Meta Keywords and Meta Descriptions

How do Google rank Meta Keywords and Descriptions? How much is too much?

[BayBeeBella]

Hi,

I'm in process of optimising some of our pages internally (we normally outsource) - so to make sure I'm on the right tracks I've been doing a bit of research into the meta keywords and descriptions and have come across a lot of conflicting information - some sites suggest that Google (and other search engines) - don't use the keywords at all whereas some suggest otherwise? Does anyone know if this is true?

What is was mainly interested in (and somehow got sidetracked) was the suggested length for these tags? How much is too much for the description and keywords?

Anyone's advice here would be really appreciated.

Thanks guys,

Bella

[g1smd]

Title - very important - must be tailored to the page content.

Meta description - very important - must be tailored to the page content.

Meta keywords - apparently used by Yahoo for something. I haven't used this data in years.

[petersa]

Hey Bella,

The title tag is very important. Every page should be themed around one or two keywords which should appear in your title tag. I have read you shouldn't have more than 70 characters.

The description is also important. A could of sentences should do.

The keyword tag is ignored by Google, but Yahoo and MSN still read them. Many people fall into the trap of placing as many keywords in this tag as possible. That's keyword spamming. You should aim at about 3-4 keywords that you have in your text on that page.

Hope this helps

[Grinners]

- The Title tag - very important tag - should contain less than 63 characters (this is where the Google cut off is)

- The META Description tag shows on search engine results page so is more about encouraging users to click through. Only 150 characters of the meta description are visible within the search engine results

- The META Keywords - adding 5-10 relevant key phrases is sufficient.

[Receptional Andy]

There was an interesting discussion on the use (and value) of meta keywords (which touches on other elements too) recently:

Are repeated meta keywords duplicate content? [webmasterworld.com]

[BayBeeBella]

This is really interesting because our SEO company had a look at the pages I had been working on and advised that I needed to put more keywords in the meta keyword tag (when they 10 in already) - they then offered to fix them all (at a quite a high cost)

Reading the other topic has really made me rethink the meta keyword section (not enough to remove it completely - I'm not that brave!) I'm going to reduce it and ensure that all keywords are in-line with the page content, I really don't want to get penalised by Google for getting too keyword-happy!

Thanks for all your help and advice here! :oD