Metatags: What are they and are they necessary?

 
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Some say they are important, and some say they are not. We tend to go with our experience and Google’s preference:

Let’s first break down the types of metatags.

  • Keywords

  • Description

  • Title

  • Meta Robots Attribute

Keywords

These tags identify what is important to a website for search engine listing. They are inserted in the code of a webpage to help tell search engines how to view and categorize them. Because of some keyword stuffing in years past, Google made them obsolete and stopped using them in their ranking algorithm.

Description

These Metatags help search engines understand what your page is about. Think about it as providing a brief summary of your web page to your user. Search engines often display this description, which is why they should explain what your page is about to the user and to Google; it should entice the user to click through. There have been studies done that higher clickthrough rates translate into higher rankings, but Google is keeping that a secret.

Title

Unlike Keyword Metatags, Title tags are important. It is the single most important tag on your website. They signify what the title of a webpage is and are displayed on the search engine results page. Like the Description tags, title tags are used to lure the user to click through. They are extremely valuable for SEO. Most search engines give the title tag the most weight.

Meta Robots Attribute

These Metatags tell the search engines in detail how to crawl, index, and present your web page in search results.

The bottom line is, Google and the other search engines don’t look at the keyword Metatags anymore. Their crawlers and bots are sophisticated enough to figure out what phrases and words are used in the content, title, and description. Focus on the description and title tags, and forgo the keyword tags.

We have specialists on site who can help you navigate the Metatag debate.

 
Simply Online Marketing