Do meta tags in your web pages give you SEO advantages?

Is it true that keywords and description metatags are a joke and that anyone bothering to put them on their web pages is wasting their time?

In Internet marketing, and particularly SEO, you should be very wary of anyone who makes categorical statements. Especially when those statements are about Google.

The fact is that nobody really knows.

What IS ‘known’ is that Google SAY they don’t take any notice of the keywords meta tag. I emphasize SAY because Google have a track record of saying one thing and meaning another. It really isn’t in their interest to tell you what they really take notice of in ranking web pages.

Having said that, there is probably little or no actual Search Engine Optimization benefit to spending a long time crafting a keyword-stuffed meta tag. There MAY be a benefit, however, in simply putting one or two primary keywords in there. Why? Because even if none of the search engines use the data today, who is to say that they won’t use it tomorrow. Algorithms change all the time and we generally have no idea what is making a difference at the margin.

And if someone comes up with real proof in two years time that pages with keyword meta tags on them rank better you would kick yourself if you’d assumed that putting it on the thousands of pages you may have built by then was ‘a joke’. Especially as that joke takes such little time and effort to tell.

A search on the term ‘keyword meta tag’ will find you all kinds of ‘experts’ who suggest that both the keywords and the description meta tags are a waste of time. That is patently false because you can prove that Google are reading the description tag – that’s where they prefer to get the snippet they use to describe your page in their listings.

There is no evidence that the description tag gives you any ranking advantage, but it sure as anything helps to draw attention to your page wherever it does get ranked.

It seems that Google prefer to use the description meta IF it includes the primary keyword for the page. If not, they will pick a random snippet from you page text that does include the keyword or phrase – as far as possible.

This can lead to some weird listings – as we all know.

To some extent you can control that by crafting a good description meta – one that includes your primary keyphrase and, in a natural writing style, common derivations of it.

As I said at the beginning, anyone claiming to be an ‘expert’ on what Google do or don’t do, and who gives you concrete, black & white instructions about what will or won’t rank your pages is stretching their own reputation thinly and quite probably is looking to sell you something.

And, although I’m not trying to sell you anything, I include my own observations in that disclaimer as well.

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We live in a world that is obsessed with putting people in boxes. We have tests, questionnaires and examinations for everything.

Yet what do all those tests actually prove?

Do those boxes we are shoved into really define who we are? Or do they place artificial boundaries around us that become impossible to break out of?

David Ogilvy, an advertising copywriter who was universally regarded as a genius at what he did once was asked to take an intelligence test.

He was a bit surprised to find that he wasn’t a genius after all. In fact, according to the test, he was barely able to think at all!

If he had been asked to take this test at the beginning of his career, he would have had no career. A great talent would have been stifled.

I heard another story yesterday from a lady who coaches gymnasts. She had a young disabled girl in her class who wanted to do rythmic gymnastics with clubs. The girl was told that because of her disability this was impossible because she couldn’t throw and catch them.

But, unlike most of us, this little girl didn’t listen to the people who told her it was impossible. She did it anyway. She practiced and practiced and eventually could throw both clubs high in the air with one hand and then catch one in each hand as they came down.

They said it was impossible, but she did it anyway – despite being blind.

There must be many of us who have been told categorically that we can’t do something because we fell short on someone else’s scale, yet know in our hearts that we CAN and MUST do it anyway.

When you KNOW who you are – when your heart is telling you that your destiny lies in a certain direction – don’t let anyone else shove you in a box that doesn’t fit.

Like a jack-in-the-box, your spring will simply wind tighter and tighter until it either snaps or you burst through the lid.

I’m all for breaking out of the lids of artificially created boxes – how about you?

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I watched a TV program last night about people who are
undergoing surgery.

One man was donating part of his liver to his son, who,
due to liver disease, had barely a year left to live.

The surgeon explained to this man that the operation he
was about to undergo had risks and that there was a one
in 150 chance that he may not survive.

The guy didn’t flinch. The chance that he could save
his son was far more important to him than his own
life.

Both father and son survived the surgery well.

So many parents of seriously sick children can only
watch and pray, absolutely unable to influence their
loved-ones health in any way.

But this man was given the opportunity to risk his own
life to save his son’s – and he grabbed that chance
with gratitude.

Who wouldn’t.

I watched that program with tears in my eyes and felt a
whole lot better about the human race at the end of it.

On a side note, I had an operation myself a few months ago and had to sign a disclaimer form after the anethatist explained to me that there was a 1% chance I may not wake up. Of course I signed – I needed the operation – but 1%? Really? Does one person in a hundred really die on the operating table? Surely if so many people were pegging out on such a regular basis the newspapers would be full of it.

I think maybe there is a bit of risk exaggeration going on.

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