Meta Tags: What's The Real Deal?

By Author: Mathias Levarek
Total Articles: 6
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Many SEO experts claim that, in today's internet context, the use of meta tags is unnecessary...some even assess that meta tags bear no ranking relevancy...is that true? What's the real deal?
Back in the mid-90s and all the way until 2002, the SEO industry (companies like ours!) used and abused meta tags to promote keywords! Back in those days, meta tags reflected a powerful ranking relevancy. Major search engines would take keywords reflected in the meta tags very seriously...
Regrettably, due to the numerous unscrupulous individuals who engineered malicious optimization strategies, major crawlers had to find alternatives and diminish the importance of meta tags. No more tricks! Search engines got smarter and came up with some elaborated ranking algorithms based on content relevancy. Google technology was not only the pioneer, but also the authority in content relevancy.
Such technology aims at reading the overall content of a website and, through some artificial intelligence reading patterns, they can evaluate the true keyword relevancy of a site. Content relevancy ranking algorithms have matured to the extent ...
... of being able to define whether the text of a website is legitimate or not - whether such text is genuine and addressed to users or whether if it has only been composed to trick search engines with irrelevant keyword-enriched texts. Content relevancy algorithms can analyze the interlinking of the pages amongst one another and are able to process the overall content of a site for true ranking consideration. In other terms, no more SEO tricks...no more easy meta tag solutions. When it comes to SEO in English (US SEO, UK SEO, Australian SEO - basically, SEO in English in general), it is all about the 3 following important factors:
1 - Content relevancy (certainly the most important consideration for ranking eligibility)
2 - Healthy technical profile (no broken links - no dirty HTML code - no unnecessary scripts - clean Sitemap file scripts - clean optimization, etc.)
3 - Link popularity factor (mainly referring to quality one-way-links to your site). For the readers of this article who are not so familiar with link enhancement, please visit the following section of our site and read the article that I wrote, titled Link Enhancement is Hardcore Labor: http://www.mseo.com/link_building_services.html
In light of the above, should we consider that meta tags are dead? Should we overlook meta tags and forget about them? Absolutely not!
Meta tags still play an important role. Their ranking relevancy has just shifted over the years to a different realm of functionality. Every time that major search engines index and re-index your pages, they will read/capture all your meta tags...If meta tags were irrelevant, why would search engines waste their time to index them in 2008's internet context?
I come from a marketing background and not from a technical background. In 1993, I discovered the web and have made a living 100% from the internet ever since. I have been involved full-time with SEO since 1997, and was forced to become an expert by default! Being exposed to SEO knowledge has always been circumstantial in my case...I've always found the SEO field fascinating and never considered myself as an expert. Expert in what? Expert in the knowledge which will change tomorrow and again in the days after tomorrow? Anyway, in spite of my obsessive commitment to keep up with the latest search engine technologies, I always keep marketing-correctness in mind. The visit factor to your site is, of course, crucial, but equally important is the conversion rate.
Over the years, I have met a lot of so-called SEO experts who, for the most part, came from a computer/technical background. Many of these experts are qualified when it comes to SEO (technical issues), but most of them have absolutely no knowledge about e-marketing. I have seen SEO technicians sacrificing the e-marketing correctness of a web page in order to make a text search engine-friendly. Too often, SEO professionals will make decisions based on ranking eligibility without any sales background in mind. When it comes to marketing a website, there are so many details that make the difference between traffic and conversion. For instance, many studies prove that the amount of text on any given page, the choice of the fonts, certain colors, graphic composition, etc., affect the attention span of the user and therefore the conversion rate of the website.
In other terms, saying that meta tags are dead is not only untrue from an SEO point of view (we'll see that later...please read on), but it is completely absurd from a marketing perspective. In fact, what do users see when conducting a search? What is the first thing YOU see when searching on Google? You type keywords and, depending on your settings, you will have 10-20 listings displayed on your screen (aside from the sponsored links).
If you look at it, each listing is made of 3 colors. The first line, which is a blue link...then black text/description of about 20 words...and finally, underneath, a green link to the web page. Come on, type any keyword on Google and check out what I mean for yourselves!
Anyway, here is the deal: the blue link is basically your title tag (probably the only meta tag which bears a true ranking relevancy), and the 20-word text in black is the description tag of your web page.
In other words, in spite of the controversy revolving around meta tag relevancy, the fact is that when conducting a search, your meta tags (title tag + description tag) are the first thing the user will see (and that is factual and non-argumentative!).
For example, if you went to Google and typed Arabic SEO, you will find us on the first page under the following listing:
Arabic SEO | Arabic search engine optimization and submission.
Submission & website optimization for Arabic Search Engines. Providing Arabic SEO services for Search Engines in Arabic language. Offering international SEO ...
www.mseo.com/arabic_search_engines.html
If you view the source of our page, you will see that Arabic SEO | Arabic search engine optimization and submission is our title tag, and you will see that the text in black is a personalized description for such page. Let's see another example: If you type French search engines, you will find our listing (once again, on the first page!) as follows:
French SEO | French search engine optimization and submission.
