Meta Tags Importance

[kumawat]

Hey Everyone when i analysis that there are many meta tags are available and these are important for the sites optimization also.
But i found in many webmaster resources that some meta tags are no useful such that

<META NAME="zip code" content=" ">
<META NAME="city" content=" ">
<META NAME="State" content=" ">
<META NAME="country" content=" ">
<META NAME="Expires" CONTENT="never">
<META NAME="Copyright" CONTENT="© ">
<META NAME="Designer" CONTENT=" ">
<META NAME="Publisher" CONTENT=" ">

But i search in net and found that the meta tags "zip code" is very useful to search a website location and it is very easy to search by any search engines.I want to know
about <META> tags importance also.Although we are use some <Meta> tags <META NAME="Description" CONTENT=" "> , <META NAME="Keywords" CONTENT=" "> , <META NAME="Revisit-After" CONTENT="21 Days"> , <META NAME="Robots" CONTENT="all">
etc.

Some search results says that zip code,city,State,country,Expires,Copyright,Designer etc are use less???

[MrPolarZero]

hmm...i never use those meta tags actually. I just focus on the most important ones. And that would be the META title, META keywords, and META description.

[Caitlyn]

there are more than 150 Meta tags...
But most of the search engine is crawling this MEta Title, Meta Description, Meta Keywords.
We should use this above three for the search engine result. other than that if you need you can add or dont want to add..

This is my opinion

[mjtaylor]

there are more than 150 Meta tags...
But most of the search engine is crawling this MEta Title, Meta Description, Meta Keywords.
We should use this above three for the search engine result. other than that if you need you can add or dont want to add..

This is my opinion

Opinions are worth what you pay for them, but it would be nice to see them backed up by some facts. ;)

For the record: the title tag is an important for SEO. The description is not important for ranking, but it is critical in attracting a click. The keyword tag is not used by any major search engine.

As far as zipcode and location go, I recently became a fan of using microformats. See: http://www.webproworld.com/webmaster-forum/threads/105868-Google-Places-What-Would-You-Do for why.

None of the other meta tags have any SEO value.

[Amit Shrivastava]

A Meta tag is basically an HTML tag, whose job is to furnish data to search engines (SE) regarding the kind of information present on the webpage. The purpose of a Meta tag is to add information and steer the SE spiders. Meta tags are an important tool to search engine optimize (SEO) a website.

[williamc]

Meta tags are an important tool to search engine optimize (SEO) a website.

No, they are not. Please read the thread before posting misleading information.

[jasonwdexter]

I could scream in the face of people that are learning SEO techniques from around 2005 and use http://pr10.com/ as a valid resource. Next they'll be providing tools to measure keyword density and giving me dates when google will next index my website.

The only meta tag I use, is the description tag. I use this as a way of standing out from the SERP crowd

[williamc]

Meta Tags are the first & foremost important things to get good rankings.

They are not even ranking factors. Did not even read the thread at all did you?

[alphaomega]

they are so important for site,as water is important for fish...
You should read the the discussion on image optimization. Your images on your Online Desi Movies are all squashed.

[LloydBurrell]

I believe that some of these meta tags may prove useful in local marketing strategies. However, they should come after meta titles and meta descriptions. It really depends on the online strategy you choose to further develop.

[alphaomega]

Amazing how many conflickting oppinions one can read here. I am incline to go with the veterans of this forum. Meta tags are of limited use.

[celine33]

I strongly believe that keyword tag is also vital to be properly placed in the meta tag since robots will crawl the site also based on the relevance of the site to the keyword being searched in SE. It will also add point to increase site's rankings in SE.just my two cents

[vlem79]

I used to have words in my title, keywords and description tags that were no longer relevant to the new content of my website. Still, I was finding my site easily by using these words. I ended up changing them to be more specific about the new content of my site. It just proved to me that the title, description and keywords were definately used by the SEs.

[steveschmidt85]

i am using title description and keywords only. title is most important, description is somewhat as its fine if you are not adding it will show from content but you can add your important keywords and keywords google is not considering but other search engine consider so its better to add other than that i dont think necessary

[deepsand]

The only meta tag I use, is the description tag. I use this as a way of standing out from the SERP crowd
Well, then, you're missing out big time.

<meta description> is but one of at least nine different sources used by Google when it dynamically generates the descriptive snippet based on the user's query string. I.e., whether or not your description is actually used is not under your control!

[deepsand]

Ya, focus only important meta tags!
Define "important."

Explain why such are "important."

Explain why others should be ignored.

