What are meta tags you ask. Meta tags are the hidden code usually put at the top
of websites designed to perform different functions. The two most famous, and most
debatable meta tags are the description and keywords
meta tags which you can find somewhere between your <head> </head> tags
and usually look something like this:
<meta name="keywords" content="keyword1 keyword2 keyword3
... keyword25"> <meta name="description" content="
Volico has keyword1 and keyword2 in all of its keyword3 keyword4 etc. Volico is
the greatest web host in the world so its hard to describe it in less than 35 words.
Volico is also very modest.">
They were originally designed to tell search engines, and other various programs,
what each web page on the internet was all about. Some search engines, even to this
day will use the meta description tag as the description you see
next to the sites Title in the search engine results pages.
The Problem: Search engines want to provide the best search results
possible, and these "META" tags can easily be modified, and jam packed
with keywords, and there were no consequences since they were hidden and the only
one who saw them was the search engines. So the search engines wised up and realized
that to find out what was on a website you actually had to look at the website which
is why the META DESCRIPTION and META KEYWORDS tags are given very little weight
during the search engine ranking process..
So Should I Bother Putting The META DESCRIPTION Tag on My Web Pages?:
Yes, this tag is still widely used and accepted by almost all search engines. The
main thing to keep in mind here is not to use words in your description that are
not on your site itself, and do not expect any miracles. Just because you have the
words "insurance quotes" in your META DESCRIPTION tag doesn't necessarily
mean you are going to show up on the first page of the search results for it. The
META DESCRIPTION tag is not given much weight in the ranking process but should
still be used when possible.
So Should I Bother Putting The META KEYWORDS Tag on My Web Pages?:
Short answer Yes, with an IF, long answer NO, with a BUT. Should you put them on
your site? Sure, why not. Every little bit helps right? IF you have the extra time,
and want to put in the extra effort, go ahead and use this dying tag to describe
your website. BUT many search engines, such as Google completely discount the tag.
If you decide to include this tag on your web pages you must keep in mind that the
search engines that do consider it, generally verify that any word in the KEYWORDS
tag is actually used in the website itself, otherwise it is completely pointless.
So where are meta tags in the whole scheme of search engine importance?
This is impossible to tell for certain, and it will very from search engine to search
engine, but in my opinion I would focus on these parts of my website, in this order-
- Title (<Title>)
- Header Tags (<H1>, <H2>, <H3>...)
- Links (<a href="//www.volico.com")
- Main Content (Any visible text on the web page, bold
tags and italics help this)
- Alt Text (Text used to describe images <img src="image.gif"
alt="Man Fishing on Boat">)
- Meta Description
- Meta Keywords
More SEO Links
Search Engine Optimizations
Website Submission