Common SEO myth: Meta tags

November 19, 2003

The general reasoning behind people or companies still wanting or attempting to use meta tags is: "Meta tags will make all the difference for our web site" or "We have heard or read of companies that their web sites were placed way on top because of meta tags". Our response to such statements is, four or five years ago, it could have been true somewhat, even if some people don't exactly agree on that statement.

At the beginning of the Internet, meta tags were originally incorporated in a site as an attempt to better assist webmasters. They were also included to help search engines discover what their site was all about. Well, as one might expect, it didn't take very long that some people found a way to short-circuit the system as it were.

Some actually tried and successfully got around in abusing this technique by writing useless keywords into their meta tags in hopes to trick the search engines to rank them higher. Today, and because of all this abuse, most major search engines, especially Google, are placing less and less importance in the presence or absence of meta tags and their content.

We are not saying it's not worth the extra time it takes to add them in any site. After all, it only takes a few minutes to write them in the first place. Additionally, Inktomi still gives a small importance to meta tags, although there is always a possibility that that it could somehow change in the near future.

As a standard practice, and to insure that all sites we optimize get their best chances possible, Rank for Sales writes and incorporates all meta tags in the sites we optimize. The only way to get a much higher, prioritized ranking in all major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, DMOZ, Alta-Vista, Global Business Listing and the others is to invest in a serious SEO program done by professionals.

Article written by Serge Thibodeau,
President & CEO,
Rank for $ales
Copyright (c) Serge Thibodeau 2003

Unless otherwise specified, all content and material on this site is copyrighted by Serge Thibodeau of rankforsales.com and may not be reproduced by any means without express written permission. Using my content without permission is a theft of my work. Please contact sthibodeau@rankforsales.com to discuss certain reprint options that would be acceptable.

You can read some of Serge Thibodeau's exclusive comments that are not posted on this website. Visit his personal blog by clicking here. For hardware, software or IT-related technology questions, it is recommended you visit www.techblog.org

We strongly suggest you bookmark our web site by clicking here.

Get your business or company listed in the Global Business Listing directory and increase your business. It takes less then 24 hours to get a premium listing in the most powerful business search engine there is. Click here to find out all about it.

Rank for $ales strongly recommends the use of WordTracker to effectively identify all your right industry keywords. Accurate identification of the right keywords and key phrases used in your industry is the first basic step in any serious search engine optimization program. The keywords you think are the best may be totally different than the ones recommended by WordTracker. Click here to start your keyword and key phrase research.

        

You can link to the Rank for Sales web site as much as you like. Read our section on how your company can participate in our reciprocal link exchange program and increase your rankings in all the major search engines such as Google, AltaVista, Yahoo and all the others.