More On Metatags   If you don't believe us, read this article on metatags by search engine guru Jill Whalen. When Jill talks, people listen! Click Here

A more complete version of this article can be found at Sizzling SEO.

Metatags Aren't The Magic Answer

Much incorrect information is disseminated about search engine positioning and metatags. Whether the information is intentionally misleading or just out of date, you need to know the facts in order to make intelligent decisions on how to spend your positioning dollars and effort. 

The popular myth is: all you need to score well in search engines is to find the 'right' metatags. This is just not true. The search engines are all different and optimizing for good placement at each of the 10 or so most important ones is a formidable task. For example, Google, Lycos, and Yahoo don't even look at your keyword metatags. At AltaVista the keyword metatag is "not important" in achieving a good position. 

However, you do need good keyword phrases because the keyword phrases are considered within the context of your page titles and text to increase or decrease your rankings.

Sites That Seem to Violate All the Rules

Search engines may penalize pages or exclude pages (or entire sites), if they detect techniques such as search engine spamming or keyword stuffing.

When you start examining your competition to see why they get good rankings, you will find sites that violate all the guidelines we've stated. Some sites which use old techniques--keyword stuffing for example--are simply grandfathered in (accepted before the current rules went into effect) and have not yet been purged from the search engine. Some search engines almost never purge; others do it infrequently. The moral of the story - make sure you are looking at a recent submission should you choose to emulate techniques that look like they are working despite what we have told you here. Emulating an old submission under new rules will not get you accepted and may even get you banned.

Sometimes, the page you see in your browser is a bait and switch - a different page was originally submitted to the search engine but swapped out once the site was accepted for inclusion.