meta tags - How important?

[HFE Signs]

Can anyone tell me - are meta tags really important or is it all about links now?

Thanks

 

[Revolution_Inc]

Meta descriptions are still important, Meta Keywords are worthless. In fact, competitors can check your meta keywords and see what you are optimising your site for. So it potentially does more harm than good. Hope that helps

Danny

 

[WickITServices]

I recommend you spend some time here http://www.youtube.com/user/GoogleWebmasterHelp which is Google's own SEO advice channel on YouTube and full of good stuff. If you do a search within the channel for meta tags you'll find no less than five really helpful videos to watch.

 

[webgeek]

Something like 15% - 20% is on page (including meta title and description)
20% is social validation
60% in inbound links from non-social sites.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

Can anyone tell me - are meta tags really important

Important for what?

Steve

 

[fisicx]

The meta description is really important, second only to the page title.

It's the thing people see when thay do a search so it's vital you spend time writing some great sales copy with calls to action and so on.

A good meta description can capture clicks from higher ranked sites.

It's part of a good SEO campagin.

 

[cmcp]

Remember there are more than 2 meta name attributes. To understand how to use them properly, you need to understand the function of meta data.

Keep in mind, meta data is data about the document. This might be utilised by external search engines, but keep in mind there may be many more uses (internal and external).

There's certainly been a move towards structured content the past few years, harnessing semantic markup, metadata, microdata... Hopefulyl this will increase.

 

[decorwise]

The important meta tags are title and description.

Meta keyword are useless.

Source: mattcutts.com/blog/keywords-meta-tag-in-web-search/

 

[sigmais]

Meta tag is important in previous time, it is totally being ignored by those top search engine, the search engine technology now is good enough to index your website

 

[softwaredevelopersuk]

Meta title tag is very important for optimizing keywords on top of search engine result pages. recent days Google does not consider keywords and description. use keyword rich content on top of every pages.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

Wow, this thread is spam central.

 

[Brightpearl]

Nowadays there is no SEO value for meta tags (description or keywords) so they will not help any efforts to improve your search engine ranking.

However, the meta description will appear as the snippet beneath your listing on the SERPs (search engine results page) so is important as a driver for click-through on your listing. The search engines will generally only read about 160 characters so you need concise and compelling information that will encourage searchers to click on your link. Here's a useful article on the topic from SEOmoz: http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/meta-description.

Penny

 

[PBscott]

If you do a search on your keywords, and find your listing, you will see the results contain the title, and the description you have written. If they do not contain the keywords generally they will not show up in the search, or rank very poorly. Once they do show up and someone reads the title and description, do you feel that your description and title are interesting enough for the person to come click and visit your site? If they do click based on your title and description, will they be greeted with what they expected and stick around ?

Titles and Meta tags are super important in my opinion, but if you you use them poorly, you will never get the end results you are looking for.

You really need to have all your ducks in a row as they say, from the naming of your images, to your page names, titles, description, and of course your content, which is the very most important thing, once the people actually arrive.

 

[John23]

Meta tags (meta title & description) refers lots in SEO, meta tags help you to get ranking over the search engine, your meta data effective when it is unique and meaningful otherwise it is worthless.

 

[samiran12]

I think meta tags played important role in page rank of any site

 

[fisicx]

Wow, this thread is spam central.

And yet more arrives...

 

[laptopdesire]

Meta tags and descriptions are not as important as your seo keywords and alt tags. They used to be but has all changed so much.

 

[amich]

Wow, this thread is spam central.

And yet more arrives...

Rather than comment on the potential spam, just report the corresponding posts/users. In my experience the mods are quick to act on such reports and will delete the offending posts/users promptly. By commenting, you are just filling the threads up with junk that will not make sense when the spam is deleted.

As it stands in this thread, other than demonstrating poor use of the English language and not providing particularly useful replies, these potential spammers have not yet done anything wrong. Keep an eye on them though, since I suspect this will change pretty soon.

 

[richardboss78]

Really, Meta Tag is one of the most important factors of website that helps to increase visibility of your website in the search engine.

 

[globalpageindia]

[FONT=Helvetica, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]Though[/FONT] Meta Keywords[FONT=Helvetica, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif] and[/FONT] Meta Description[FONT=Helvetica, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif] are not the main factor search engines consider when ranking sites, they should not be left off the page. A [/FONT]Meta Description[FONT=Helvetica, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif] is supposed to be a brief and concise summary of your page's content. A[/FONT] Meta Keyword[FONT=Helvetica, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif] is supposed to be a summary list of the most important words on your page.[/FONT]​

 

[UKSBD]

meta tags are getting more and more important for numerous reasons.

 

[Revolution_Inc]

[FONT=Helvetica, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]Though[/FONT] Meta Keywords[FONT=Helvetica, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif] and[/FONT] Meta Description[FONT=Helvetica, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif] are not the main factor search engines consider when ranking sites, they should not be left off the page. A [/FONT]Meta Description[FONT=Helvetica, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif] is supposed to be a brief and concise summary of your page's content. A[/FONT] Meta Keyword[FONT=Helvetica, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif] is supposed to be a summary list of the most important words on your page.[/FONT]​

This page is getting less and less helpful to the OP.

Meta Descriptions - Keep relevant, readable and include a call to action.
Page Titles - Relevant to your page keywords.
Meta Keywords - Worthless. Don't even bother.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

This page is getting less and less helpful to the OP.

