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What else can I do to optimize my page (i'm not talking about PageRank right now).
Thanks.
Whether or not meta tags are used in scoring is a different issue, but there's more reason to use a good meta description than just scoring. For the search engines that do show it, it should be written so it's attractive for searchers to click on it. There's really no reason to deliberately not use it, especially since now, at one search engine, if it's not there they'll use the ODP description in its absence if there's a listing for the site.
Others may disagree, but I still don't consider them absolutely essential. Sites can still do fine without them, though at this time I'm inclined to include them.
>What else can I do to optimize my page
GoogleGuy's advice has basically been to do a good site and you'll do well with Google. Do good pages and talk about what the page is about. If a site is about widgets, give some general information about them, yours in particular, and link meaningfully to other pages. If you've got a page on dark green widgets, use that for the link and talk about dark green widgets on that page. It's good for site visitors and ranking.
It's really just the basics - page title, text on the page using the keyword distributed throughout, especially at the beginning, both in phrases and individually, in H1 to H6 headings, and link text - which is also important for inbound links to your site and is helpful for attracting traffic by people clicking on links from other sites. Using alt text for images also has a usabiiity benefit, so it's worth attention, too.
The best thing is to start with the simple basics; generally what's a good site for people is good for Google. Then it can get down to looking at individual elements in detail, and for that the cache can be your best friend in looking for patterns.
