SEO Question about meta tag changes and Google

by 11 replies
13
Okay so I am in the process of trying to get my brand new site ranked with Google and the other search engines and I have a question about something I need to change.

If I have already had my site and all the pages on my site indexed by Google and I decide to remove a few keywords from the meta tags on every page and add a few new ones in place of the ones I removed will Google end up penalizing me or setting back to where I began? I changed one of the menu items from "News Categories" to "Article Categories" so I had to change the description on certain pages to properly describe the category from "News" to "Article."

I have been told not to change that information but I don't know if I believe it to be a problem considering people update and change things around all the time and it is actually something I thought Google wanted you to do. To keep your site up-to-date doesn't it make sense that things are going to get moved around and added and removed from time to time? I realize my site is still brand new to Google though so maybe they will say too many changes too soon?

I would really appreciate some feedback..

Thank you,
Joe
#search engine optimization #question #seo
  • No need to be concerned. Google doesn't put any emphasis on the keywords meta-tag for ranking:
    Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking
    • [1] reply
    • As megawarrior indicated meta tags are no longer used by Google. However it can be confusing because Meta descriptions (not tags) can be useful.
  • Your site is its infancy and you should not be really caught up in all these small details many of the things no longer matter as much when it comes to tags, although they do play a small factor, but not big enough for you to worry about.

    If you are in fact worried about it just track your site and if things move negatively which I do not predict that there will do then you can simply change things back to regain your ranks.
  • Dont fret too much your site is so new. Do what you need to do then go fromt here. See if it effects it or not!
  • Okay I do appreciate the help. If Google doesn't care much about meta tags, what exactly are the major concerns they have as far as ranking? I know quality and unique content plays a factor. What if you have quality, unique content but although it is informational and highly sought after, does adding a relative affiliate link into the articles change the way they view your site, do affiliate links hurt your rankings potential?
  • It will produce 404s for those Google results but eventually Google will remove those old pages pointing towards your websites and your SEO will eventually flourish again! =)
    • [1] reply

    • So what your saying is I will not get a good ranking because of the aff links? Because they are definitely indexed so I'm not too sure about the 404 theory but are you basically saying "YES" Aff links hurt my pages? Maybe you are telling me the links or pictures with aff links in them will get the 404s?
  • Banned
    As other people have stated google doesnt focus on meta tags anymore.
  • Changes are fine, I make small tweaks all the time, plus G largely ignores meta tags nowadays.
  • Right thank you. But what about the big G and articles with affiliate links added to them. Articles which are unique and avoiding the whole panda rule but still with affiliate links.. Does that change the way my site is ranked?
  • Can somebody please tell me if that is right, do affiliate links and offers take away from my chances of being considered quality content? Can a site with affiliate links ever be considered a quality site?
Join the discussion

Next Topics on Trending Feed

  • 13

    SEO Question about meta tag changes and Google

    Okay so I am in the process of trying to get my brand new site ranked with Google and the other search engines and I have a question about something I need to change. If I have already had my site and all the pages on my site indexed by Google and I decide to remove a few keywords from the meta tags on every page and add a few new ones in place of the ones I removed will Google end up penalizing me or setting back to where I began? I changed one of the menu items from "News Categories" to "Article Categories" so I had to change the description on certain pages to properly describe the category from "News" to "Article."