Basics
Meta Tags are a way to add a non-visable text to an HTML document. They were originally used to make web pages easier to find and
for search engines to categorize. The internet is essentially a massive database, finding a simple way to discover websites was a
necessity. Meta Tags were an invention to attempt to label a website using a short description and a series of identifying keywords.
A new HTML tag was introduced, placed in the <head> element and not readable on the page but parsable by a crawler or viewing the HTML source.
This day in age they are of questionable importance and there is a lot of confusion on
whether they are needed at all.
The Debate
Nearly every SEO website you visit will have information about meta tags, suggesting it's one of the best ways to optimize your website.
On the contrary there is a lot of evidence suggesting you do not need to worry about them as much as they claim. During the "search engine dark ages"
when they were first introduced many search engines started to utilize the meta tag. But not since the ancient days of Lycos and Hotbot have they been of very much use.
Mainly the reason meta tags faded from usefulness is they became an unreliable source of information about the website they were trying to index. Predominantly due
to keyword stuffing and other such ridiculous efforts to increase traffic. Keyword stuffing is the act of jam packing your website, above all, the meta tags,
with as many keywords as you can "stuff" in there. As you can see if every joker has placed iPod and Justin Bieber in their tags and do not have a Bieber fan page
or tech blog this can cause a problem.
If you're still not convinced we can ask the all mighty Google. Surely if meta tags were of any importance Google would take advantage of them in some way right?
Google admits that they do not use meta tags to judge page rank. Why? Essentially for the reasons mentioned above. Long ago, websites were
only judged on content. That is, only a web site's text even meta tags were looked at and not other various off page formulas such as quality incoming links did not come into play.
But this does not mean you need to phase them out all together.
Meta tags do have their use even at Google. The description tag is used to display search result
information about your site in the form of a "snippet". But it has no bearing on your page rank, it is simply used for descriptive purposes, go figure.
Google isn't the only fish in the pond of course, there are many other major SE's. Most of which will use meta tags in some way but won't allow them
to have much significance in the search ranking. For this fact alone it will not hurt to have an acceptable list of keywords
in your meta tag as a backup precaution. But with all of this being said if you wanted to leave them out completely, go for it. There are several other
SEO techniques that are incomparably more important that should be given more attention.
Implementation
The two main tags you need are the description and keyword tags. They are placed in between the opening and closing <head> tags.
Here is an example:
<head>
<title>Jerry's Fishin' Shack</title>
<meta name="description" content="Online retailer of many popular brand fishing items.">
<meta name="keywords" content="fishing, poles, tackle, rods, line, reel">
</head>
Visit w3schools.com for more technical information about meta tags
Ways to maximize your meta tags
There are two things you want to keep in mind when coming up with keywords for your meta tag.
One is relevance, you want the keywords
to pertain to your website in some way. The other is frequency, you don't want to use the same words over and over.
On my tool's page I have outlined a few decent meta tag related tools.
And a healthy dose of keyword tools here.
There is one tool I want to bring to attention that I just found recently for keywords. It's called Meta Glossary. This online tool
allows you to search out relevant keywords based off of a single word. Some results for different words will be hit and miss, but depending on what you're looking for this
can be a great asset to have.
To have your meta tags analyzed go here. Take this with a grain of salt, but it will tell you if you are
repeating too many words and other various things.
The least you need to know
Meta tags lost their importance very long ago, they still have some use but the days of tricking out your meta tag for amazing search
ranking are over. Google uses them only for little descriptive snippets for your site and does not formulate meta tags into your page rank.
I know several web developers who have not used them in years and have seen no difference in their sites. It doesn't hurt to have them but
bottom line is you don't need to go SEO crazy when it comes to meta tags. Would love to hear your view, do you use them or not?
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Updated Sep 21 - 2010
