas for you.

[abrandt]

Hello fisicx:

Thank you for your thoughts.

I did follow-through with http://www.searchwho.com ... used their Spider Test Utility... the RESULT for t.e.l.e.c.h.e.c.k. dot com was:

Meta Description: None
Meta Keywords: None

Before I create multiple alternative search terms, I very much first desire to research the above company's KEYWORD STRATEGY, for both academic and pragmatic SEO reasons.

Any insightful and brilliant assistance would certainly be greatly appreciated!

Positively,
Alan

[fisicx]

Ignore the META tags!

The meta keywords are completely and utterly ignored by the search engines - you will learn nothing by analysing this metatag since the webmaster can put anything they like in there.

The meta description is a bit of text that appears as a snippet in the SERP. You might find a keyword or two in there but it's not worth spending more than a few seconds of your time looking at them.

Your competitor is number 1 because of thousands of inbound links and the fact they have been around since 1994. The actual site doesn't even have decent set of keywords, all they have done is promote what they do.

I did a search for 'check payment services' and got 29 million results with your competitor at #3. If you used the same keyphrase you've a huge hill to climb. As I suggested, choose a set of keywords with a smaller set of results and target them to begin with.

In any case, I suspect that telecheck promote their services through the trade magazines - after all, they have been around for 40 years, long before the internet existed.

Let your business plan define your keywords. If you want help on how to promote them PM me.

[TWD-Tony]

The site in question has (at the time of writing) 2554 inbound links in MSN Live Search, so I guess the other SE's have something like that figure too... This might explain the high ranking without keywords (which count for squat anyway).
There's a very interesting discussion here http://www.seomoz.org/articles/searc...ng-factors.php about ranking factors - even the "experts" disagree on some points but the article as a whole is a very good read if you want a crash course on ranking factors

[abrandt]

Hello fisicx & TWD-Tony:

Thank you again for your prompt and helpful responses.

I shall shortly read the article, "Search Engine Ranking Factors" and shall start developing alternative search phrases.

The issue is what search phrases would Merchants use looking for an alternative payment system that accomodates consumers with B to D credit?

Any other recommendations would be greatly appreciated as well.

Positively,
Alan