Death of the Meta Tag

[cian]

Hi guys,

I found this article very interesting. it disucsses the "death of the meta tag" and in particular the keyword tag which is only supported by only one major crawler-based search engine, Inktomi.

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

U think it's time to stop wasting time with Meta tags or is there still benefit to be gained from using them?

I have also posted this in thread828-372420, FYI




É

::

http://www.endamcg.com

::

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

 

[colcrys]

Hi Cian,
Ah, the mysticism of Meta tags.

As purely for gaining 'hits' I do agree that due to the way these are being handled now there is little value but after all, in the world of the web any little bit helps.

For myself I feel the there is still value in Meta tags if only for things like setting a good title - not for hits primarily but so that the title - such as the one to the 'north' of us now is clear and in good English and descriptive - the one showing as I write this for example says - Web Site Designers - Death of the Meta Tag, followed by an unabashed plug for MS.

I also see value still in the 'description' Meta tag. Just take a look on any search engine or catalogue site and see the unhelpful rambling that identifies the content on so many sites and contrast it with those sites that use the <meta name=&quot;description&quot; content=> tag. I am sure that the large percentage of sites listed on Google are written by 'designers' that have never even heard of the 'description' tag - much to the woe of English majors everywhere.

Another valuable aspect IMHO is the use of some Meta tags to obviate problems such as:
<meta name=&quot;MSSmartTagsPreventParsing&quot; content=&quot;TRUE&quot;> to stop MS's smart tags project for theft of visitors to your site and a redirecting of those visitors to sites that pay a stipend to MS for the 'privelege' and:
<META HTTP-EQUIV=&quot;imagetoolbar&quot; CONTENT=&quot;no&quot;> to lessen the theft of copyrighted pictures (not possible to do completely of course as we have gone over in another thread) at the behest of and sanctioned by MS.

For the other Meta tags such as cache, robots etc, who really knows if they are being used or not. I still think some may be of some value - like cache and robots and a few others - but again I do agree that the use of the keywords Meta Tag purely as a tool to try and get visitors to one's site are passé. Still though, on the sites I have attempted to build I have included this tag and I have listed numerous keywords - better to err on the side of caution I guess.

&quot;Content is King&quot; is of course the best policy and then the sites with little to offer would sink back to the nether depths of Google and All the Web and the 'cream' of the content sites would shine forth.

Maybe in our lifetime eh?

 

[cian]

Hi colcrys,

Thanks for your excellent informative reply!

I do agree that using these tags just for hits has little or no value. But I guess for folks who make a living off programming/web design even the few small hits these tags might bring could reap some rewards. Do you think?

I myself add meta tags for no particular reason, just because it's &quot;normal&quot; to do so. I don't count on hits and don't put any effort into optimising my tags to try to gain that extra visitor. (maybe one reason why I dont recieve any visitors).
What surprises me though is the amount of sites on the net who sell services/products which help you build your meta tags as if they are going to get you number 1 in the search rankings!
Does the average Joe Designer really think Meta tags are that &quot;powerful&quot;?

I have never seen this tag before
<meta name=&quot;MSSmartTagsPreventParsing&quot; content=&quot;TRUE&quot;>
which shows you how much effort I actually put into these things. Something I have to investigate though!

Perhaps as you say its best to err on the side of caution, for now, until the funeral?


Thanks again for your reply, very interesting!


É

::

http://www.endamcg.com

::

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

 

[Wullie]

HI Cian,

MS Smart Tags are a gimmick by MS where a visitor to your page sees links that you did not put there.

Lets say that you have some highly targeted advertising words. MS turn those into links to advertisers site and then they receive money for it.

That tags prevents the Smart Tags from appearing on your page.

I don't have time to go into more detail, but a quick search on Google etc for smart tags should produce a few very interesting stories.

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

 

[cian]

Thanks for the info Wullie, and colcrys for bringing it up. it sounds like something I should look into!



É

::

http://www.endamcg.com

::

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