[SuperMan]

TITLE is the most important in terms of SEO ( and I see this as the number 1 mistake people make - they dont use this to their advantage ) - and then Meta Description and Meta Keywords are second. These are the only ones that I see are important and vital to your SEO efforts... The other ones are garbage and take up resources - Lose them altogether...

[deepsand]

TITLE is the most important in terms of SEO ( and I see this as the number 1 mistake people make - they dont use this to their advantage ) - and then Meta Description and Meta Keywords are second. These are the only ones that I see are important and vital to your SEO efforts... The other ones are garbage and take up resources - Lose them altogether...
Setting aside the fact that "Title" is a not a meta tag, have you learned what the various meta tag attributes are for?

To claim that all other attributes are worthless and consume significant resources is a bit over the edge.

It that necessarily the case with, for example, "robots" or "revisit?"

[deepsand]

I ave never listen or read about these meta keyword till now
In that case, perhaps you should begin with a general overview of meta elements (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta_element).

[Almo99]

Meta Tags are the first & foremost important things to get good rankings. The most important meta tags are Meta title,Meta description & Meta Keywords.

Agreed. I know people like to say that the KEYWORD tag is not important but it is still best practice to use it. There are many search engines out there...why limit yourself? Bing does use the KEYWORDS tag

[bhartzer]

webaholic, I wouldn't bother adding Dublin Core meta data. What's most important at this point is the title and meta description tags, especially because they are used/displayed in the actual search results listing.

[mjtaylor]

has anybody had, or know of success stories by using the location meta tags? are they even necessary?

As I said in an earlier post on this thread: http://www.webproworld.com/webmaster-forum/threads/107295-Meta-Tags-Importance?p=555286&viewfull=1#post555286, I now use microformats to indicate location. Google added one client site to Places within a few days of my doing that the first time. Sold me on the concept.

[JBullet]

I've seen videos in which Matt Cutts says that Google does not use meta description and meta keywords in their ranking of sites.

Do other search engines use these as part of their ranking?

If they don't, whilst the benefit of completing a meta description is obvious, what is the benefit of entering meta keyword information?

[deepsand]

I've seen videos in which Matt Cutts says that Google does not use meta description and meta keywords in their ranking of sites.

Do other search engines use these as part of their ranking?

If they don't, whilst the benefit of completing a meta description is obvious, what is the benefit of entering meta keyword information?
There is a difference between using/not using something re. ranking in SERP displays and using it for other purposes. For example, while Google may not use <meta description> for SERP rank purposes, it does index it and use it as a potential source of data to be displayed in the SERPs as the descriptive snippet.

Other SEs and private crawlers likewise use various data elements in different ways that are not fully publicly disclosed. Therefore, one should not assume that because Google does or does not do something necessarily means that all others follow suit. In fact, others cannot duplicate what Google does as it does not fully disclose what it does.

[williamc]

META title, META keywords, and META description are the most important one's to focus on optimize these only.

Enlighten us as to why they are important to optimize for.

[williamc]

hi, in seo point of view using description, keywords and title meat tags are important one. there is no harm in using this.

Lemme just slap a sirloin on that tag.

[LD]

Lemme just slap a sirloin on that tag.

I've never heard of the meat tags. But, I'll take mine medium please! ;)

[deepsand]

... meta tags today are used only to index content based on its LSI keywords ...
Not only is there no such thing as an "LSI keyword," but meta tags are of of no material effect on LSI analysis. LSI is not about words, but about the meanings of a body of words.

[LD]

When we talk about meta tags, three things comes our mind - Title, Description and Keywords.

The "Title" tag is not a meta tag.

[LD]

Cutts even says, taking more time to put proper descriptions meta data is worth your while, so I think that is time well spent.


filling it with meta data could a) increase the code on your website making it load slower

So you are saying an extra 30-40 lines of code will slow down the loading of a web page?


b) submit too much information to Search Engines devaluing your meta data

What information, exactly, are you referring to as "too much" which will "devalue" meta data??


c) Crawlers may only pay attention to snippets.

As above, spend the time on compelling and well written Description meta data and the info G takes and uses in the SERPs more likely could be taken from the Description.

[joyanu]

maximum search engine optimization, try focusing on just one or two keywords and include them in the title, description and keyword meta tags. Once you start adding more keywords, their relevance will be diluted resulting in a lower search engine ranking.

[weegillis]

maximum search engine optimization, try focusing on just one or two keywords and include them in the title, description and keyword meta tags. Once you start adding more keywords, their relevance will be diluted resulting in a lower search engine ranking.

