What's the deal with meta tags all of a sudden?

Is this just some kind of marketing ploy?

[skibum]

As Danny points out [searchenginewatch.com] meta tags are not much of an issue anymore. It obviously makes sense to point out the flaws in Fortune 100(0) company web sites when it comes to SEO to try to draw then in as clients.

Focusing in on meta tags would seem to be a double edged sword. It makes it easy for the hucksters to charge a lot for "meta tagging", but at the same time it's going to make a lot of people who read the PR stuff think oh, we just have to adjust our meta tags. This further compounds the problem of trying to get a client to understand the process of what it really takes to boost a site and be willing to commit to working on the actual content of the site. What's the logic here?

[bufferzone]

I have read the article, and even though english is not my first language(shows in the spelling) I think you overemphasize the meta tag issue.

[tedster]

Google's been spreading the word through their engineers: they just don't look at description or keyword meta tags, period. I've seen this quoted in maybe 4 or 5 places this month.

Hopefully, this message will start to trickle through and the meta-tag hucksters will lose their impact on the unwary. And maybe they can take the "Submit your site to 500,000 Search Engines" folks along when they disappear.

[sarkye]

After reading this thread my vision of myself as someone who prides themself on their integrity and helpfulness was a little shattered.

I had no idea that offering the service of building META tags had become such a useless thing.

Two years ago I positioned two web sites at number one positions on 6 search engines - one for the keyphrase 'guest house' - it was a bed and breakfast, and the other for the keyphrase 'bath products' - which was my own site that I put up to sell my home made soap and bath salts.

Being an already learning web designer then I figured, 'why not help other people with this if it looks like I can really do it!'

I even had an occasion when someone in Hawaii knocked me off the no.1 'Bath Products' spot and I won it back again by tweaking, which I figured couldn't just be a coincidence.

Having been reading these forums for just a few days and learning how incredibly talented and knowledgeable you *real* SEO folks are, I removed all references and pages from my Web Site today that related to building META tags, search engine submission packages, etc etc.

I'm gonna stick to what I *know* I know :)

Thank you for keeping me honest :)

[Brett_Tabke]

Meta description is still highly important with the se's that use them. However, MetaKW's cost more in bandwidth than they are worth. They might make the difference between position 145 and 146, but they will have zero impact in the top 20.

[minnapple]

Google does give significant weight to content of the description tag when it relates directly to one of it's categories.

[ggrot]

I no longer bother with any meta tags besides description, simply b/c the added value of meta keywords isn't worth my effort in generating them. I might start adding the rating system discussed in one of the other threads. I think it's a great idea, I'm just not sure if I want to go back through all my pages and add the tags.

minapple, are you sure that they aren't weighting the dmoz description as opposed to the meta description?

[dwedeking]

I put the keywords meta tag in mostly so clients can see a tag. We all know they carry little if any weight, but when a client gets a spam email saying "Are your Meta tags done right?" it saves you the 20 minute call explaining why you didn't do that one tag.

[rogerd]

Good point, dwedeking. When I mention SEO, clients often nod knowingly and say, "Ahhh... fix the META-tags, eh?" It's easier to say, "That, and more..." rather than explain that metas ain't what they used to be...

[Eric_Jarvis]

as far as I can see it works like this

school kid/art student buys a copy of FP/DW and sets up web design company...kid builds some pretty pictures and sells them to some local businesses/friends of the family telling them..."search engines? that's just a matter of putting the right meta tags on the page, it'll cost you extra though...the site will be fine without it"

some months later the likes of myself have to explain to Mr/Ms Local Business/Friend of Family that adding the meta tags is not going to get their site ranked well on the search engines when it consists of a load of java script, two broken java applets and some gifs

[caine]

metatags is the new in word for company directors, wondering why the have no traffic.

I've picked up a customer, after telling him, that they reinforce the rest of a QUALITY dite, and without them it is possible to still get great rankings.

[engine]

Bear in mind that Meta tags also provide a useful backup when a client askes: "...why am I not in the search engines for green and white widgets?" You cunningly stored the tags with the terms that the client agreed and lo and behold, "green and white widgets" are NOT one of the terms.

[paynt]

I confess I still love meta tags, for some of the reasons mentioned here and others. Basically for me it comes down to a few specifics.

1.I submit to alternative vortal/portal/hub/directories and they quite often utilize the tags for both indexing and search.
2.When you take on a site that’s been worked on by others the meta tags are so often filled with so much junk that as Brett mentioned can take up unnecessary bandwidth.
3.Clean tags make me look good. I don’t have to explain what the page is about to anyone visiting, from other departments or from the client. Sometimes it helps hold them back from throwing in a totally unrelated topic. Simply tell them they need to stick with the content provided by the tags.
4.They seem to help me stay on target for my themes. Basically they tell me and anyone else who cares to notice that this page is about this and only this.
5.I recreate the meta tag description as the first text on my page. Usually a little teaser in text right before or after the first image. This has been a very successful method for me and I then see the description tag actually used as the description in indexing, often across the board in search engines. Not because of the tag itself but the repetition of it in the initial text.
6.I think creating a good description in one sentence is good practice.