Metatags--are they still useful?

9 years ago

It takes 20 seconds to include them in your HTML or Wordpress settings.

Whether they are useful or not, what difference does it make anyway? Just put them there and forget about them.

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writeaway

9 years ago

Google ignores them.

They aren't completely useful though...

You can still use your competition's metakeywords for competitor research and reverse engineering parts of their SEO strategy.

They also come in handy for categorization and sub-niche research

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savidge4

9 years ago

Originally Posted by writeaway

Google ignores them.

They aren't completely useful though...

You can still use your competition's metakeywords for competitor research and reverse engineering parts of their SEO strategy.

They also come in handy for categorization and sub-niche research

Im sorry I find this comment just short of laughable. If Google ignores them, then why are Description tags used in 70%+ of all listings on Google?

Here is the thing, we are discussing a segment of SEO ( Search Engine Optimization ) we are in no way discussing GO ( Google Optimization ) These are 2 totally different things. Do you see the #1 listings on Google repeated over at Bing? the answer is NO, not very often. There are more than a few search engines left out there today. There is Google of course, there is Baidu, there is Bing, AOL serves things up a bit differently, Yandex in many parts of the world is not a second runner, but the front runner.

If you think of SEO as a collection of 200+ variables that depending on the search engine that is looking at your page determines the weight of each and every one of these 200+ variables. how could you not use them. Even at a .1% advantage for having them, can you really afford not having them.

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Ben West

9 years ago

Meta descriptions are very useful and can help increase CTR, so always put some effort into them.

Although Google does not use meta-keywords, Yahoo and Bing do still look at them, although if only as a way to identify spammers. Either way, it's worth the 20 seconds to do them.

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Paul Hanney

9 years ago

I think they are still useful. A well written meta description can significantly improve your CTR. Ultimately if your goal starts with driving traffic to your website and you go to all this effort to get your website appearing on the first page of the SERP's then you want to make sure people are clicking through. Make your meta description as compelling as possible so people actually click your link rather than your competitors. Include a call to action and make it as specific as possible to whats on the page so website visitors remain on the site once they click through.

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linathinfotech

9 years ago

All have their different opinions. Use them and check the impact. Why so many people use it still? Think about it.

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MikeFriedman

9 years ago

It depends which meta tag you are talking about. There are different types.

The one that is really useless and should never be used is the meta keywords tag. No major search engine uses them and all you are doing if you do use them is giving away your keywords to competitors.

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Hemanth Malli

9 years ago

Hi,

Meta tag information used to be a powerful tool for webmasters to easily achieve higher rankings for their websites. Webmasters would place a long list of target keywords, otherwise known as "keyword stuffing," in the meta keyword field and generate a bit of traffic for these phrases without having any relevant content on the webpages.