Software Review of:
TagGen 
From the July, 1999 issue of PC Alamode Magazine 

At least that's the theory. Meta tags are optional, and if you look at the source code for web pages, you will notice that most webmasters opt out. From personal experience, I suspect that this is because Meta tags are a pain up the wazoo. The HTML editor that I use, Allaire's Homesite, doesn't have a drag-and-drop capability to add Meta tags. If I want to generate them, I have to do it manually. This means consulting my cheat sheet, cutting-and-pasting from another document or looking it up in one of my reference books. So call me lazy. I generally have added Meta tags to the first page of a web site and haven't bothered with the underlying pages. TagGen generates Meta tags. Nothing more, nothing less. I found out about the program from a mailing list I subscribe to. One of the other subscribers wrote, "I used it on my business page about a month ago and I am already showing up first in 3 of the search agents. Never had that happen before." That was all the testimonial I needed. In a flash, I bopped on over to the TagGen website and downloaded a copy. 

The concept is fantastic. First, you enter the domain name of your web site or sites. Next, you select a file that you want to add meta tags to. Since many of the tags for a site will be the same, you have the option of recording these as defaults for the entire domain, saving you immeasurable amounts of time. Employing an easy-to-use interface, you then fill out forms that prompt you to add tags such as key words, descriptions, robot instructions, refresh screens – if there's a Meta tag, this program automates it. If in a rare burst of energy I had already added some Meta tags, it automatically incorporated them into the database. 

Next, it will spell check your tags. Don't laugh! My HTML editor doesn't spell check the words within tags, and an error here can be embarrassing. Next, it generates a report on the tags you created, indicates whether you are using the tags efficiently, and makes suggestions on how to improve them. Finally, it will automatically update your original HTML document, with all the tags in the right place. There is a no-frills HTML editor included, so you can view your document from within the program to aid you in selecting key words. 

These guys know their search engines. The program includes a section of tips on how to use Meta tags and other techniques to improve your positioning, and there are even more tips on their web site. They also tell you about the underground techniques that can get you blackballed by search engines. If you're tempted to get clever by repeating a keyword 100 times, or using key words that have nothing to do with your site, they will talk you out of it. 

The interface is intuitive and the help files are really helpful. It took me about 10 minutes to figure out how the program worked and to start using it. Their customer support is mind-boggling. I started downloading the program at about 7:30 on a Tuesday evening. Within minutes, Rob, the guy who wrote the program, was on the phone to me (I noted that I planned on writing a review.) He says they answer their e-mail within 15 minutes, which must be an industry record. This is Hiawatha Island Software's first foray into the consumer market, but they have a long track record of developing the software used by Medicaid. This program was created to make their own job easier, and they were so tickled with the results that they are selling it to the public. 

Rob asked me to mention their schools program. They are giving away – we're talking free, now - site licenses of TagGen to any secondary school or college that asks for it, for use in the school lab. Additionally, they will give students in participating schools a shareware copy that is good for 90 days instead of the usual 15. The qualifying form is on their web site; follow the link to schools. This is a fantastic deal! 

TagGen can be downloaded from the Internet from www.hisoftware.com (it's a little more than 4 MB) and it will work for 15 days until you are required to register it for $29.95. It's worth it. If you want your web site to get noticed, the key isn't dancing raisins or 500 lines of java script - it's Meta tags. Anything that can strip the drudgery from this necessary but boring step in web design has my vote.