16 replies to this topic

[SteelersFan]

Hi,
I am embarrassed to admit that I did not do my homework when it came to optimizing the meta keywords and description tags. I am using Coldfusion includes to make site changes on the fly. Right now I have a website with about 3,500 pages plus a forums. Some of the site (30-50%) of it has the same two meta tags for keywords and descriptions.

What I am trying to figure out is whether to go back over the next month or so and update the duplicate tags to more current and relevant data starting with my most critical content areas....or.....should I (because I'm hearing that meta tags are not important as much anymore) just simply use my Dreamweaver and do a "search and replace" to very quickly remove the duplicate meta tags and re-upload the files to my site in say 10 minutes?

One of my main competitors is a very large site that ranks in the top spots for my major keywords and they do not even use the meta description and keyword tags on their pages. I do not want to incur a possible penalty or filter in the search engines because of this this meta tag oversight.

What do you think I should do and why?

Thank you in advance for your help.

[kithappens]

You don't have to use meta descriptions or meta tags. You are correct that not many search engines still use meta tags, but personally I still include them as good pratice. I try to keep meta tags down to 2-3 per page though. Meta descriptions are used by search engines, if you don't se them the search engines will select extracts from your content, however the meta descriptions can often be more keyword focussed than perhaps your content, so i would still recommend this. You'll notice however if you use google webmaster tools it does pick up on duplicate page titles etc... So I would try to avoid any duplication.

[Jill]

It's no big deal, Steelersfan. Just do it when you have some free time. It's unlikely to change anything other than having a potentially better description in the Search Results pages. But if you already have good keyword rich content, you'll have that anyway.

[SteelersFan]

Thank you for your quick answers. :-) I feel better now about that. I think for now I will just use my HTML tool and remove the duplicate stuff real quick and do a quick upload. Won't take but 10 minutes. I am really kicking myself for not doing a better job on that.

Thank you again for your answers and I look for word to posting on this forum as I work on my ministry site.

[Hoppel]

The meta keywords is not important, as previously said, but having them is a good practice to get into.

The meta description is not that important from a ranking perspective. However, it is very important from a marketing aspect. This is your messaging to searchers regarding your relevancy to their search query (i.e., This is where you tell searches your site has what the are looking for).

Keep in mind that SEM is Search Engine Marketing, and getting ranked is only part of it. High rankings won't matter if people don't click through to your site.

[Jill]

The meta keywords is not important, as previously said, but having them is a good practice to get into.

Practice for what?

[Hoppel]

Practice for what?

It is good practice to have a list of SEO tactics/tricks (e.g., writing individual page titles and meta descriptions - or filling in meta keywords) and implement with them on a consistent basis. Completing the full range of tactics, instead of tactics here-and-there, will help make people better SEO practitioners and get the most out of SEO.

I am talking more about developing good work practices than the tactic itself.

[Gerry White]

we have often seen Google taking the wrong 'description' from somewhere else in the page and in articles this can be taken from a related article, just because of the page design! also, not including description, it can take the description from DMOZ, something to be aware of if your Dmoz entry has a spelling or another issue.

Keywords, never really bothered with them, but the description title combo can massiveley influence clickthrough, we saw this for a term where we were getting all the traffic at #3 because the correct result at #1 was badly optimised in terms for clickthrough (data from Hitwise) the websites were both government, but one was optimised.

[hitweb]

we have often seen Google taking the wrong 'description' from somewhere else in the page and in articles this can be taken from a related article, just because of the page design! also, not including description, it can take the description from DMOZ, something to be aware of if your Dmoz entry has a spelling or another issue.

I don't want to stray from the subject but what is DMOZ and how does it connect to search engine listings?

I've been wondering about the use of keyword meta tags as well, so this thread is particularly interesting to me. I've heard by some sources that adding keywords and terms to your keyword meta tag that aren't in your content is bad. However, I've also heard the flip side that you should use the keyword meta tag to add keywords that aren't in your content that are related to the subject of the page i.e. misspellings, synonyms, etc. Is there a definite answer to this or am I going to keep hearing both sides?

[Randy]

DMOZ, or ODP in case you see that term, are the same thing. It's the Open Directory Project and its url is dmoz.org. It's simply a human edited directory, one that makes their database dumps available to any and all freely.

re: Meta Keywords tags - What you put in them or don't put in them won't matter at all where Google is concerned. They haven't used the info in that particular tag for many, many years. Probably because people used it to spam them to death back in the 90's and ever since.

Yahoo and all the rest may still at least look at the info in the meta keyword tag. But it's not a major ranking factor by any stretch of the imagination. Many, myself included, don't even use the tag anymore. Well, except to have fun with competitors who don't know any better sometimes. And even then it won't contain any real keyword phrases I'm targeting.

[Jill]

Forget about the meta keywords tag. Hard to believe it's even still discussed these days.

[hitweb]

That is really good to know. My boss has been having me work on the SEO for some new websites. I will now gladly report to the big wigs that it's not worth the time to put any major thought into the keyword meta data. Thanks for the direct answer. I've been seeing too many back and forth wishy washy reports on the matter.

[Jill]

I've been seeing too many back and forth wishy washy reports on the matter.

That blows my mind. Seriously.

[Katy]

I saw this video from the Official Google Webmaster blog today - "Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking"

http://googlewebmast...s-meta-tag.html

I haven't had a chance to watch it myself yet but thought it could help clear things up as it's coming from Google themselves.

[adibranch]

yes and heaven forbid Matt Cutts to spout misleading twoddle.. that'd be unthinkable