Query on Metatags

[Monalisa]

Hello friends,

Everyone, especially those in the web world, are well aware of the term “metatags”. Meta tags, as we know, refer to the HTML codes used on the web page header below the title tag. Now my question is, what is the purpose of inserting metatags in the web page?

Does the meta tags in anyway help in raising the page ranking?

Regards

Monalisa

[g1smd]

Only the meta description is important, and is used to show the snippet in SERPs. It does not affect ranking (at least in Google).

[malcolmcroucher]

That should be confirmed by the fact that google webmaster tools does not indicate duplicated keywords in their content section .

but if you duplicate a title it comes up .

[Onders]

Hi g1smd - can I just ask for some clarification on what you said, do you not think that the meta description plays any part in the ranking algorithm (with Google anyway)?

Thanks

[g1smd]

Google has publicly stated as fact on several occasions.

[Onders]

Thanks g1smd - although I won't focus on them for SEO, from the webmaster chat session Maile seems to suggest that keeping them identical is not a good idea either. Worth keeping them different but not spending too much time thinking about keyword density then...

[g1smd]

Make them enticing to humans that might click the link.

The meta description is used to build the snippet in SERPs.

[pageoneresults]

Google has publicly stated as fact on several occasions.

Where? Google rarely states anything as "fact" when it comes to website performance in the SERPs. ;)

[ZydoSEO]

Meta Descriptions ARE important to SEO. Not for helping you rank, but for increasing CTR. Include the keywords that you want the page to rank for in your Meta Description. When building the SERP Google first looks to see if the your page they are displaying in the SERP has a DMOZ entry. If so that will be displayed as the snippet. If that page does not have a DMOZ entry, then Google looks at your Meta Description to see if the words the user search for all exist in your Meta Description. If so then they display your Meta Description as the snippet in the SERPs. Otherwise, the construct a snippet by piecing together sentence fragments from your page that contain the words they search for. This can be seen when you notice snippets with multiple elipses (...) in it.

[g1smd]

I have seen Adam Lasnik, Matt Cutts and John Mu all make comments about meta description and ranking over the last year or two.

[pageoneresults]

I have seen Adam Lasnik, Matt Cutts and John Mu all make comments about meta description and ranking over the last year or two.

I think I've seen those same comments. I didn't perceive anything as fact from those. They "always" leave lots of white space between the lines. :)

Here's one for review...

Improve snippets with a meta description makeover
[googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com...]

Why does Google care about meta descriptions?
We want snippets to accurately represent the web result. We frequently prefer to display meta descriptions of pages (when available) because it gives users a clear idea of the URL's content.

The above leads me to believe that they have to process and weigh the content of the meta description before determining that it accurately represents the web result. That can be perceived many different ways.

And it's worth noting that while accurate meta descriptions can improve clickthrough, they won't affect your ranking within search results.

I get so confused sometimes when reading what Google puts in writing. There is a cause and effect taking place here. Improved clickthroughs usually equates to improved rankings.

At this point it doesn't matter anymore. The fact that you have control over the Snippet is enough to continue to support well written meta descriptions for each and every page. And, the last time I checked, there were still three (03) other search engines in the mix who may utilize the meta description in their algos. :)

[Monalisa]

Thanks Guys...for all these information...

I came to know lot about meta tags...:)

Thanks once again...

Regards
Monalisa.