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View Full Version : Metatags - how many, are they still used?

native
10-03-2003, 10:45/10:45AM
[Moved from the Google forum to the Meta tag forum which is more appropriate. - Jill]

Hi,

The newbie DIY SEO here :-)

Questions for metatags:


1. Are they still used by SE's, I see a lot of statements out there about how metatags are not really used today?

2. What guidelines can you provide for metatag keyword creation, such as the maximum number of keywords to use, misspellings, phrases, commas and spaces?


Thank you for your expertise :cheers:
MsSearch
10-03-2003, 10:57/10:57AM
Even though many engines don't use them....I would still use the meta description and keywords tags.

Meta keywords: You don't want spammy tags so i wouldn't repeat the same keyword numerous times. Commas vs. spaces is an individual preference--one isn't any better than the other. I typically use misspellings, alternative spellings, phrases, etc...in my meta keywords tag...
native
10-03-2003, 11:24/11:24AM
Thanks ;)

What about an upper limit on the number keywords you can use in your metatags? Any idea on that?
MsSearch
10-03-2003, 11:46/11:46AM
I don't pay attention to character count....but I'd say no more than 200 characters (for the keyword tag)--all depends on how many keywords you are targeting per page...and I think I stay within a 150-250 character count for meta description tag.

Some people like to write a lot, some like to write little, thinking the more words you use, the more diluted your keyword density will be. I say, whatever works for you....
g1smd
11-03-2003, 16:52/04:52PM
The <title> tag is important, as is the meta description.

Few places make use of the meta keywords tag.




This is more than you asked for, but I hope is useful advice:




I usually put a minimum of this on every page:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title> Your Title Here </title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="EN-GB">
<meta name="Description" content=" Your Description Here. ">
<meta name="Keywords" content=" your, keyword, list, here ">
<meta name="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" content="TRUE">
</head>

<body>

You can, and should, also optimise the title and description (and keywords) for each page individually to attract search engines.

Any <style> or <script> information within the <head> section, should always be after all of the meta tags.



External files should be used for <style> and <script> information where possible. These are called by:

<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" name="commonstyle" src="/path/file.css">

<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="/path/file.js"></script>

All <style> information must be with the <head> section.

However, a <script> can be either within the <head> or <body> section.




It never used to matter if HTML tags used upper or lower case. In HTML 4.01 it is recommended to write all tags and attributes in lower case. For XHTML an XML it then becomes a requirement.