Death of the Meta Tag

[cian]

I just came across this interesting article with discusses the "death of the meta tag" and in particular the keyword tag.

You can find it here:

http://searchenginewatch.com/sereport/02/10-meta.html

Is it worth wasting time with these tags anymore?

(i'm also going to post this in the webdesigners forum, FYI)


É

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http://www.endamcg.com

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http://www.endamcg.com/finland-gaa

 

[Wullie]

Hi mate,

Is it worth wasting time with these tags anymore?

Simple answer, YES.

If a tag that will be ignored by most engines is likely to boost your ranking in at least one, then use it.

Also, there are a lot of engines other than the major ones, every one that I know of reads meta keywords, which makes it worthwhile in itself.

Hope this helps Wullie

sales@freshlookdesign.co.uk

http://www.freshlookdesign.com

http://www.searchit-now.co.uk

The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails. - John Maxwell

 

[mThomas]

While the article says that only Inktomi uses the keyword meta tag, Inktomi's spider is used by countless big and small search sites, not the least of which is hotbot.lycos which I would count as a pretty big search site. Even though lycos.com stopped supporting the keyword tag their hotbot site continues to use Inktomi's spider.

Searcheningwatch is a favorite resource of mine, and I have been a member for several years. One thing I've noticed is that the public section of the site does not always give justice to a topic, and can be a little misleading at times, like the statement that only Inktomi supports the keyword tag. Also that stating that lycos doesnt' support it, and not mentioning that hotbot.lycos does.

mike

 

[cian]

Thanks for the reply guys!

Wullie, the tone of my question may not suggest it but I totally agree with you!
As more people give up on these tags, the people who continue to use these tags may reap some benefits. And for people who make their living from this then even if use of these tags translates into only one extra customer then it's better that a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, as de fella says!

One thing I find hard to understand is the amount of companies selling a product/service to help you build those "winning" meta tags, as if they are going to get you number 1 on the rankings list!

mThomas, I gathered the article was basically a summary! Unfortuantly for the average Joe Amateur like me we can't all afford to subscribe.


Thx for the reply guys, it's an interesting subject!



É

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http://www.endamcg.com

::

http://www.endamcg.com/finland-gaa