Get SEO Right ... Meta Keywords, Meta Descriptions
If there were two things to remember about the use of meta tags (meta keywords and meta descriptions) on your pages -- the first would be: not all search engines treat them the same.
The second, would be to honor the most basic tenet for all content creators -- "Remember the user." I'll venture to explain both.
Meta keywords were originally created to give search engines more detail about your Web site than could be contained in your page's title tag. But over time it was abused by those who stuffed it with lengthy lists of keywords, many of which had nothing to do with the content on the page just to game search ranking results. Therefore search engines stopped emphasizing the meta keywords in search ranking.
So does it still have value? Well depends on the search engine, but it seems clear that it has far less impact nowadays.
"Look at what Google itself has to say about the meta tags in its own Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide ... to begin with, the keywords meta tag simply isn’t mentioned at all." -- pcpro.co.uk
That would lead us to believe you shouldn't even bother with it. But ...
SEOmoz.org points out that "we have seen that Yahoo does indeed use this tag for ranking although it is a minor factor. That said, we believe that Google and Bing ignore this tag and it doesn’t affect their rankings."
So meta keywords still hold some minor value on Yahoo, but little or none on Google and Bing.
What About Meta Description?
It's simpler with meta descriptions -- because it's not believed to have a significant affect on ranking -- BUT -- you should definitely use them. And here's why?
The entire goal of SEO is not to collect awards for Page 1 rankings -- it's to convince searchers to click those links and visit your site. That's where a well-crafted page title in concert with a meta description tag gives you the best chance on SERPs (search engine results page) to secure that click.
Here are two examples of a Google search for "international news"
International News - WTOC, Savannah, Georgia, news, weather and ...WTOC, Savannah, Georgia, news, weather and sports | International News. Member Center: Create Account|; Log In; Manage Account|; Log Out.
<meta name="Description" content="WTOC.com, the Southeast News Leader, news, weather and sports for Savannah, Geogia, the Coastal Empire and South Carolina Low Country.">
International News - The New York Times Jul 12, 2009 ... Find breaking news, world news and multimedia on Africa, Canada, Mexico, South and Central America, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Iraq.
<meta name="description" content="Find breaking news, world news and multimedia on Africa, Canada, Mexico, South and Central America, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Iraq." />
You can see that with the NYTimes result -- Google pulls directly from the page's meta description to provide a search result that provides a solid call to action. It tells the user they can find news and multimedia ... from specific countries and continents.
With the WTOC.com -- Google does not use the meta description entirely because it has almost nothing about international news -- and therefore it tries to cobble a description together with other content on the page. This provides the user a jumbled, confusing and weak call to action.
So when crafting the meta description, imagine yourself as a user seeing the result for first time. They will ask themself, "Is this the link that has what I need?" If you focus on the keywords you're optimizing for, you know their need -- all you require now is a sentence to explain that you've got the goods.
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