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.
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
-
How unique should meta descriptions be?
This is something I've been wondering for a while but can't seem to find any advice on. My website features ~60 different companies, each having their own profile page. When optimizing for SEO, how unique should each page's meta description be? Put another way, can I be penalized if the descriptions are all identical except for the company name I include? Any thoughts, resources, or best practices are appreciated!
On-Page Optimization | | ericstites0 -
Should I leave away the http when using the canonical tag
My site redirects http://www.anydomainblabla.com to www.anydomainblabla.com So I guess I have to do it like this Is that correct? Big thanks for your time.
On-Page Optimization | | MichaelJanik0 -
How will it effect SEO to have multiple h1 tags on a page?
I have a client who recieved this advice from his marketing consultant: "If there are multiple h1 tags on a page, this can confuse Google and it may have a negative impact on the keyword rankings. If you could ask your web developer to go in and remove the h1 tags on the header images that would be helpful. This way it will be easier for Google to index your site and will help your keyword rankings." How will it effect SEO to have multiple h1 tags on a page?
On-Page Optimization | | GRIP-SEO0 -
Head description tag, what now
Recently I heard Google virtually dropping the description tag for seo scoring? and it takes the data off the page, however one of my clients description is just pulling a url rather than any content from the page. is there some way thats ethical to suggest a description to google?
On-Page Optimization | | Shuffled0 -
Which meta descriptions should I fix first?
Our biggest issue with SEO right now is the lack of meta descriptions. There are a ton of pages that require meta descriptions that we don't know which ones to prioritize first, namely: corporate website pages landing pages for specific content offers that are gated behind a form blog posts Since we can't tackle everything at once, what's best practice around which pages to fix first? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | BizoMarketing0 -
Meta Keywords
Hello! Just wondering what opinions others have on Meta Keywords? Ive read in the past here on Seomoz that they are irrelevant now to search engines. I do see some of our Large competitors still using them. When I use the SEO page tool to check out pages for optimization it recommends that we remove them? This is something that I have been doing for a few months now but am second guessing myself now. Should I continue to leave them out of current page structure? Thank You!!!!
On-Page Optimization | | TP_Marketing0 -
Am I cannabalizing my title tags or is there a better way?
I've read some info about title tags and meta, and I'm getting a little confused. If there is a previous discussion that I've missed, please redirect me. thank you. So I have a locksmith and one of his pages is on Auto Locksmith. For every car, I have a page. i.e Acura, Audi, BMW etc. Here is my title tag: Acura Car Keys| Ignition Switch Repair| Key Duplication BMW Car Keys| Ignition Switch Repair| Key Duplication Same for the rest of the different car models on the site. I previously asked a question on here about "What is Cannibalization", and after reading the answer, as well as a full article about it, I think I may be potentially cannibalizing my site with these title tags, though my SEO Moz has not indicated that I am. Should my title tags be instead... Acura car keys| Acura Ignition Switch Repair| Acura Key Duplication for each vehicle page? Additionally, all the Meta Descriptions on each vehicle page read the same as well. Is this correct? We duplicate Acura car keys, repair ignition switches, extract broken keys, replace remotes, reprogram transponder keys and provide emergency locksmith srvc. Lastly, this is for a city, yet I have not placed the city modifier in my tags nor content. Somehow it knows what city I'm in because some of my pages are ranking on Page 1, however other pages are ranking like #188, #257...So I'm just confused. Thanks for any help you can provide. Jaye
On-Page Optimization | | jayestovall0 -
Meta description tags & title tags duplicate content?
Although meta description tags have no impact on rankings - can there be a negative effect from having many duplicate meta title + description tags with just 1-2 words switched out?
On-Page Optimization | | qlkasdjfw0