Residual Victory Blog

Meta Tags are a basic part of any website, but their relativity to search engine results have undergone considerable change. As with any topic in computer programming or web development, it is important to keep informed of recent developments.  What was once fact evolves into a myth.  Meta tags have taken a back seat in the spider driven world, but they are not yet obsolete.  Some common myths that are crawling around in unreliable or outdated sites are as follows:

1.  The purpose of Meta Tags is to rank high in search engine results.

Ranking high in search engine results is useless if visitors don’t click on your site. Your site doesn’t have to rank first or second, it has to have clear relevant results that create a desire for the visitor to click instead of scroll.  Pagejacking is out.  Relevancy is in.

2.  Meta Tags determine ranking.

In the old days, meta tags determined ranking.  Google tipped over the webmaster’s desk and decided to rely on content rather than meta tags for page ranking.  They now display content extracted from the website in the search result descriptions rather than the meta tag description input by the programmer.  Visitors searching major search engines will be looking at page content for relevancy, not meta tag descriptions.

3.  Since Google doesn’t use Meta Tags, there’s no need to optimize.

Google is not the only search engine out there.  Smaller search engines still spider meta tags.  One of the larger smaller search engines is Inktomi.  Inktomi results show up on MSN search engines after featured sites, directory sites and sponsored sites.  Creating an optimized tag of a three or more word phrase increases your chances of being listed. Some smaller search engines use the meta tag text for a description on your website, and a good description could result in a good click.

4.  I don’t need to use Meta Tags on every web page

Each page of your website provides unique content.  Use your Meta Tags wisely on each page being sure to change a portion of the description to a more tailored content.  According to the Yale Journal of Law and Technology, Google set a benchmark of 500 million indexed pages in the year 2000.  By 2005, Yahoo had 20 billion before the year was over. The spiders have a lot of crawling to do.  Every little bit of information helps.

5.  “To exist is to be indexed by a search engine.” (Introna & Nissenbau)

It is a myth that this is a myth.  This is the mantra and the basis for every webmaster and search engine optimizer.

Search engines serve their visitors.  They will continue to sharpen their algorithms.  Not keeping up to date with changes in the industry will lead to your website’s non-existence.  Sorting out the myths and the facts is an important process in keeping your website in existence.  As long as the meta tags are still out there - use them for all they’re worth.  You need all the help you can get.