meta tags

Same tags for all pages in site?

[kate theisinger]

Hi. Sorry, i'm sure this has been asked before, but i'm just in the process of putting my title/description/keyword information onto my site, and although i've read up on this i can't discover the answer. Should all pages have the same description and keyword information, or should this info be tweaked to suit each page? My feeling is that it should be tailored to each page, but i don't want to accidently upset the 'bots... :-)

[Alternative Future]

Hi kate theisinger,

You are correct each page should have a description along with keywords related to and on topic of the page in view.

-gs

[frenzy77]

Hi kate theisinger:)

You should also not use keywords in the meta tags that are not listed on the page. From what i've read, any keywords not on the webpage may cause you to become penalyzed by the engines for keyword stuffing.

Good luck with your site:)

frenzy77

[tedster]

keywords not on the webpage may cause you to become penalyzed by the engines for keyword stuffing

You may read that advice around the web because it was true at one time on some search engines, but I don't see any evidence at all that it is the case today. In fact some engines recommend that you use keywords meta tag for synonyms and alternate spellings.

In general, the impact of the keywords meta tag on search rank is quite small today, and it's just beginning to rebound from being ignored completely. For a while, the keywords tag was so spammed out as to be of no value at all to the SEs. So I suggest using a short keyword list that "hits the high spots" - but definitely keeping it specific to the page rather than using the same tag everywhere.

I think of the keyword meta tag as a place to keep a record of which words and phrases I am targeting on the particular page. But it's not worth a lot of concern.

[mack]

The way search engines work has changed so much over recent years that many doubt the usefulness or effect of using meta tage now.

I think it still makes sense to use them on your importaint pages.

Back to your origional question...

If you are going to use meta tags such as description and keywords, you should make then unique to each page. More importaintly, relevant to the page.

Your meta tags refer to the page, not the site.

Mack.

<edit for typo>

[edited by: mack at 7:00 am (utc) on July 24, 2005]

[jo1ene]

Penalty paranoia aside, it just makes sense to have meta keywords and descriptions that are relevant to each page. You're not going to "upset the bots" if you include what's relevant. KISS