Interesting Meta Tags - Does this work?

frontman · #1 (**permalink**) 05-26-2005, 12:49 AM

We found a competitors site today with some interesting Meta Tags....anyone have info on them and if they actually work? I had to adjust the zipe codes..they listed about 500 of them in a string so keep that in mind......They had a PR of 5....

<meta name="zipcode" content="75002,75006,75007,75008,75010,75011,75013 ...">
<meta name="city" content="Dallas,Fort Worth,Las Colinas,Richarson,Irving,Carrollton,Garland,Mesqui te,Plano,McKinney,Allen,Lewisville,Coppell,Grand Prairie,Arlington,Cedar Hill,Frisco,Southlake,Hurst,Bedford,Euless">
<meta name="state" content="Texas">
<meta name="country" content="usa, united states of america">

timmathews.com · #2 (**permalink**) 05-26-2005, 01:12 AM

Very interesting tags.

cbp · #3 (**permalink**) 05-26-2005, 01:16 AM

Quote:

Does this work?

No.

CBP

SEOforGoogle · #4 (**permalink**) 05-26-2005, 09:35 AM

Those tags may help with MSN and geo targeting (the "Near Me" search).

Would be interesting to test...

frontman · #5 (**permalink**) 05-26-2005, 10:21 AM

Is that what google uses for the "local" search?

Quote:

Originally Posted by SEOforGoogle

Those tags may help with MSN and geo targeting (the "Near Me" search).

Would be interesting to test...

**brian.mark** · #6 (**permalink**) 05-26-2005, 10:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frontman

Is that what google uses for the "local" search?

We put our address on each page in plain text and we rank #1 for just about any local search on MSN, Google, and Yahoo. I don't think these tags would help in any way.

Brian.

SEOforGoogle · #7 (**permalink**) 05-27-2005, 10:08 AM

I agree with brian.mark that the tags most likely won't help, but if you have the physical addresses listed for each location, that would help your SERPs.

TechEvangelist · #8 (**permalink**) 05-27-2005, 10:37 AM

Search engines ignore most Meta tags, so I don't think it will work. IMO, localization is best accomplished by making sure the an address, state and zip code appear on the page.

Those Meta tags do not appear to be part of any recognized standard that I've ever seen. Someone can't just invent a Meta tag and expect search engines to read them.

Here's a link that explains how Google Local works: http://local.google.com/help/faq_local.html. frontman, I think this is the new Google feature you are referring to.

KeithO · #9 (**permalink**) 05-27-2005, 11:25 AM

nothing like inventing tags to make it look like you are doing work.

**brian.mark** · #10 (**permalink**) 05-27-2005, 11:54 AM

I'm going to invent the tag as follows:

Code:

<meta name="working" content="hardly">

Think that'll make search engines understand that they're not working?

Maybe if we all invent our own meta tags, Google will have to start figuring out what to do with them all. Or, maybe we should stick to what actually works, which is all link and content based, and leave these dumb tags to the spammers and newbies that saw them somewhere else and thought it might work.

Brian.

frontman · #11 (**permalink**) 05-27-2005, 03:56 PM

When we noticed the competitor with the tages I actually started to laugh...thought it was funny...until I did a few tests in Local G...then I noticed that they came up first everytime..which made me really wonder if it was possible..could G be telling us one thing and actually be reading our Meta Tags....I have never seen this before...still not that it means anything..

Quote:

Originally Posted by TechEvangelist

Search engines ignore most Meta tags, so I don't think it will work. IMO, localization is best accomplished by making sure the an address, state and zip code appear on the page.

Those Meta tags do not appear to be part of any recognized standard that I've ever seen. Someone can't just invent a Meta tag and expect search engines to read them.

Here's a link that explains how Google Local works: http://local.google.com/help/faq_local.html. frontman, I think this is the new Google feature you are referring to.

frontman · #12 (**permalink**) 05-27-2005, 03:58 PM

brian.mark...I agree with you..work on content and links...period...

thanks for your thoughts!

Quote:

Originally Posted by brian.mark

I'm going to invent the tag as follows:

Code:

<meta name="working" content="hardly">

Think that'll make search engines understand that they're not working?

Maybe if we all invent our own meta tags, Google will have to start figuring out what to do with them all. Or, maybe we should stick to what actually works, which is all link and content based, and leave these dumb tags to the spammers and newbies that saw them somewhere else and thought it might work.

Brian.