Hey everyone, I am sort of new to the website world and need some help. I�m hoping it doesn�t make me appear to be stupid � but what are meta tags? Do I need to use meta tags on my website?

Are meta tags put in automatically? Do I have to write the tags in myself?

As you can see I am really confused over what needs to be done. I know that keywords are important and I want to rank high on Google (who doesn�t).

Thought I could get some information about meta tags on this forum.

Thanks for the help!

The debate about meta tags really depends on who is talking. Some say that meta tags are the secret to Google page rankings but Google doesn�t seem to give a lot of importance to meta tags.

Meta tag is an HTML tag describing the web document. You have to choose what you want your meta tags to say. They are placed between and of page.

I am not saying meta tags can�t weigh in on the page rankings, but they are not weighed as heavily as they used to be.

Back when search engine robots crawled sites they would review all the meta keywords. Of course scam websites (especially porn) just started to stuff their meta keywords with irrelevant information to their site just so it would rank better.

Google and other engines adjusted and now meta tags aren�t what they used to be.

If you do use meta tags make sure you do the following �

� Don�t use more than 10 meta keywords
� Keep meta description short (around 140 characters)
� Use keyword in title
� Don�t use any meta keywords that are not in the content of the webpage

As I said you will probably find others on the forum that tell you not to worry about Meta Tags at all. However, I would recommend using Meta Tags � just keeping it sweet and simple.

Just because Google doesn�t say they search meta tags it doesn�t mean they are not being crawled. It doesn�t penalize you to do meta tags � unless you keyword stuff and then you are definitely not going to receive good rankings � just don�t spend hours doing it.

It should only take a few minutes to figure out your description, title and keywords. The description should be very short and you must try to stick in a 5 to 10 keyword range for the meta keywords.

How can I keep my meta description short?

A meta description tag describes a particular web page, not the entire website. Think about how an advertiser would try to sell the page.

What�re the high points? What are you selling? Are discounts available?

Think along those lines and that should help you keep the description to a minimum.

I don�t really focus on meta tags that much. My pages with tags don�t fare any better or worse than those without meta tags. This could just be my experience; so, I�m not trying to give you the gospel.

However, I think if you focus on the content of your webpages and don�t try to sell something that isn�t there, then you might be able to rank higher. I�m talking about people who use keywords that have nothing to do with their site.

Search bots focus on the content on the page. Don’t worry about meta tags.

While I am aware that many reputable sources claim search bots don�t focus on meta tags, I just find it very hard to believe.

Putting in meta tags takes just a few minutes and it�s there always. It�s not like you are going to have to readjust the page every day. It�s little work doing meta tags and I think it�s a good optimization tool.

Yes, they only take a few minutes to do but I haven�t seen the proof of how meta tags made that big of a difference in page rankings.