Meta Tags Question for SEO

[affilil1]

affiliatebizmaster.com

Hi Everyone. I have a question about a page's properties and setting meta tag info. I read somewhere that one should choose ideally 3, max 5 keywords in the meta tag for a page. Correct?

This is a search engine thing. Can anyone tell me why 3-5? If all the imaginable keywords plus multiple combinations come up would it not be more effective for SE purpose to leave them there as is?

I guess one needs to have experienced this to know, can anyone assist with this quiery?

Also I understand that Yahoo optimiser in the Keyword Digger tool is having problems. Anyone who can expand on this?

Thanks, Kim.

[Dori]

Re: Meta Tags Question for SEO

Hi Kim,
Our resident SEO experts are Bethers and motoxxx. I am sure they will be along soon to help.
With keywords in meta tags I have learned that you only want relevant keywords that show up on that particular page. Don't use the same keywords over and over or the search engines will consider it spamming.
I hope this helps a little.

[Bethers]

Re: Meta Tags Question for SEO

The search engines pretty much ignore the meta keywords. But the 3-5 words/phrases is more saying that's really the maximum keyword phrases you can legitimately target on one page. If you try to target too many, the page will lose focus. So, each page should have the specific keywords being targeted for that page.

[motoxxx]

Re: Meta Tags Question for SEO

The KeyWord Digger tool has issues because it uses the O*****re (Yahoo) database and it goes down quite a bit. I just heard that Yahoo may be getting rid of the whole O*****re Search access. That would be a bad thing for many people if they do that.

Bethers is correct about keywords. One thing I would like to add about your keywords is that you should place your keyword phrases in your Alt Image tags. Google just changed up their search algorrythym on Feb 7th and one of my sites ended up on page 1 for a highly competitive key words but Google skipped my meta description all together and instead found the same keywords in my alt image tags. Even though the meta keywords may not be used by many Search Engines much anymore, still include them. MSN does use them occassionally and they will also use your Alt image tags to help place you if you come up tied for rankings with another site.

[Bethers]

Re: Meta Tags Question for SEO

Motoxxxx - yes, to using keywords in the alt - BUT ONLY if the keywords really DO reflect what the image is. That tag is meant to be a description of the image - and if a blind person would not be able to know what they are missing by the alt - then it is being misused.

If we start misusing alt image attributes, you can rest assured it won't be long before the se's decide to quit giving those tags any worth also.

MSN has admitted at a conference they do not use the meta keywords you provide. Neither does Yahoo or Google. Some of the others still might but that'll be a very small percentage of search engine traffic.

Google has been known for years for not using the meta description as often as the other se's - and usually picks somethiing from the page - sometimes words people would rather they not show - like "you need java enabled, etc" which is another good reason to make sure you have good text in the first elements of the page :)