[thelist] [fwd] Meta tags...maximum number of characters?

[Audrey Blumeneau]

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Hello,

I am in the process of submitting a website to search engines.  I found a
couple of meta tag "checkers" to ensure that I have created proper tags.
Title:  One site (submit.com) says that the title can contain 80
characters, whereas another site (scrubber.com) says 60 is the max.

Description:  Submit.com says that the total acceptable characters for the
description meta tag is 255, whereas scrubber.com says the max is 150.

Keywords:  And last but not least, submit.com says that the total
acceptable characters for the keyword meta tag is 1000, whereas
scrubber.com says the max is 874 characters.

Ok.  So, what is the best source of reliable information regarding these
three meta tags and how many characters should or should not be used?

Also, (question #2) scrubber.com is saying that I have repeated a keyword
too many times.  I am not sure how to handle this because here is what I
did:
shirts, dinosaurs, dinosaur shirts, reptiles, reptile shirts, insects,
insect shirts,

It is saying that not all search engines pick up or use the commas, so
therefore I am taking the risk that the engine might look at my repetition
of the word "shirt" as "spamming" and may delete my site from the engine
(which I certainly don't want to happen....).  Help!  Advice?

Thanks so much  - This list has been terrific for me.

Sincerely,
Audrey Blumeneau