META tags, Description tags and Search Engines

For many months there have been rumors surrounding the effectiveness of Meta tags, Description tags and how the current Search Engine spiders treat them. Here’s the big question; Are Meta and Description tags relevant to spiders anymore?

After doing some initial research on the subject, the answer is; sometimes.

My research found that when used properly Meta keyword and Description tags do not help your site gain any positive results in the rank or SERPS pages. Yes, you heard me right, 70% of the time if you use Meta tags and Description tags properly for Search Engine Optimization, they will not help you get better results. However, if you are in the habit of, or were told to “stuff” your Meta tags, you should be aware that the spiders do considered that abuse and spam. You can leave the Meta and Description tags completely blank and it doesn’t seem to matter to the search engines spiders at all. They will simply substitute the page’s Title tags and the page content - unless your site has been deemed as spamming the Search Engine.

Although it appears that Meta tags are nearly ignored in the search engines, there is one bright spot; MSN. They still seem to use Meta tags and Description tags to determine where a site will rank on the SERPS. So there actually IS a use for Meta and Description tags for about 30% of all searches made.

The moral of the story is two fold; 1) you still need Meta and Description tags for comprehensive Search Engine Optimization, but if you try to spam them, you could and probably will be banned from at least 70% of all search results and 2) a page’s Title and content are king for SEO.