meta tags - How important?

[bdw]

#1 - The meta keywords tag influences rankings. This is well known and any good SEO will laugh in your face if you try to tell them otherwise.

I knew what you meant I but can understand how comprehension could be a problem. Read it again yourself.

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[Jack Clark]

I knew what you meant I but can understand how comprehension could be a problem. Read it again yourself.

I understand that it wasn't written in the best way, but I still think it is fairly obvious.

 

[Chunkford]

My brain hurts. Thought you were contradicting your self. Sorry.

Ah well, off to spec savers me thinks.

 

[Jack Clark]

No worries.

I apologise for snapping at you.:redface:

It was late.

 

[Dbennett006]

Meta descriptions has little to no effect on SEO, but what you should use it for is to increase click through rates on Google. As we know that if you fill in the description Google and the other major search engines will display that text underneath your page title in the search results.

Make this text snippet appealing, and put an unanswered question in it, like "what does the meta description actually do for SEO?"

Users are more inclined to click your listing to find out the answer, and 9 times out of 10 your click through rate will increase.

 

[bdw]

^ This is a good suggestion. ^

 

[stefijain]

Meta Tags really important, meta tags help to increase our website keywords ranking in search engine, with the meta tags display in search result when we search and this is really very beneficial for our website to improve ranking .

 

[marvel1987]

Important?? They are vital!!

Title Tags
Meta description
On page content

In that order

 

[Dbennett006]

Important?? They are vital!!

Title Tags
Meta description
On page content

In that order

This is simply untrue... On page content is key to all SEO. The recent Google update has made the page content even more vital to rankings. Where did you find this information?

 

[kulture]

Dear god, the poor op must be getting really confused by all this conflicting advice.

In reality no one here can definitely sat what google and the other search engines do with all the meta tags. It is however sensible to put accurate proper information in the meta tags.

You want google to rank your page. You want it to get it right and know what your page is about. On-page this is down to the content. Good descriptions, well written text, a good title. Then on google you want to have a good summary to get people to click, then most times google will display your meta description. As for the keyword meta tag, I am not convinced that google puts much importance on it, but so long as you do not over stuff it, why not.

 

[bdw]

In reality no one here can definitely sat what google and the other search engines do with all the meta tags.

We most certainly can. This is one of the area where Google is fully transparent. They tell you more or less exactly how they use meta tags in their guidelines.

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=79812

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[directmarketingadvice]

In reality no one here can definitely sat what google and the other search engines do with all the meta tags.

You can't say definitively what every search engine does with every tag in every situation, but you can test things.

Steve

 

[RevaxMedia]

I guess this thread can pretty much sum up the SEO Industry - Are Meta Data useful for SEO? Answer: Delete all meta data on your "trial" website and see how far it gets in the SERPS

 

[marvel1987]

This is simply untrue... On page content is key to all SEO. The recent Google update has made the page content even more vital to rankings. Where did you find this information?

That information is from 3 1/2 years experience with a large number of different websites in different industries and i haven't once ranked a website for a particular keyword with a poor, non-targeted title tag!

I am fully aware of the new algorithm changes and the importance of content, but even if Shakespear wrote your content, if your title tag doesnt contain your targeted keywords you are going nowhere in the rankings!

 

[kulture]

We most certainly can. This is one of the area where Google is fully transparent. They tell you more or less exactly how they use meta tags in their guidelines.

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=79812

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Oh my! And you believe them! Gosh. I have a bridge to sell if you are interested.

 

[Chunkford]

This is why I never bothered to learn anything about SEO as quite frankly my brain would explode.
Here we have a thread that asks what should be a simple question for someone who does this kind of thing but the people who do this for a living cannot even agree so where does that leave the likes of me who doesn't have a clue

If you have the time fill em out, if not do something else that has more of an impact

 

[Dbennett006]

That information is from 3 1/2 years experience with a large number of different websites in different industries and i haven't once ranked a website for a particular keyword with a poor, non-targeted title tag!

I am fully aware of the new algorithm changes and the importance of content, but even if Shakespear wrote your content, if your title tag doesnt contain your targeted keywords you are going nowhere in the rankings!

When I initially quoted you, I was not disputing the title tag or it's use. sorry I didn't make that clear.

What I am disputing is that you class meta descriptions more important in gaining rankings, before the page content. Which was the reason I was disputing your original quote.

 

[williams22]

In simple terms, Meta information is used to communicate information to the search engine crawlers.

 

[bdw]

Oh my! And you believe them! Gosh. I have a bridge to sell if you are interested.

Unnecessary sarcasm.

Can't you just accept the fact that some people may disagree with you and back their case up with evidence?

Perhaps you can give us your expert view on this? Give us one reason why Google would find it necessary to lie about this?

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[WiSEOtter]

There are so many sectors of a website that are important to Google ... A little bit of everything does you good!