how should i use the keyword meta tag? what is the format?

[crush123]

hello,
i have a doubt from a long time.
suppose my site is about "music".
then what is the best way to write my meta keyword tag?
is it like -
<meta name="keywords" content="music, rap music, pop music, hip hop music, classical music, music lyrics, mp3 music">

in the above example, i have repeated the word music a number of times. will this be considered as keyword spam?

can you please suggest the best way for coding my meta tag in this case?

[Webnauts]

I would not leave any spaces after the commas, and I would not use the a keyword even even if in keyphrases more than two times. :)

Maybe better option would be to use all keywords once, and do not separate them with commas.

[amar]

Hi,

Separate your keywords with comma. Start every keyword with capital letter.

Thanks,
Amar

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by amar

Hi,

Separate your keywords with comma. Start every keyword with capital letter.

Thanks,
Amar

Capital letter? Sorry, but I do not agree with you about that. :)

[amar]

Hi Webnauts and crush123,

Kindly omit my earlier post.

In Google and MSN it will show same results for a keyphrase starting with or without a capital letter. But in Yahoo sometimes it will show different competition for keyphrases starting with capital letter.

Thanks,
Amar

[Webnauts]

Does that mean that we can have keywords edited in our meta tags like this?

...accessibility,usability,seo,Accessibility,Usabi lity, SEO....

[mantawebsolutions]

I did a quick search for search engine optimization services and Search Engine Optimization Services and found the results to be the same for the terms both uncapped and capped. The results for capped and uncapped msn were the same as well as in yahoo.

I did a search for various other terms as well, with the same result.

I did however see some difference in the total number of results for some searches. Where the difference is exactly I don't know as I did not go beyond the first 3 page results...

[Webnauts]

Thanks for confirming mantawebsolutions. I was aware of that, but as you see there were some doubts in the room here. :)

[internet-marketing-cr]

You shouldn't repeat the same keyword more than three times, also you can use different variations of a keyword. You can separate them by commas, or not, I haven't noticed any difference. The keyword tag has become less and less important, though... it was getting to be a source of spam; however, some search engines still use it.

[Jabber_uk]

One of the sites we developed (rhodes-properties.com) does not even have a meta keyword tag! I deleiverately left it out to see what effect it would have. Not a lot I don't think as it is P.9 of 3300,000 results on big G. for the term 'rhodes properties'.

http://www.google.com/search?client=...utf-8&oe=utf-8

[incrediblehelp]

Dont worry about using keyword tags at all. I stop using them for client websites. Of course if the client website uses internal search keyword tags can be very helpful for search relevancy.

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

Dont worry about using keyword tags at all. I stop using them for client websites. Of course if the client website uses internal search keyword tags can be very helpful for search relevancy.

Do you want to say that MSN and other small SE ignore the keywords meta tags?

[mantawebsolutions]

I wouldn't write of the Keyword Meta tag completely, although I would spend minimal time on optimizing it.

If I had to compare which part of my seo design was more important, I would more or less give it this ratio (based on level of emphasis or relevance):
1. Title - 50%
2. Keywords in content (density) - 15%
3. Description - 15%
4. Keywords in text links - 15%
5. Keyword Meta Tag - 5%

What i am basically saying is the Title is most important to me, followed by 'Keywords in content', 'Description' and 'Keywords in text links' with an equal share and lastly I'll put my keyword meta tag...

This may not be perfect, but it works for me.

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by Webnauts

Do you want to say that MSN and other small SE ignore the keywords meta tags?

It is not to say they ignore them, but I don't find the time cost in creating them worth it in the long run.

The only SE I see that takes them under any serious consideration is Yahoo and they just look for them to be in alignment with the rest of your content.

Sure they may be looked at or weighed on low competition keywords, but they make no bit of a diff on the more popular ones.

[Phrozt]

What I have heard, and what I usually do with my clients is have them pick out FIVE different keywords per page.. if they really want keywords. Small, simple keywords... not key phrases. But generally, I leave out the keyword and description meta fields (a lot of search engines do not LIKE a lot of meta fields) and instead let my H1s and page structure do the talking

[mcspec]

I disagree with the percentages given above:

1) Title 25%
2) Content 35%
3) h1 and tags 15%
4) code 15%
5) des and keyword tags 10%

bottom line. Dont repeat your keyword too many times that includes using it in a phrase. Keep your most relevent keywords at the front of the list. I think many small SE's still use these so I would deinfately not leave them out. I would also not kid yourself that they are that important.

[mantawebsolutions]

mcspec, I like your percentages... I have to correct myself, content and keywords in content should have a higher importance than the title. I wasn't thinking straight before...

[crush123]

thanks for all your replies.
i know very well that most search engines neglect the keyword metatag. but i think there is no loss if we include it. now the point is what is the best format in the example i have discussed in the first post in this thread.
shall i write it as
<meta name="keywords" content="music rap pop hip hop classical western lyrics mp3">
is it ok?
thank you for reading and replying.

[CreditFN]

Logic relevancy is whats most important throughout your Meta-tag. There is not necessarily one component that is more important then the other.

As for the music site, I would suggest targetting a market niche that can be described in two plus keywords. hot new music, hot hip hop, new rock n roll. Would totally advise against trying to target the keyword music, wait for your site to grow before that.