|
|
What is a Meta Keywords Tag?
Syntax:
<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="keyword 1, keyword 2, keyword 3">
Summary:
The Meta Keywords Tag describes the subject (or topics) of a given web document. In the context of search
engine optimization, this tag should contain your primary (and optionally secondary)
target optimization keywords. If you are unfamiliar with this tag or its purpose,
reading of additional information below is recommended.
History:
The original intention of the Meta Keywords Tag was to help search engines and other
document retrieval systems identify the subject matter of a given html document.
This was especially useful when search engines were far less sophisticated (than
today) at identifying the topics of a page simply by parsing it's written content.
Unfortunately this relied on the honesty of the webmaster to properly label and
identify the content.
Meta keywords were quickly and largely abused, thereby making them unreliable in
the eyes of some search engines. It became one of first forms of spam used by "spammers"
looking to trick the search engines. It was accomplished by stuffing the meta keywords
tag with numerous unrelated keywords that were not directly related to the content
in hopes of getting more traffic to their web site. The principal is based on the
idea that more traffic is always better. While probably accurate, search engines quickly
put a stop to this by relying on other factors such as written content and linking.
Advantages:
While still used today, most webmasters use them simply to place focus on keywords
that are part of their SEO campaign. While some engines completely ignore this tag,
others still consider it as part of the ranking process. This is particularly true
for meta engines, which focus heavily on meta tags such as meta keywords and meta
descriptions.
Disadvantages:
Ignored by some search engines. Gives other search engine experts (i.e.: your competitors)
an easy way to steal your target optimization keywords.
Tip #1:
To avoid being penalized for spam, be sure that all meta keywords occur at least once in the page body.
|
|
|
|