Questions about META tags...

[budbiss]

1) Is there still a benefit to using META tags?

2) Is it possible to have too many META tags? If so, what is the limit?

3) Lastly, are there any guidelines to putting them in? For example, are the first words listed supposed to be your highest prioritys or does it matter?

[traffik daddy]

Hello Budbiss,

There is still benefit of using META tags although it works with some engines, with others it doesn't.

Use your main keyword/phrase first in both your Keyword tag and your title tag.

I usually try to stick to 3 or 4 keywords/phrases when optimising my site(s).

Terry

[simonuk]

1) Is there still a benefit to using META tags?

No for keywords, barely for description and the title tag seems to not be making anywhere near the impact it did pre Florida

Is it possible to have too many META tags? If so, what is the limit?

Most certainlly yes. It used to be around 12 words but with the results I've found so far between 6 and 10 are working better.

Simon.

[Robert Charlton]

No for keywords, barely for description and the title tag seems to not be making anywhere near the impact it did pre Florida

I wouldn't expend much energy on keywords. The engines tend to reward what's visible and prominent on the page, or in inbound anchor text. If you're thinking about putting a lot of keywords on a page, you're thinking in the wrong direction. It's basically about page focus... and perhaps, with the new Google algo, including some synonyms as well.

Description appears on many serps pages, and for that reason alone I'd pay attention to it. I tend to make sure my main target phrases for a page are included in the description.

Florida algo or not, I think the title is still one of the most important elements on your page, both for the engines and for attracting user clicks in serps. Phrases in the title need to be supported both by page content and inbound links. Check out this recent thread on titles:

Building the Perfect Page - Part II - The Basics
Developing an effective <title> element.
[webmasterworld.com...]

Also see:
Make intelligent use of META tags - Part 1
[webmasterworld.com...]
(note that the post that started off this particular thread, msg#1, had some really bad information, but it developed into an interesting discussion)

[Nicky_uk]

No for keywords, barely for description and the title tag seems to not be making anywhere near the impact it did pre Florida

True if your only optimizing for Google.

However, Inktomi/Yahoo do use keywords and descriptions.

[Blue_Wizard]

the main benefit of meta tags is simply using them to invite robots by their robot name

here's an example
<META NAME="GOOGLEBOT" CONTENT="INDEX">
just change the robot name to the search engine you want
you can use

<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX">
but you may find that generates a lot of traffic from pest robots as well

[subgen]

Although only title and description seems relevant in the current algo's I still use the others (keywords, comment, alt, etc) due to the fact that what is factored in today may not be a factor tomorrow and vice versa.
The best advice, IMHO is
1) good site design, relevant and readable body content, simple navigation and useability and effective use of any and all available meta data.
2) quality hosting with a static ip address.
3) proper search engine submissions following set guidelines and content rules
4) consistent monitoring and updating as needed.

knowledge is power...
$$$ make sense...