SEO Tycoon

**earnsomecoin** · 08-28-2006, 06:42 AM

Are meta tags still important for SEO?

I've been hearing that more top search engines are beginning to ignor these tags and that content is much more important. (makes sense to me)

I was a web developer back in the mid 90's. Pretty much before people knew what websites and email was. I developed a good sized company that I sold off in '98. At that time Meta tags were becomming very important.

Since '98 I developed and recently sold a sunroom construction company so I've been 'out of the loop' in the website business.

Now that I am back and much has changed... what is the verdict in the case of Meta tags? Are they still worth the time?

I would think that the keyword and description tags would still be worth it, but even those appear to be more over looked by search engines these days.

Just wondering,

Ben

**handsome rob** · 08-28-2006, 10:30 AM

I still use them and always will.

**JDDunn9** · 08-28-2006, 10:31 AM

None of the major search engines care at all about the meta keywords tag. Google will use your meta description in the results if you have it. The description tag may also have a *slight* boost for any keywords you have in there. Google doesn't really care too much about anything on your own site, they are more concerned about what other websites say about your site.

**earnsomecoin** · 08-28-2006, 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JDDunn9

None of the major search engines care at all about the meta keywords tag. Google will use your meta description in the results if you have it. The description tag may also have a *slight* boost for any keywords you have in there. Google doesn't really care too much about anything on your own site, they are more concerned about what other websites say about your site.

How do you mean exactly? So if there is a bunch of sites out there that say your site is crap then you are going to get low ratings on google? Or do you mean that lack of links back to your site gives you the lower ratings?

**Bookworm-SEO** · 08-28-2006, 02:48 PM

SEOChat published a case study finding msn cared, G and Y didn't. As Rand of SEOMoz put it in an email (yeah, I got lucky and got a reply from the SEOMoz chief himself

), they're important for CTR (i.e. the description).

Don't spam them, just make them useful and have the main keywords early on in the description.

**JDDunn9** · 08-28-2006, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by earnsomecoin

How do you mean exactly? So if there is a bunch of sites out there that say your site is crap then you are going to get low ratings on google? Or do you mean that lack of links back to your site gives you the lower ratings?

I'm talking about the links pointing to your site. i.e. the sites linking to yours are related to yours and have the right anchor text.

**earnsomecoin** · 08-28-2006, 06:31 PM

I feel stupid here, but I'm going to guess the anchor text you are refering to is rich text that is the same or similar to the text and theme of your site. I am lacking up to date SEO knowledge.

**imported_mattd** · 08-28-2006, 07:46 PM

Meta tags - not just the keywords and description - are useful! Keep them! We are slowly lurching towards a much more semantic-orientated web (long way to go) where metadata is crucial so you might as well just stick all the crap in now and be done with it.

Things to think about:
- copyright notice
- content type and character encoding
- revisit
- robots

**jwatsonl** · 08-28-2006, 07:57 PM

I agree, they are there for a reason and have their uses. That being said however, they will not help you at all in increasing your SEPRS. Meta tags are good for description only and can increase your click-through if worded correctly.

**earnsomecoin** · 08-28-2006, 08:18 PM

What would be considered correct wording do you think? Any paticular rules of thumb you go by when writing them? Besides the obvious (i.e. be on topic and use important keywords). What are SEPRS? It must have something to do with search engine rating I would guess.

**AuctionMan** · 08-28-2006, 08:41 PM

Meta Tags are good webmaster practice and should be maintained although the importance has dropped they still are used by the smaller engines (outside the big 3) and can therefore not be ignored.

**JDDunn9** · 08-28-2006, 09:02 PM

Outside the big three? The big three make up 95% of the market. Who optimizes for 5% of the market?

**Lerchmo** · 08-28-2006, 10:37 PM

Meta Description is important.. I have a site that keeps getting de-indexed partially when I take it out and it comes back when I put them back. if you go site:yoururl.com you may see only one or a couple results with the rest ommitted. I think this does adversely effect your rankings.. this is my opinion though.

**Lerchmo** · 08-28-2006, 10:38 PM

also, read this : seoblackhat (dot) com/2006/08/21/wordpress-meta-description/