SEO and Meta Tags - That's Sooo 1999

Jill Whalen of High Rankings® is an internationally recognized search engine optimization consultant and has this to say about META tags: "Changing or adding Meta tags on your site is neither a quick fix nor a slow fix. It won't fix anything and it won't have any effect on your search engine ranking."

It's true in 2007 that Google doesn't rely on Meta tags to boost your search engine rankings, but other search engines will use them as a starting point in categorizing, but not ranking, your site. That doesn't mean you should ignore Meta tags altogether when thinking about SEO, though. The keywords and phrases you use in your Meta description tag don't affect your page's ranking in the search engines but this tag can still come in handy in your overall SEO campaigns.

Each search result listed in Google gives the page title as a link to the site, the site description, and the site URL.

The description given with a search engine result is what humans read that lets them know what the web page is about and attempts to convince them to visit the web site.

If you haven't put a Meta description tag into your web page, the search engines will supply their own description. It would be a better idea to provide a description that will catch the reader's eye and do your best to covince them to visit your site.

To determine what description is coded into your web site, or your competition's web site, see my video How to View Source Code.