[thelist] Are Keywords Dead?

[J Nicholas Tolson]

Point taken on the site having lots of ads, but in its defense I will say
that I have been visiting the site for a few months now and have found their
content to be valuable and backed up by other reputable sources.

The bottom line is that many reputable sources claim the keyword is dead,
and have been for a very long time. Here's one you might find more
palatable, since it's written by the venerable Danny Sullivan. And take
notice that it's written in 2002. If they were dead then, meta tags are long
gone now.

http://searchenginewatch.com/sereport/article.php/2165061

Either way, I think the take away is that meta tags are certainly not as
important as they used to be and should play a small part in your overall
SEO effort. They aren't going to make or break your SEO strategy and
certainly shouldn't be a cornerstone of it.

There are many reasons why SEO firms might still include meta tag creation
in their service listings. Maybe it's because customers still think meta
tags are the holy grail of SEO and think the SEO firm is bunk for not
including that in their services. Maybe it's because they need their list of
services to look longer. Maybe it lets them charge more by creating more
perceived value. To your point about the ads on the site I linked to, I
wouldn't look at SEO firms' marketing sites for facts on the latest SEO
tactics.

On the other side of all this (and to further delve off-topic), a valid
reason for taking the time to write good keyword and description meta tags
would be if you are using an internal search engine on your site, since
these commonly use these tags to index and rank search results.


Nicholas



On 6/29/04 4:21 PM, "Tom Dell'Aringa" <pixelmech at yahoo.com> wrote:

> --- J Nicholas Tolson <jtnt at mindspring.com> wrote:
>> Yes, it has fallen by the wayside. A victim of search engine spamming via
>> the tag and other reasons I'm not smart enough to know about, I'm sure.
> 
>> According to the article below, only Inktomi still uses the meta tag in
>> their algorithm. And this may no longer be the case, since the article was
>> written in Dec 2003.
>> 
>> http://www.seochat.com/c/a/Search-Engine-Optimization/Search-Engine-Myths-De
>> bunked
> 
> While what Nicholas says is true as to the spamming issue - I don't buy that
> keywords have no
> effect. When all SEO firms still spend plenty of time on them - that's a good
> indicator they mean
> something. 
> 
> Now, certainly they do NOT have the efect that in-page content has. But to say
> they have no effect
> is - again - speculation. Even by some supposed SEO chat web site. They don't
> have any more
> "inside" information than you or I have. Google doesn't tell people how they
> work their magic -
> that proprietary information to say the least.
> 
> What to do?
> 
> - Follow Google's (or whatever SE you are targeting) guidelines to the letter.
> Do not follow chat
> room gossip about what is and what isn't used.
> - Do vigorous testing. Track your results among the search terms/phrases you
> want to win with.
> - Don't use shady 'tricks' to trick SEs into giving you higher rankings, as
> you will eventually be
> banned.
> 
> Furthermore, I don't know much about the guy who wrote that article, but it's
> kind of ridiculous.
> He tells you they aren't used and don't bother - then at the end he says:
> 
> "Now that we???ve established that meta tags aren???t important for ranking,
> I???ll recommend that
> you include them anyway.  They aren???t very important, but they sure can???t
> hurt, and they???re
> not much work to include."
> 
> Gee, thanks. I'm also a little wary of web sites where 50% (or more) of the
> content on each page
> is advertising. They tend to throw up content for the sake of content, not
> because its quality.
> 
> I think an honest summation of their use can be found here:
> 
> http://www.seologic.com/faq/meta-keywords.php
> 
> Maybe their importance has been de-emphasized, but that doesn't mean you can
> omit them.
> 
> HTH
> 
> Tom
> 
> 
> =====
> http://www.Pixelmech.com/ - read my latest blog posting!
> 
> John 3:16
> 
>