Oh, the poor abused Keyword Meta tag!

Bringing up the rear at Number #3 of quasi-debatable importance in our discussion of tags/Meta tags, is the poor Keyword tag.  It’s true.  This Meta tag has been so used and finally abused by SEO spammers of days gone by, that now you WILL NOT gain better search engine ranking help via this Meta tag. Oh well.

Yup … the spammers took real advantage of this tag in the early days of the Internet.  They learned that they could insert keywords — ANY and/or ALL types of keywords — into this tag and wow!  They would get search engine recognition for those words.  And they didn’t even have to use the keywords within the body of their web page’s text.

Unfair??  You bet!  And as always happens, the search engines got smart, and they changed the algorithms and now, well there are many SEO experts that don’t even waste a second on optimizing the Keyword Meta tag.  Not for their own websites or for their clients sites. 

So, What’s an Honest Website Owner to Do?

I’ll tell you what you ought to do from my viewpoint as a professional SEO consultant.  Go ahead and ethically optimize this Meta tag with your primary keyword (or keyword phrase) that you are targeting to the page, and add in three or four other keyword “modifiers”.  That’s it.  Remember that you will not gain any ranking points from the search engines.  Many of the engines don’t even take a second look at this Meta tag anymore.

As an example, for this blog post I could use: “keyword meta tag, search engine optimization, seo”.

So, though many highly regarded SEO gurus may be chuckling as I offer you this suggestion,  I am of the opinion that let’s go ahead and properly optimize the Keyword Meta tag.  Because who knows?  Maybe way up in the future this Meta tag WILL gain back some algorithmic weight and guess what?  You will be ready.  You won’t have to go back over all your web pages, inserting Keyword Meta tag information.

Where Is This Meta Tag Located?

You’ll normally find this Meta tag placed beneath the Title and Description Meta tag in the ‹HEAD› section of your pages’ HTML code:
‹HEAD›
‹TITLE›Your Title is inserted here.‹/TITLE›
‹META NAME=”DESCRIPTION” CONTENT=Your targeted keyword description goes here.›
‹META NAME=”KEYWORDS” CONTENT=Your keywords go here, separated by a comma.›
‹/HEAD›

That’s about it.  Again, I DO recommend you optimize the Keyword Meta tag.  I DON’T believe there is any search engine ranking weight in it at all.  However, with all things in the world of SEO, we just never know when once again, this Meta tag will become important ranking-wise.  Pay attention to it, but don’t fret over it, either.

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The Description Meta tag comes in at Number #2 in importance of the three tags that can help your website achieve high search engine rankings.  In the search engines, you will find this tag showing up (there is an exception–more on this in a minute) right under the Title tag in the SERPs (search engine results page).  So, the Title plus the Description are what explain to the potential visitor what your web page is all about.

But let me stop here for a moment and play devil’s advocate.  Many SEO experts say that this tag no longer carries much, if any, weight towards search engine rankings.  I disagree.  As a matter of fact, I was taught by to make very good use of this piece of “search engine real estate”.  It’s very important to write an eye-grabbing, keyword focused snippet of information that gives a good overview of just what the web page is all about.  This is just plain good SEO strategy.

So, I will stick to the school of thought that the Description is NOT to be ignored, and it is a Meta tag that should be well written in the hopes that the search engines do indeed place some algorithmic weight upon it.  What do I, or you, have to lose?  Nothing.  What do we have to gain?  Possibly a little better wegiht put towards our ranking position? Yes.

SEO Confusion Surrounding the Description Meta Tag

I could write three pages on this, and maybe I will in the future, but for now, let me suffice it to say that sometimes your exact Description information will appear in the SERP verbatim.  But, sometimes it will NOT.  How come?  I can’t tell you exactly why.  It surely would take one of the algorithm experts at Google or Yahoo to fully explain it to us.

Just accept this as the way things stand SEO-wise for now.  Depending upon what the searcher has put into the search query; and what ranking your web page already has; and what level of significance the search engines place upon your web page; and how the engines find the arrangement of the keywords in your text … all these factors combined can or will determine whether or not your Description tag as written gets used.

It’s getting confusing isn’t it?  Well let me say it again: sometimes your exact Description will appear in the SERP verbatim but sometimes it will NOT.  Many times the Description information that appears in the SERP has been gleaned from within your page’s content.  The search engine has “compiled” a description for you.  It still makes sense, and lets the searcher know what your page is about.  Let’s leave it at this, for now.

Make the Description Meta Tag Search Engine Worthy

First, let me make sure you know where this Meta tag belongs.  The HTML code looks like this:
‹HEAD›
‹META NAME=”Description” CONTENT=”Insert your descriptive sentences here.”›
‹/HEAD›

This Meta tag belongs in the ‹HEAD› section of your source code, and is generally found after the Title tag, and before the Keywords Meta tag.  The order of these tags is not critical.  (Different web building programs or WYSIWYG editors place them in varying positions.)

For my own websites, and my client’s, I write two or three short, concise sentences about the page’s theme.  I will go a step further and say to not write more than 150 characters WITH spaces.  If you check Google’s SERPs, you’ll find no more than 150 character w/spaces allotted for Description Meta tags.  So, my professional opinion is to write the Description with Google in mind.  That’s good enough for me.  The other engines won’t have a problem.

Integrate Your Keyword Phrase(s) Into This Important Meta Tag

Whatever keywords, or keyword phrases you are targeting for the web page you’ll be writing, work them into the Description Meta tag.  Why?  Again, to satisfy the hungry spiders AND because it helps let the potential visitor know what information they can find on your webpage.  Of course write it to cause an interested web-surfer to want to click on your Title tag to find out more about your product or service, etc.

Remember:  treat the Description as a short synopsis of the web page’s content; limit it’s length to a maximum of 150 characters with spaces; and make sure it includes your keyword phrases.

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