Meta Descriptions - Keep relevant, readable and include a call to action.
Page Titles - Relevant to your page keywords.
Meta Keywords - Worthless. Don't even bother.

I see what you mean.

 

[Revolution_Inc]

I see what you mean.

So you still value the Meta Keywords section Steve?

Can I ask why?

 

[directmarketingadvice]

So you still value the Meta Keywords section Steve?

Do I value it?

That's a strange question. It's not about me.

Do I think meta keywords are important? Of course.

Can I ask why?

Testing.

Steve

 

[Revolution_Inc]

Do I value it?

That's a strange question. It's not about me.

Do I think meta keywords are important? Of course.



Testing.

Steve

Well I would assume since you highlight it as incorrect advice, you would value it. Nothing strange about it.

I can't see what value they would add. While on page keywords are great, Meta haven't influenced a search engine for a while. That's a fact.

I've probably misunderstood you somewhere though.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

I can't see what value they would add. While on page keywords are great, Meta haven't influenced a search engine for a while. That's a fact.

You saying it's a fact doesn't make it a fact.

Steve

 

[Horton_Sakaria]

First rule is always to have your title tags in place; keywords and description are still used by other search engines... Not really Google. Then use the words in your title across the page. Not too much as this is called keyword stuffing!

 

[Revolution_Inc]

You saying it's a fact doesn't make it a fact.

Steve

Haha, very true.

I was actually basing it on Matt Cutts and several other people far more intelligent than me.

But let's agree to disagree. It's a pretty trivial point to argue on.

Danny

 

[directmarketingadvice]

I was actually basing it on Matt Cutts

And what did Matt Cutts say? (And what does he know about?)

Steve

 

[Revolution_Inc]

"You shouldn't spend any time on the meta keywords tag, We don't use it. I'm not aware of any major search engine that uses it these days. It's a place that people don't really see when they load the browser, and so a lot of webmasters just keyword stuff there, and so it's really not all that helpful. So we don't use meta keywords at all."

Matt Cutts - August 2011

That was a while ago but in a world where Google are attempting to phase out pretty much all bad practice and make the internet a 'better place', it would be a backwards step for them to start giving them relevance again. It would be re-exploited in a day. And I don't think he would be saying it to throw seo's off the scent. Its hardly important enough.

My opinion anyway, clearly different from yours Steve!

 

[directmarketingadvice]

“You shouldn’t spend any time on the meta keywords tag, We don’t use it. I’m not aware of any major search engine that uses it these days.

It’s a place that people don’t really see when they load the browser, and so a lot of webmasters just keyword stuff there, and so it’s really not all that helpful. So we don’t use meta keywords at all.”

You can watch a video where he gives that answer:

http://www.seo-expert-blog.com/video/you-shouldnt-spend-any-time-on-the-meta-keywords-tag

And, as I said, "What does he know about?"

Or, to put it another way, what exactly is he saying?

Steve

 

[Revolution_Inc]

You can watch a video where he gives that answer:

http://www.seo-expert-blog.com/video/you-shouldnt-spend-any-time-on-the-meta-keywords-tag

And, as I said, "What does he know about?"

Or, to put it another way, what exactly is he saying?

Steve

Or here, may as well use the official channels

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RBTBEfd7z_Y

I have no idea where your going and I think I'm done talking about it. Your obviously clued up on something I'm clearly missing. I thought it was decent advice (definitely didn't see the need to point score off what I said). I might be proved way off.

Good luck Steve!

 

[bdw]

I thought it was decent advice (definitely didn't see the need to point score off what I said). I might be proved way off.

My advice would be not to fret over it and don't let it put you off this forum. You will find that there are some people in here whose mission seems to be ... well I am not really sure?

We need lots of opinions and we need people to share.
.

 

[billtheinvoice]

We've recently been optimising our meta titles, descriptions etc. and have noticed a profound effect on our SERP.

SEOmoz helped highlight a lot of the errors we had been making.

 

[Jack Clark]

Time to put on your tin hats people! Matt Cutts has spoken.

But seriously....

The keyword meta tag doesn't make a difference whatsoever in search rankings. Google and other major search engines haven't used the keyword meta tag in years.

The meta description is important because it influences the CTR you get from SERPS.

Can we stop spewing conspiracy theory BS please?

Thanks,

Jack

 

[directmarketingadvice]

Can we stop spewing conspiracy theory BS please?

Which conspiracy theory would that be?

Steve

 

[Chunkford]

The keyword meta tag doesn't make a difference whatsoever in search rankings. Google and other major search engines haven't used the keyword meta tag in years.

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=251673

#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.

So is anyone laughing in your face or not?

 

[Jack Clark]

Which conspiracy theory would that be?

Google is out to get you.

Matt Cutts kills kittens.

etc. etc.

 

[Jack Clark]

Chunkford, I don't understand your point. You have taken my statement out of context.

I stated that the keyword meta tag doesn't influence rankings, which it doesn't.

And then in my post "10 crippling SEO Myths Debunked", I list 10 myths, one of which is that keyword meta tags help you rank, and I said that an SEO would laugh in your face if you told them that.

You failed to quote me correctly and fully. This is what I actually wrote:

Here are 10 SEO myths that need to be put to bed:

#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.

In case you are unsure, I am saying that the keyword meta tag does not help you rank and that if you said that it does, a good SEO will laugh in your face.

Perhaps you should get your reading comprehension skills to a suitable level before making snide comments and quoting out of context.

Thanks,

Jack