Meta Tag Keywords

[nadlay]

I understand from various messages that I have read on this forum that Google takes no notice of the meta tag "Keywords", but that some of the smaller engines might use it, so I am planning on using on all my pages just in case it helps a little.

Is there a recommended maximum number of keyword phrases, or maximum number of characters which can be used in this meta tag, or can I just put as many different keyword phrases as possible?

[SEO_AM]

I usually SEO a page to a maximum of 3 KW's. This being the case, in my META I only use those keyphrases and some variations. I do not repeat any given word in the META keywords more than 3 times. Incidentally, Yahoo still uses the KW META tag. That alone is a good reason to pay attention to your KW META.

[Smyrl]

I keep reading to target no more than 2 or 3 keyword phrases per page.

You might try reading the SEO tutorials of Rusty Brick, Seo Guy, Webby of Abacus Computers or DazzlinDonna. I find them useful.

Shannon Smyrl

[Foxy]

here is Webby's address

http://www.abakus-internet-marketing.de/en/forum/

all the others are members here and you can get their addresses from the Members list

I don't know why Webby is not a member here...Shawn do you know?

[nadlay]

Another Forum to read!!!

If I'm not an expert ine SEO soon, it won't be for lack of reading.

Thanks for the advice, so far.

[Foxy]

Another Forum to read!!!

If I'm not an expert ine SEO soon, it won't be for lack of reading.

Thanks for the advice, so far.

Webby has a tutorial section that is good to read rather than trolling through the whole forum - In my opinion there are better SEOs here so you will get better answers here :)

[nadlay]

Thanks for the heads-up on that. I'll zero in on the tutorial section then.

[digitalpoint]

I don't know why Webby is not a member here...Shawn do you know?

Because he hasn't signed up. :) He probably doesn't even know it exists.

[Foxy]

Ooops....sensitive subject? :)

[nadlay]

Will a keyword phrase gain more prominence by being in a shorter keyword list, than in a longer keyword list?

In other words, if major keyword phrase is first in the keyword list, would it make any difference if it was

Only keyword phrase
or
First of 3 keyword phrases
or
First of 30 keyword phrases
or
First of 100 keyword phrases

SEO AM said above that he does his page SEO for just 3 Keywords. Is that what others do?

[Foxy]

3 keyword phrases

Remember you have more than one page

[SEO_AM]

SEO AM said above that he does his page SEO for just 3 Keywords.

I agree with Foxy, i.e., I do it for a maximum of 3 on any one page. For super competitive or highly profitable keywords I most often will dedicate the total page to that one keyword.

[Webby]

Just because I wasnt a member doesnt mean I dont come here now and then ;-)
The reason I havent registered and posted btw is that I am up to my eyeballs with projects and my german language forum that has become a monster. That and the the fact I moderate on other forums which takes up means I am in danger of spreading myself tooo thinly. I could spend a whole day posting on all the various forums but the baby wouldnt get fed :-)

Anyway, as a general rule for the keyword metatag, I try and use only words that actually occur on the page or in the title tag. I'll limit them to about 12 words but often it is much less. For Google its irrelevant anyway but inktomi makes use of it as I believe Yahoo! inktomi still do. Very little weight attributed to it though and really not worth a great deal of effort. My topword tool is pretty useful though for meta keyword selection abakus-internet-marketing.de/tools/topword.html. Description tag is however more important. (Keyword in the first 3 words and last word has been good for me). Any single page as mentioned should not be optimized for more than 3 phrases. That however doesn't mean use the maximum 3 on each and every page. For highly competitive phrases focus a whole page on the main single phrase/keyword. I have rough rule that more than 40,000 competing pages for a phrase or for single terms +300,000, I will optimized for one ot two terms only.

My tutorial (as foxy mentioned) is a good place for the basics. It is getting an update soon btw. with more on linkpop and going into more depth on dynamic sites.
URL: abakus-internet-marketing.de/en/seo-tutorial/grundlag.htm
Request: I am about done on a "mod_rewrite made easy" article that is currently in draft. I'd appreciate it if anyone experienced with mod_rewrite to take a preview of it and provide some feedback on content accuracy or anyone who doesn't have the slightest clue about mod_rewrite, could check it for ease of understanding. Please pm me if you would like the "work in progress".

Cheers
Alan

[Foxy]

Owlcroft is cool on this subject Webby :)

He will also write you volumes in very specific detail.

[Foxy]

I'm glad someone is attacking this area - cause I am seriously wanting on rewrites etc

[Owlcroft]

The hard part isn't really mod_rewrite--it's mastering "regular expressions".

The mod_rewrite basics are pretty easy:

if A is so then do B

It's learning how to write regex A's that cover your ground that--at least for me--is the bear in the woods.

[Webby]

Hi Owlcroft,
I think just the high tech sounding "mod_rewrite" scares a lot of people off in itself. The code for mod_rewrite is actually pretty logical. Regular expressions in themselves can be very complex but for flattening out a url it really isnt as hard as the apache official documentation and the techie sounding name suggests.

Alan

[TwisterMc]

i need keywords? I've all but quit using them. ;)

[Owlcroft]

Regular expressions in themselves can be very complex but for flattening out a url it really isnt as hard as the apache official documentation and the techie sounding name suggests.Quite so, for most common cases. It's the less-common ones that can be interesting.

There is a thread (http://mod-rewrite.com/forum/thread39.html) over on SEO Guy's "Mod Rewrite forum" that demonstrates what I mean. I may, of course, have utterly missed the boat--I am not an expert, I just try to RTFM--but it looks like a cute one.

[compar]

SEO AM said above that he does his page SEO for just 3 Keywords. Is that what others do?
I don't claim to be an absolute authority on Meta Keywords. But here are a few opinons.

1. In the old days -- 1998, 1999 -- it was contended by many that there was no such thing as keyword phrases, only keywords. Based on this claim the conventional wisdom was that you should never use the same word more that 3 time in your meta keywords. So if your keywords included "blue widgets, stainless steel widgets, custom widgets" you had exhausted the number of time you could use widget.

I'm not sure this still applies today when keyword phrases seem to be a reality.

2. Everyone before me has suggested limiting the meta tags to two or three keyword phrase only. Again when Meta Tags were really important the limit was thought to be 1,000 characters. In fact meta keywords, repeated your on page keywords, and then added many more. All the misspelling and other things that you wouldn't want on the page were put in the meta tags.

3. It is my opinion that even for the meta search engines, that the Meta Description is probably considerably more important that the meta keywords. Descriptions should be written like expanded titles. 250 characters that include all you prime keyword phrase if possible but still reads like a one ot two sentence description of what the site conatins and why someone should visit it.

[Webby]

I think there is some confusion here. The 3 keywords/phrases comes from the maximum number of terms you should focus any one page for and not the number of words in the meta keyword tag. On average I'll have about 7-12 with at least 90% of the words appearing also on the page somewhere.

I also try not to repeat any one particular word more than 3 times. Normally I wont go more than twice. The description is defintely the one worth taking a bit of time over.
Alan