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<meta content="ABC" name="description">
They will only pick up:
<meta name="description" content="ABC">
Of course, the HTML spec doesn't require attribute in any order. Nor can he tell me for sure which search engine can't index the first example. He just said that's what he heard from other people.
I did some research on the web and couldn't find anything. Does anyone has experience on this issue? Do search engines only understand the second form of meta tags? If so, does anyone know which search engine has such problem?
Pixel Slave
SE indexers can handle attributes in any order, just like browsers.
I wouldn't worry about meta tags, because they are out. Concentrate on the real page content and you will do well.
Cheers
PixelSlave
I wouldn't worry about meta tags, because they are out.
Care to put that in an official statement with your signature on it? ;)
I have proof that says otherwise.
Care to put that in an official statement with your signature on it?
Hmmmm...Nah, I'll pass ;) I rescind that statement, for lack of proof on my end. My bad :)
What's the proof?
I just did a "site:mysite.com word-in-my-meta-but-not-on-page" search on Google and the page doesn't come up.
What's the proof?
Oh, there are quite a few things. Just recently, GG stated that Google is using the meta description tag in some instances.
I just did a "site:mysite.com word-in-my-meta-but-not-on-page" search on Google and the page doesn't come up.
It won't come up either. This type of test does not work. If the metadata does not mirror the content on the page, it is useless. I've seen many statements over the years similar to yours and many fail to realize that you cannot test the effectiveness of metadata by placing irrelevant content in there, it just won't work.
In reference to the meta description tag, I'm looking at one site now in Google that has over a thousand pages indexed. When doing a site search for those pages, they all (as far as I can see) show the meta descriptions word for word in the SERPs, no snippets.
A good way to test the effectiveness of the meta description tag is to take a page that is performing now and does not have a meta description. Drop in the meta description and make sure it is focused to the on page content. Typically, within a couple of weeks, you may see that page perform better in Google. Or at least that has been my experience in most instances. I've seen pages move up a spot or two after adding a tightly focused meta description.
Some might say that my above comments are bullocks. Well, they could be right. Problem is, I've done real world testing and sure enough, the meta description does have relevancy when it is done correctly. I've taken pages where I purposely left out meta descriptions, added them, and within a few weeks, they were performing better than they did previously. And yes, that was the only change to those pages. All conjecture? It could be. ;)
Do you use sentence structure or keywords?
Sentence structure of course but making sure to utilize primary keyword phrases for that page. I'll usually build a meta description from the first couple of paragraphs of content. And yes, I will change it so it is not an exact duplicate of those paragraphs. This way I can tell what is showing in the SERPs, the actual meta description or a snippet.
Jumping in here and somewhat off topic but I can't find a good forum.
I want to add meta tags to my mp3 file and I want to know if I should treat the mp3 just like a html file. Should I put the tags in using the same code as a html page?
If you know of a better forum please direct me to it.
Thanks CajunMan
Don't confuse meta tags in a HTML with meta information for a MP3 file. When you link (or embed, whatever you want to call it) to a MP3 file in a HTML page, then add meta tags to the HTML source, you are adding the meta tags to the HTML file ONLY. When a search engine crawls your site, it will index your HTML file ONLY, not your MP3 file -- Now, that doesn't mean there wpn't be a search engine that will index MP3 files in the future (that might be some already.) But chances are if there is a special MP3 search engine, it will index your file using the ID3 attributes in the MP3 file structure. You cannot change the ID3 attributes using HTML.
To summaries:
1) Putting meta tags into a HTML file describe your HTML file only.
2) To add meta information to a MP3 file, change its ID3 attributes.
PixelSlave
