> -----Original Message----- > From: Martin Jopson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, 7 October 2005 2:23 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [WSG] Meta Keywords? > > > During one of Tantek's seminars at WE05, I assumed I was the > last person > in the world to learn that Meta Keywords were no longer used by search > engines. > > However, I have just received a document from a client who has been > advised by a search engine optimisation specialist [hitwise] to add > specific Meta Keywords to pages in their site. > > Could anyone please clarify the situation for Meta Keywords > and also Meta > Description. If possible also a web resource that states clearly these > issues.
I would advise anybody against taking Meta Tags (description and keywords) out of their sites. Although major search engines have publicly declared that they put less emphasis on the tags, there are still search engines around that read them. Google and Yahoo never really said "we don't support meta tags anymore". They just say they have implemented new ways of ranking sites. We leave the meta tags in all our websites and have had extremely good results with our rankings. Of course other factors (such as cross linking and page content) play a huge role in the ranking as well. BTW, even if search engines didn't put emphasis on the Meta tags, they still display the Meta Description in their search results (at least Google does). So if it's not for improving your ranking, at least put a meta description onto your site for the sake of informing people in a short sentence what your site is all about. ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