Submission & website optimization for French Search Engines. Providing French SEO services for Search Engines in French language. Offering international SEO ...
www.mseo.com/french_search_engines.html
The same applies above...a personalized title and a relevant, customized description.
I am baffled when I hear SEO consultants claiming that meta tags are dead! In our case, all the pages of http://www.mseo.com are personalized according to subjects, and we strongly advise you to do the same. Speaking about search engine performances, I advise you to check MSEO.com's rankings: http://www.mseo.com/search_engine_rankings.html . As you will see, we have over 150 of our main keywords on the 1st page (top 10) of Google + MSN + Yahoo. I am not mentioning that to brag, but I do believe that it is a reassuring factor when someone consults with you on how to improve your own rankings.

I know that it might sound like a stereotype, but when it comes to direct marketing (above all, on the web), you never get a second chance to make a first impression!!
On a daily basis, I see companies allocating large budgets for their SEO and web design...while completely omitting to include good meta tags in their overall marketing strategy. I am outraged when I witness companies spending millions of dollars on name branding & corporate image being misadvised by so-called experts recommending to disregard meta tags. Once again, allow me to reiterate emphatically that the first thing your potential customers will see are the title + description of your meta tags.
As I wrote earlier, meta tags are not just to be evaluated from a ranking eligibility perspective, but need to be seriously considered to consolidate the e-marketing strength of your site! Think about it this way: If you had only one title (about 165 characters) and one description (about 20-25 words) to describe each section/page of your site, what would you say? That is what I am talking about!
Furthermore, aside from a marketing perspective, although meta tags will never again be the primary consideration in regards to your ranking eligibility, they definitely enhance the overall search engine-friendliness of your website. When well drafted, meta tags improve the indexation process accuracy.
In other terms, good meta tags increase major search engines' ability to understand the keyword definition of each page. Let's put it this way: a site with an obsolete/undesirable content will not benefit from good meta tags - a website with good content and good meta tags will not do well either without a good link popularity. However, a website featuring a healthy content and a strong one-way-link factor will definitely be enhanced by featuring good meta tags (above all, referring to titles + descriptions).
One of the most misperceived notions in regards to meta tag relevancy came from the keyword tags. This leads me to cover the fact that all meta tags are not created equal (in terms of relevancy)! Once again, please consider that your meta tags are made of the title + keywords + a description + alt tags:
A - Title tag: As covered previously, the title tag is very important. In fact, it is, in my observation of the 1,000s of websites which we have managed over the years, the utmost important meta tag. It the first thing that users will see/read when conducting a search. I strongly advise to draft powerful title tags. Keyword importance/relevancy in the title tag is read from left to right (so prioritize your text accordingly). Once again, please understand that meta tags will only benefit a healthy website featuring a decent link popularity factor. When a strong website is made eligible for priority rankings, customized healthy titles help to enhance search engines' ability (mainly based on Google technology) to understand better how you wish to prioritize your keywords.
B - Keywords tags: Part of your meta tags are made of a list of keywords. This is the part that was used in the past to trick search engines into giving websites rankings which they didn't deserve. Website marketers used excessively such section to spam their keywords emphatically. Search engines got smarter and only gave relevancy to these keywords if they matched the content of the page on which they were featured. However, this was not sufficient. Keywords were still applied excessively, leading major search engines eventually to make the keywords section of your meta tags completely irrelevant in terms of ranking relevancy. Because the keywords were made so unimportant, the general public received the wrong notion that they could forget about optimizing their site with meta tags...So the question is, Should you put keywords in your meta tags? My advice is for you to do so with diligence. Only use relevant keywords featured in the text of the page which you are optimizing. Although such keywords will not help you to get better rankings, they contribute to emphasize the keyword strategy of each page.
C - Description tag: Like the title tag, a good description, personalized for each page, is a crucial factor in terms of web marketing. There is definitely a keyword dynamic between the title tags and the descriptions. In fact, when conducting a search, the keywords you type show up in bold throughout the title and description of the search results...There again, it is hard to true define the ranking relevancy of the description tags (if any!).
D - Alt tags: Alt tags are keywords which are basically displayed behind images. If you offer services, such tags are totally irrelevant. However, when offering general consumer products, alt tags are being used by major search engines to archive photos in their database for their image search section. In fact, whether you conduct an image search on Google or Yahoo, most pictures that come up were indexed based on their alt tags (which is the only way for a search engine to archive photos according to a keyword). Alt tags do not benefit everyone...For instance, no one is going to type foreign SEO (one of our main keywords) and conduct an image search!
There is an art to writing good meta tags. It is not an individual web page challenge, but rather a strategy which needs to be developed considering the overall content of the website.
I am not herewith arguing with my SEO peers in regards to the fact that the general ranking relevancy of meta tags is not what it used to be!
In conclusion, and since cooking is one of my most vivid passions, allow me to close this article by giving you the following lame analogy(!): It is not because you put salt into a recipe that such meal will turn out properly - if what you are cooking is crap, spices won't matter...the final result will be crap anyway! But if you are on a good culinary track, the right amount of salt will greatly enhance your meal. In other words, don't forget the salt...don't overlook your meta tags!!!