You had me on "maximum search engine optimization". Where the hell have you been? They just finished telling us that 'over optimization' is now a negative signal. On this statement, I have to say, get friggin' real!

One or two keywords... How about one or two paragraphs? The days of 'just keywords' have joined the 8-track somewhere in neverland.

For the record, no matter how elaborate your description, or how many are your keywords, the SE's are apt enough to pick sh-- from shinola and are equally equipped to toss them both. The page is the gauge.

[acwebguru]

Though meta keywords tag and meta description tags are not the main factor search engines consider when ranking sites, they should not be left off the page. A meta description tag is supposed to be a brief and concise summary of your page's content. A meta keyword tag is supposed to be a summary list of the most important words on your page. They were both proposed in order to make using the web easier. Unfortunately, webmasters over the years have abused meta tags so much that search engine creators have had to de-emphasize their importance in their algorithms.

[weegillis]

Before we completely go off the tracks with the OP as collateral damage, we should focus on 'the other' meta data that hasn't been talked about much, here, as listed in the OP. What type of meta data can be included here that is of use to [ the page | the site | the user agent | possibly even the user ]?

[deepsand]

Before we completely go off the tracks with the OP as collateral damage

By all appearances, the OP has left the building.

[weegillis]

By all appearances, the OP has left the building.
However, the topic has not. What is being learned here? (Rhetorical question, don't answer that.) Or rephrased, what stands to be learned here?

[deepsand]

Quite simply that one should never assume or presume that any given application either ignores or uses any particular meta data.

[weegillis]

And that document data and document meta data are mutually exclusive. Eg. TITLE tags are not meta data (about the page). They are the page HEADLINE, and the first element of document data visible to users.

Description and keyword data may/may not be parsed by user agents, and if by search engines used at the discretion of the indexing engine. If judged, this data will be judged by correlation with the document data (the content the user sees).

Missing meta data is not penalized, but will raise flags, to the effect "missing description" or "description is too short". It's doubtful whether any SE would care if the keywords data is left out, but again, veracity and correlation with the document data could well be ranking factors for the data contained as keywords, indicating that poorly written tags could have a diminishing effect on the 'deviant data' terms index wide. This site's ability to compete for these terms is made only harder by having stuffed tags as their keys have a lower value simply through misuse. Sometimes it's better to take the hit on missing keywords meta data than taking the 'possible/conceivable' hit for abuse or errant practices.

If by some chance, a web is conscientiously conceived and realized, and made a part of a proprietary indexing scheme that is willing to embody it, there is little doubt it will come with a whole plethora of meta data whether it's Dublin Core or Facebook, or whatever. These meta data are in one way or another supported by their proprietary indexer. They should never be considered necessary under any other circumstances.

[deepsand]

More broadly, public SEs are not the only applications which use web resources or the indices of SEs. An SE's APIs for 3rd party applications' on-site search functions do not necessarily operate in precisely the same manner as does that SE's publicly facing application; and, there are a plethora of private applications that do their own crawling and indexing.

Bottom line: Never discount the value of meta data.

[weegillis]

If anything, and to avoid bloating and duplication (we don't know exactly what SE's are picking up) where the need for extraneous meta data prevails, the requesting user agent should be polled. If not a DC or FB related client request, then no DC or FB meta data is generated with the page. The client sees only the description and keywords, no proprietary index data.

[deepsand]

How might one go about identifying a DC compliant User-Agent?

[weegillis]

How might one go about identifying a DC compliant User-Agent?
I wouldn't have the foggiest clue, but imagine it can be done. Since I've never had to deal with it, it's out of my domain to know the answer.

[deepsand]

Did a bit of searching for a way; have yet to fine even the slightest hint.

Quite frankly, I can't even think of a way to theoretically do it, as a file request is just that, nothing more. The closest one could come would be if it were a priori knowledge that a given requesting agent used DC meta data.

[weegillis]

Did a bit of searching for a way; have yet to fine even the slightest hint.

Quite frankly, I can't even think of a way to theoretically do it, as a file request is just that, nothing more. The closest one could come would be if it were a priori knowledge that a given requesting agent used DC meta data.

Which, I'm reasoning, a DC server running their proprietary indexing engine could do by including a special query string or hash of some kind in the request. The DC listed site would be configured to look for the query/hash and respond by loading the DC meta data into the generated page. This all seems doable. All that metadata is useless to anyone else.

[deepsand]

Why worry about its being useless to others? Easier and simpler to just have it be present for those User-Agents that do use it. IMO, "code bloat" would be negligible under most reasonable circumstances.

[LD]

This thread has run it's course. Thread Closed.