Confused about meta tags.
-
(Ok, this might be a stupid question.) I am a little confused about the best practice for the Meta Tag. I know they don't have a real effect on ranking. But I am getting "mixed signals" as to their general use. I've pasted the 2 examples of below that are confusing me.
From my Campaign's Crawl Diagnostics: (I have missing Meta Tags)
"Meta description tags, while not important to search engine rankings, are extremely important in gaining user click-through from search engine result pages (SERPs). These short paragraphs are the webmaster's opportunity to advertise content to searchers and let them know exactly what the given page has with regard to what they're looking for"
From The Keyword Optimization Tool: (Avoid Using Meta Keyword Tool)
"Search engines have, for years, ignored the meta keywords tag as a ranking signal. Although it technically does not harm rankings, it can be used by competitors as a method to extract your targeted terms and thus, we recommend against its use. "
I would love to hear opinions on this topic. I am trying to decide wether or not to use unique meta tags on every blog post.
-
Thanks guys. That answered my question!
-
Meta Descriptions, when carefully written, may boost your clickthrough ratio in SERPs. Think of it as a kind of Adwords ad text.
Meta Keywords won't help you with anything, really. The only good usage I can recall is keyword suggestions to social bookmarking sites like Delicious.
-
Meta Descriptions provide google with the text snippet shown in organic results therefore important.
Meta Keywords are no longer a ranking factor and in fact can be a disadvantage as they can give you competitors easy access to your keyword list therefore not only unimportant but a bad idea.
-
The first is talking about Meta Descriptions. The second is talking about Meta Keywords. Two completely different things.
Meta Descriptions are important. Meta Keywords are not.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Can I use £ character in title tag?
Hi - Can you use something like "save £££s" in the title tag. Have looked but can't see an answer. Thanks.
On-Page Optimization | | StevieD0 -
How can i define a ALT Tag for Youtube videos?
Hello, When i scan with SEMrush it shows all such pages do not have ALT Tags http://img.youtube.com/vi/iJ4pmmRSZxc/hqdefault.jpg What should the ALT be for them and how can i control as we have 1000's of Youtube videos displayed on various parts of our website Thank you
On-Page Optimization | | ktrinkqao120 -
Titling and H1 Tag Question
What to do if you have hundreds of thousands of a particular product. Comic Books for example. Is it ok to have the words Comic Book in the title and H1 tag as long as it is qualified? For example, if I have the following as both the Title tag and the H1 tag. Comic Book - Spider Man Versus Wolverine Comic Book - Silver Surfer Goes Home to Visit Mom. Comic Book - Superman Gets a New Kitten Comic Book - Wonder Woman is More Wonderful Than You Know As of now, I have been doing it this way, but only in the title tag. However, Google has been using my H1 tag as my title, so in the search results, I am only getting: "Superman Gets a New Kitten" And I am afraid that that is leaving out important info for searchers, especially qualifying that the product is a Comic Book and if someone is searching for a Comic Book, I need that to return. But I don't want any 'more' trouble from the Panda. Again, this will be hundreds of thousands of products. Thanks for your help! Craig
On-Page Optimization | | TheCraig0 -
SEO HTML: Header tags
A few of quick SEO questions regarding header tags: More than one tag per page. If there is more than one tag on a page: are both taken into consideration and what if they contain the same keyword? Eg on the page: http://en.emilea.be/childrens-clothes/molo/boys/cardigans-and-sweaters/ MoloBoysCardigans & sweaters ... Molo childrens clothes Is the 2nd considered when indexing the page? Since both tags contain the same keyword (but in different context) is this a SEO plus or minus? Nested tags inside header tags. I presume the nested tags are omitted, but if there is no white space between the tags are these concatenated? <span tag='molo'>Molo<span tag='boys'>Boys<span tag='cardigans-and-sweaters'>Cardigans & sweaters</span tag='cardigans-and-sweaters'></span tag='boys'></span tag='molo'> How is the above header processed? MoloBoysCardigans & sweaters
On-Page Optimization | | Webxtrakt
or
2) Molo Boys Cardigans & sweaters Order of header tags.
