metatags

yorks · #1 (**permalink**) 07-26-2005, 12:41 PM

Hi all

been away from the forums for a while so I may have missed some discussions.

Just wondering how important people regard metatags are now to Google and perhaps other search engines.

KeithO · #2 (**permalink**) 07-26-2005, 12:58 PM

Yahoo still looks at them. Google pretty much ignores them.

greeneagle · #3 (**permalink**) 07-26-2005, 01:59 PM

Remember the Title Tag is not a metatag, and is very important to GOOGLE still.

Ken

dburdon · #4 (**permalink**) 07-26-2005, 04:08 PM

Other posters are right.

Google only really looks at the title meta tag. I would argue that it is a meta tag as it sits in the <head> ... </head> section.

However, meta tags - even the much derided keywords meta tag - are a very good discipline for controlling content. Align your title meta tag, description meta tag, keywords meta tags and content with any keywords research and you'll be aiming in the right direction.

Yahoo and MSN definitely still give some prominence to the description meta tag as long as it aligns with page content.

jaldridge · #5 (**permalink**) 07-26-2005, 04:45 PM

I have noticed that Google often uses the description tag as the text in the serps, for example, when you enter a company name.

DMC_34 · #6 (**permalink**) 07-26-2005, 04:51 PM

I believe Google uses the Meta Description and Keywords Tags but only for deciphiring a theme for the given document and checks for synonyms. In our business the use of synonyms are drastically changed the placement of the top 10.

DMC

cbp · #7 (**permalink**) 07-27-2005, 09:04 AM

They do use the description tag as the SERP's description under some conditons, BUT we have no idea if they use the content of it as part of the relevance side of the ranking equation.

CBP

dburdon · #8 (**permalink**) 07-27-2005, 10:38 AM

Interesting point that DMC makes about synonyms.

One of my pages uses the term "strategy".

I recently picked up a Google search query that used "strategies". I tested the term substituting "strategies" with "strategy". On Google, the ranking of the page was identical. Whereas on Yahoo and MSN the page only ranked highly when it was restricted to the singular version of the word.

jacobwissler · #9 (**permalink**) 07-28-2005, 11:03 AM

Does anyone have an opinion on the use of punctuation in the title? I have always used punctuation to divide phrases, but I notice some of the top SEO firms have no punctuation in the title. I suspect they know something I don't.

dburdon · #10 (**permalink**) 07-28-2005, 11:55 AM

Jacob,

do searchers use punctuation in their search queries?

I guess not - most of the time.

buddhu · #11 (**permalink**) 07-29-2005, 10:45 AM

Google will display the text from the description meta if you get a secondary indented result under your homepage result in the SERPS. This is great if your main result pulls its description from a lame DMOZ directory description! It gives you a chance to get in a description that will actually encourage click-through!

It will not make a difference to your rankings though.

DMC_34 · #12 (**permalink**) 07-29-2005, 11:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dburdon

Interesting point that DMC makes about synonyms.

One of my pages uses the term "strategy".

I recently picked up a Google search query that used "strategies". I tested the term substituting "strategies" with "strategy". On Google, the ranking of the page was identical. Whereas on Yahoo and MSN the page only ranked highly when it was restricted to the singular version of the word.

Yes Yahoo and MSN do not account for synonyms as much as Google does. I have seen a VERY STRONG shift since bourbon that synonyms are accounting for much more in G.

For example: "Greeting" is a synonym for "Christmas" in Googles eyes. I have noticed some "Greeting" giants which previously did not rank in the top 30 are now showing up. For example BlueMountain is now #1, before bourbon they were not in the top 20. Why? 216,000 IBL's. Heck they dont even have the word Christmas anywhere on the page.

I believe synonym link text is a must to keep the look of a natural linking campaign. I do believe they are a fraction of the power of the main keyword where 10 christmas cards links = 100 synonym links, but IMO the variations are necessary for naturality as well as broader keyword searches in Google.

DMC

dburdon · #13 (**permalink**) 07-29-2005, 04:47 PM

DMC,

do you know where Google (and Yahoo or MSN) source their synonyms? Is there any reference material?

DMC_34 · #14 (**permalink**) 07-29-2005, 05:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dburdon

DMC,

do you know where Google (and Yahoo or MSN) source their synonyms? Is there any reference material?

Google - I use tilde + keyword, and search through the results to find bolded words. Stemmed words are bolded but synonyms are bolded as well.

Such as ~gift:
shopping
wedding
donation

Granted the bolding algo for the serps is said to be totally independant of the ranking algo. But the way I see it, if they went to the trouble of using in bolding then it is part of the algo. As I said erlier, it is very evident more so now than before.

MSN - I believe has a similar technique but they use some sort associated words from what I have read. I have never seen a list though or how to find them out.

Yahoo - I am not sure they use this in their algo at all.

DMC

greeneagle · #15 (**permalink**) 07-29-2005, 06:22 PM

Sounds like LSI is on the way after all!

Ken

wsmeyer · #16 (**permalink**) 07-29-2005, 07:57 PM

A while back it appeared to me that if I was ranked for a particular keyword in Google, and had that keyword listed in my keyword metatag, they used my description metatag in the serp. If I didn't have the keyword listed they would grab the text surrounding the keyword.

I found this curious so on one of my pages I deleted the keyword metatag. Not surprisingly the position didn't change but they switched from the description to the surrounding text.

I only have one site and I only tested this with one keyword so it could be a coincidence but has anyone else noticed something similar?

William.