Are meta-tags now worthless?

I have just checked the code for about ten affiliate network websites and not a single one has description or keyword meta-tags. That really surprised me.

Is that because these tags are worthless now or the designers are just incompetent/lazy?

 

I think, that this affiliate network websites receive the greater traffic not from SE. So they dont care bout META. IMO

 

Meta tags aren't worth much, though they're not worthless IMO.

 

I think meta description is still important, very important even. But meta keywords don't mean much any more.

 

Disagree.

From my own experience and trials I have found that meta keywords CAN play an important part in page ranking.

Oddly, my meta keyword stuffing on a few pages, frowned upon by many, and modified to fall 'in line' with Google resulted in the pages falling from #1 or page 1 to page 2!

Changing the meta keywords back to what would be considered 'keyword stuffing' resolved the problem.

Also, Yahoo and MSN LOVE these pages with meta keyword stuffing!!

 

hmmmm, off to stuff some keywords in my metas

 

as of today, google is still using it! even with the api, you can query and get the meta.

macromind

 

meta tags are fine with me... they hepl...

 

I find meta can be useful for alot of search engines. Google is the one which in my experience it is useless for. Usually the smaller ones pay a bigger interest in it as their crawlers can't usually be bothered to be as comprehensive as Google/Yahoo for the actual content.

 

or help...

 

codeber,

why do you think so

 

Everything I've ever read about Google (from Google) has been that they value content of the page the most.

In the past people used to fill the page with meta keywords to get spidered under lots of things. Its very easy for me to write 100 keywords which may not be relevant, but could result in my page getting hits for 'dolls' when its about 'kitchens'.

Googlebot seems to analyze the content and value it more. Because you can't generally fake content. Either you website is about something or it isnt.

I'm not saying Google never uses meta (in fact meta title is very important) but the keywords is more of a fall back position and irrelevant for me.

 

even when using the ajax api, you can request them so they are for sure puting some weight into it...

macromind

 

The "description" meta tag still is a factor in page rank and search results, although not a major factor. It's easy and potentially worth the small amount of work to include it. It certainly doesn't hurt. So why debate the issue?

 

I dont think its worthless, its better to use them as it might help little bit in those few search engine that still read them.

 

Meta description is still useful but the keywords are not any longer.

- MENJ

 

meta tags decides how ur website will be shown in listing.

 

Depending on how competitive a phrase is you are trying to rank with your site, the more "extras" you need to pay attention. Meta tags are some of the items that can give you a leg up with some of the search engines as well as directories.

As I was told while much youger, "The devil is in the details".

 

It's better to use them than not at all. Even if they don't help much they won't harm your site. Also lots of smaller search engines still consider Meta tags as an important factor.

 

i still think they are very important. there has been some doubt raised recently as to whether they in fact make any difference at all. i have no idea who started that rumour coz they need a slap on the wrist.