Effective use of keywords.

Are keywords different for each page?

[Crickett]

I am very new to this and have never posted before. Every site I see has the same keywords for every page as does my site. I didn't put it up. My question is some of my pages have really great keywords in the content, shouldn't I use those keywords for those pages? How can all your pages use the same keywords?

[mack]

By keywords I assume you are refering to the "meta tag"
<meta name="keywords" content="your,keywords">

To be honest this Tag has been greatly depreciated by all the major search engines, in fact some people whould question the point of using this tag at all.

Today all the big se's index your page depending on, "on page" content. I dare say the meta tag doesnt really do any harm, but I don't think it does a lot of good either.

Mack.

[macrost]

Don't forget, yahoo is now using meta desc and keywords.

[DaveAtIFG]

I always include a full set of metas, title, description, and keywords. The search biz is very dynamic and, to me, it seems easier to just do it all once, instead of chasing a new SE or constantly revising to changing SE prefernces. Of course, I was conserving energy in the '70s too, before it became fashionable. ;)

A "generalized rule" that I use for this long term strategy is to insure that my keywords metatag only includes words/phrases that are in the text on the page. Adding keywords that are not in the text seems to cost me positions in the SERPs. SE preferences change and SEs come and go so this may not always be true or true in all cases, again a general rule.

[Crickett]

I guess I wasn't very clear. What I am asking is should

<meta name="keywords" content="your,keywords">

be the same for your entire web site or should these keywords be different for different pages?

[Krapulator]

Make them different for each page focusing on the main keywords for that page.

[pmkpmk]

DaveAtIFG: Do I understand you right that you have DIFFERENT Metatags on each page?

Another school of thought says, to always use the same set for all pages, and yet another theory says to only use the metatags on the start page.

[DaveAtIFG]

Every page of every site I work with gets a full set of tags, tailored to the page. It's a little more difficult with a big site and dynamic pages, more stuff to include in the underlying database. My experience is that it's worth the effort if you're building a site for the long term.

[Crickett]

Thanks, this makes perfect sense to have a set of keywords for each page.

[mack]

If you want to use them, then use keywords that are relevant to each page.

Also use keywords that appear in your page title.

Mack.

[wavebird23]

Enter this in each of your pages, and fill it in with information:
<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="enter keywords here">
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="enter a description here">
<META NAME="author" CONTENT="enter your name here">
<META NAME="generator" CONTENT="FreeFormEditor 1.0">

[mack]

Hi there,

<META NAME="generator" CONTENT="FreeFormEditor 1.0">

That part isn't actualy required. It is a tag inserted by your editing software so that anyone who looks at the code, can tell what editer was used.

Mack.

[wavebird23]

Oops...I forgot to delete that part of the MetaTag. Sorry about that! Good luck with your website.!

[pmkpmk]

My CMS inserts something called the "Dublin Core Elements" and adds stuff like this:

<META NAME="DC.Description" CONTENT="..deleted..">
<META NAME="DC.Subject" CONTENT="..deleted..">
<META NAME="DC.Rights" CONTENT="..deleted..">
<META NAME="DC.Language" scheme="NISOZ39.50" CONTENT="de">
<META NAME="DC.Creator" CONTENT="..deleted..">
<LINK REL="schema.dc" HREF="http://purl.org/metadata/dublin_core_elements">

Any comment on what this is, and whether I should keep or replace it?