Rich's WebWorld (blog)
RSS Feed

Back in the pioneer days of the internet when search engines were not very sophisticated, the keyword meta tag was invented to help improve search results. From 1996 to 1997, it was used by four major search engines. It didn't take long for webmasters to figure out that they could improve their rankings by stuffing keywords into this meta tag. And it didn't take search engines very long to figure out that they were cheating.

Most search engines quit using the keyword meta tag by the end of 1997. But the legend of the meteoric rise in rankings from the keyword meta tag lives on. It is still a popular topic. I frequently get asked how many keywords can be placed in the tag and whether they should be separated with spaces or commas, etc. If no one is looking, does it matter?

What are meta tags?

Meta tags are HTML tags that provide information about a web page's content. They are found in the HEAD and do not effect anything shown by the browser. They look like this:

<meta name="description" content="The description goes here.">

The most commonly used are the keyword, description, robots exclusion and meta-refresh. The last two are used on pages where you don't want search engines indexing them. And the search engines don't use the first one. So that leaves us with the description meta tag.

Like the keyword meta tag, a long time ago keyword stuffing of the description tag influenced rankings. This is no longer the case. But this tag is helpful in bringing traffic to your website.

Search engine results pages (SERP)

In the quest for high rankings, it is tempting to use as many keywords as possible in the description tag. Often, this tag contains nothing more than a list of keywords. It looks like a clone of the keyword meta tag. This borders on keyword stuffing - a big no-no for search engines. It also defeats the purpose of this meta tag.

When someone does a search, they get a results page listing web pages related to the search with a link to each site along with a description of the page. The searcher will scan the results looking for pages that provide the results they are looking for.

Many search engines such as Yahoo will use the description meta tag for the description of the web pages in their search results. Here is your chance to influence the searcher to click on your page. You can imagine their impression when they see nothing but a bunch of keywords. It looks rather ugly.

The description meta tag is your chance to "sell" your web site. You want a clear description of what will be found on your site. It should be a call to action. You want to motivate the searcher to click on your site and come to visit. A list of keywords will not do that.

Follow these tips:

• Write a complete sentence describing your site. It should be about 15 or 20 words long. Any longer and it might be cut off in mid-sentence in the search result listing.
• Make your sentence succinct. You don't need to say things like, "This web site is about . . ." They already know it's a web site. You don't need to tell them.
• Write the sentence so the most important keyword phrase is at or near the beginning of the sentence. Search engines mark keywords in bold that are used in the search. This will help your sentence get more attention.

Make your web page title work with your description

Some people like to repeat the web page title tag in their description meta tag. This is really a waste of opportunity. The title tag and description tag should work together. Here you have the opportunity to control how the listing of your web site looks to the world. Use it to your advantage.

Actually write out your title tag. Then place your description sentence below it and analyze the result. Do the keywords work together? Does the combination beckon the searcher to your site? Does your listing look more attractive than those around it?

Spend the time necessary to tweak your title and description until it shines. You will have more traffic find your site than rankings alone will achieve.