Robert_Charlton - 9:06 am on Apr 13, 2001 (gmt 0)

An extra wrinkle on this with AV. Run a search on all-the-words (no quotes) "used computers," and you'll see down below the results that AV considers used computers as a single unit, in addition to reporting on "used" and "computers" as separate words.

When I see this, I usually figure that if I want to rank on AV for such a phrase, that an inexact match isn't going to do it.

As for the commas, I don't think that most engines really see the commas, so in repeating, say, the word "computer" over and over, you're running the risk of some sort of spamming penalty. I usually make it a rule of thumb not to repeat a word, either in metas or on the page, unless I have five intervening words. It isn't always possible to avoid repetition, but I try.

In my experience, it's more important to get your exact phrases in the title and prominently on the page than it is in the keywords. The meta description is also more important than the keywords.

I like to keep meta keywords short and focussed. Inktomi doesn't look at a keyword if it isn't on the page. They might even penalize you for it. On AV, though, where they say they look at keywords as if they're simply words near the top of the page, too long a list of untargeted keywords can actually cause a relevance drop in what you want to target with your page. This is one of the most common optimizing mistakes I see.