How important is the order of header tags and how do they influence the following content. F.ex. if the top part of the page contains multiple tags and the middle part contains 1-2 tags. Does this affect the importance of the tags and would it be better to use tags above? Thanks in advance.0 -
Colons in title tag?
Does Google view the colon as a keyword separator like it does with the pipe (|) character? Currently, our site automatically constructs the title tag based on the page name given by the user. Long ago, we started using the colon character to visually separate the brand & model of the product from the size, and as a result, all of our title tags have been constructed this way. This was done more to make it easier to read for humans than for search engines. My question is - should I consider getting rid of the colon from our title tags? To give more info, our website sells tires. So, for any given model of tire, there might be 25-100 different individual sizes. The tags are constructed as follows: (brand)(model) : (size). Here's an example from our site: GENERAL ALTIMAX ARCTIC : 225/45R17 91Q The brand is General Tire, the model is the Altimax Arctic and the size is 225/45R17 91Q Since this entire string really constitutes the full product name, should I remove the colon so that Google views it that way? Or, since I have used a colon instead of a pipe, will Google simply ignore it and treat the entire string as one keyword phrase?
On-Page Optimization | | kcourtem0 -
Can i use H2 tag for a brand logo
I want to use the brand logo of my products as a H2 tag and use ALT attribute for the image. Please refer for example to: http://www.parfumerie.nl/zoek-op-merk/clarins/clarinsmen/anti-huidveroudering/clarins-men-gel-revitalisant-50-ml/ CODE Clarins Online Is this ok for my SEO or do you advice me to no use the H2 tag for this?
On-Page Optimization | | parfumerienl0 -
SEO Location Pages - ALT Image Tag Question
Hello Guru's, I have a Hire Website whereby you can rent products online. I have created different Location pages for these which are in essence the same pages page but with different location specific urls, title tags , on page content etc etc. This helps me to rank for local search. These location pages also display 20 products per page. My question is Should I make the ALT IMAGE TEXT location specific for each of the 20 products . Example - Steam Cleaner Rental in "location" or should I only amend a few of the Atl Image Texts to be location specific. I don't want to come accross as spammy in google eyes but I also don't want to be seen as having duplicate content , images etc etc What do you think ? thanks Sarah.
On-Page Optimization | | SarahCollins0 -
Potential Duplicate Title Tags On Sibling Pages
Edit I'll take the fall on this one, seems I could have asked my quesiton in a more clear manner. I was cruising other questions and finding a whole of answers that I suspect were not truly intended to help, but maybe help and earn Mozpoints. Wasn't fair of me to label those answering here with that. I will work better on the wording of my questions! 🙂 Edit Either I am asking my question poorly or I am learning there may be a rush to get points by throwing up any old answer...it very well may be the former which I am open to feedback on. Each page is to stand alone and hopefully rank well for the neighbourhood name and in conjunction with another relevant keyword phrase. There is no 'duplicate' version of any pages. * On a site there are numerous pages that provide real estate listings broken down by neighbourhood. Each containing similar content, a abbreviated version of the listings, often spanning 2 or 3 pages. These are 3rd level pages. Properties->Calgary Neighbourhoods->Evanston The title tags created are: Evanston Homes For Sale - NW Calgary Real Estate Panorama Hills Home For Sale - NW Calgary Real Estate Etc. for about 15 or so pages. Then they start again for another area of the city: Sagewood Homes For Sale - Airdrie Real Estate Woodside Homes For Sale - Airdrie Real Estate At this point there is no text on the actual page outside of the listings...an example of similar listings on another site - http://www.experiencerealtygroup.com/BaturynandDunluceHomes.ubr Do you think the SE's will see these as 'proper' use of the Title Tag or duplicate or other practices they tend to frown upon? It is a logical way of creating the title and obviously creating a unique version for each page would not only be tough to scale on some sites with 100's of these pages, they would become a little silly and not much use to the searcher in the SERPs Thanks for any help!
On-Page Optimization | | kyegrace1