Meta Tags and SEO: Do They Still Matter?
Meta tags are part of the HTML code that is used to create your web site. So, even if you're a webmaster or site owner, you may never have seen your site's meta tags below the site's skin. Further, you may not know how they're used by search engine spiders to access and index your web site.
While meta tags are still important to spiders, they're just one aspect of true site optimization. Here's why.
The Birth of the Search Engine
The first search engine was launched by Yahoo in 1994. Before then, we were all stumbling around in the dark trying to find this or that site. However, with the birth of search engines (there are now more than 4,000 of them) search engine optimization was born. SEO is part science, part art and a whole lot of hooey.
What is a meta tag?
A meta tag is part of the HTML (hyper text markup language) code that forms the basis of a web site. There are different types of tags used by HTML coders to help search engines figure out what a given site is about. Unfortunately, at least early on, SEO "experts" exploited meta tags making them less valuable tools to classify a site according to the search engine's taxonomy.
A site's meta tag usually appears at the top of the HTML code that underlies the site itself. It's usually found in the <HEAD> section of the code and might look something like this:
<head>
<title>This is where you put descriptive keywords describing your site</title>
<meta name="Description" content="This is where you place a keyword dense description of your site's purpose" />
<meta name="Keywords" content="This is where you list all of your keywords" />
</head>
These tags are used by search engine spiders to get a fix on what the site sells or does. Easy, right? No, not so easy. If it were, we'd all have links on the first page of Google's SERPs.
Misleading Metas
The early search engines used fairly simply formulae, called algorithms, to access, assess and categorize a web site. And one of the key factors in this classification process was the information contained in a site's meta tag. All well and good until unscrupulous site owners began throwing every word they could think of into their site's metas. So, a site that sold organic fertilizer might also add words like "sex," "money" and "Elvis" into their metas even though these things had absolutely nothing to do with organic fertilizer.
The outcome was search engine results pages (SERP) that had less and less relevance to the user's query words, also known as keywords.
It's All About Relevance
The whole purpose of a search engine is to deliver relevant links to web sites based on the user's selected keywords. So, the organic fertilizer company that put the keyword "sex" in its meta tag was subverting the search engine's raison d'etre and diminishing the quality of SERP.
If every web site has the word "sex" in its meta tag, then all of them are going to show up on the SERPs when a search engine user actually queries the word "sex." You start to see the problem with relying too heavily on meta tags. Anybody could easily fool a search engine spider into thinking a site was about ABC when, in fact, it was about XYZ.
The abuse of meta tags in the early days of search engines forced search engine designers to find other, more sophisticated means of classifying sites - means that couldn't be as easily subverted as adding misleading keywords to metas.
The Meta Tag Today
Meta tags aren't as important as they once were, though they're still spidered by most search engines. However, today, spiders have gotten "smarter" as search engine algorithms have become more complex and discerning.
Today, spiders look beyond the meta tags and title tags and actually crawl the text that appears on the site. And, the site text had better sync up with the keywords placed in the meta. If it doesn't spiders might determine that the webmaster is still trying to undermine SERPs with phony keywords in meta tags - something that went out years ago.
So, Are Meta Tags Worth the Effort?
When it comes to SEO, everything is worth the effort. Indeed, optimizing a site involves everything from keyword density to meta tags to inbound links and more. So, even though search engine algorithms don't place as much weight on meta tags as they did in the last millennium, they do get spidered and factored into the overall optimization of a site.
To truly optimize a site, use every tool available. Meta tags are one tool (albeit a less important tool) that can more clearly define the nature of a site.
What Should I Put Into My Meta Tags?
Actually, what keywords you place inside a meta depends on what keywords you select for the site's text. Many novice site owners load up their metas and then develop the site's text. It should be the other way around.
First, select the keywords that you plan to use. Select 10 to 15 keywords and phrases and use these keywords throughout the site's corpus - the body of text that appears on the site. Work keywords into headings and sub-headings since spiders assume this is more important information. Also, try to work in keywords as much as you can within the first few sentences of each paragraph. This is called keyword density. However, don't overdo it. Spiders know keyword gibberish when they gobble up those character strings so write the text for humans then add more keywords so the text doesn't sound stilted or forced.
Maximizing Meta Tag Keywords
Once again, be straightforward and never try to fool a search engine spider. It could cause your site to be mis-indexed, partially indexed or gray-barred, i.e. banned from the SE index altogether.
So, follow these simple steps to get the most out of your site's meta tags:
- With the site text in place use the same keywords that you used in the site text.
- Don't add new keywords to the meta tags that don't appear in the site text.
- List keywords by their importance. The best keyword should come first. Keywords after that are given less credence by spiders.
- Review the site text for important words and phrases - especially repeaters. Add these to the meta keyword tag.
- Avoid repeating keywords in the meta keyword tag. You can use dog, dog supplies, dog food and so on but never use dog,dog,dog,dog. Spiders don't like useless repetition.
- Separate keywords by commas but not spaces, i.e. sports equipment,sporting goods,athletic gear, etc. Spiders view commas as spaces so you don't need both a space and a comma.
Finally, test and retest. There's no way of knowing beforehand how a search engine spider will 'read' your site - your meta keyword tags, site text and other site elements. The best (and only) way to determine if your optimization efforts have been successful is to track the results. If you see a jump in page rank, you're doing it properly. If you disappear from the search engine results pages altogether, it's back to the drawing board.
One last note worth mentioning again: today's search engine algorithms are exponentially more sophisticated than their primitive ancestors. In fact, these SE formulae are designed to detect any hint of subversion or fraud. So, don't even try it.
If you play it straight and stick to the simple steps above, you'll see improvement in page rank without spending a lot of money. Yes, meta tag optimization is worth it - but only if you play by the rules the SEs have established.
Store