Do search engines care about the "KEYWORD" meta tag? Obviously it doesn't hurt, but can it help? If so how much?
It does not help. But also it can't hurt you if you use it in appropriate way. If you use it, every page should have some different keywords in that meta.
Not really help much. Just put keywords from your content in there. Or place relevant keywords in there, thats the original purpose of that tag.
what are the possibilities of being penalised by using excessive keywords in META KEYWORD tag.. and does it really wont make any difference in SERPS and RANKING...
generally, it doesn't help much particularly on Google. But, I guess Yahoo Search is still into meta tags... I'm clueless though.
I was going to agree with most of what you guys where saying. However looking at my SERP competition, they are all using it extensively.
yeah, everybody thinks it doesn't help. IT'S A BUNCH OF BALONEY. I've got loads of sites ranking for keywords that are ONLY PRESENT IN THE META TAGS. Don't listen to these so called "experts" here...they don't know which way their feet are pointing half the time. Meta tags DEFINITELY matter...use them wisely.
You have no clue what you are talking about. The large majority of search engines do not use Meta Tags as part of their ranking algorithym. The most notable exception is Yahoo which does use them (at least the meta keyword) but it's weight in their algorithym is extremely low and essentially has no influence on a high ranking (it may be useful to jump up you from the 1,000th position or so). Some will claim Google uses Meta tags in its algorithym. This is entirely untrue. Google, however, will use a meta description tag if it is unable to discern a description for a webpage on its own (if the page has no text and no description in the open directory [dmoz] the it is likely Google will use the meta description tag in its SERPs). Please note that it is only using this description in its SERPs, not its algorithym. Should you use Meta Tags in your site? Yes. They do have some affect in some search engines and even though that effect is almost zero it is still more then zero so is worth the time. How much time should I spend on my Meta Tags? Ten minutes. Write a nice concise description of your page and throw in a sampling of keywords (which you should have them handy if you've optimized your pages properly). You should spend no more time then this on them. Use your time to promote your site and get quality inbound links. How many keywords should I use? As many as you want. If you start to think you may have too many, you probably do. This means you need to divide your page into subpages with each one taking its own topic.
Wouldn't it make sense if the keywords and description tags (or at least the first 250 characters) be factored in just as additional content?
so yahoo need met keyword, hmmmmmmmm any way its not hurt, i am going to create meta keywords and meta description jalika
It does help but, I would recommend to use keywords in within you main content. META tags are still followed by some search engines such as MSN but Google and Yahoo give priority to good quality content and link popularity as main factors.
I don't repeat keywords/phrases, and I keep it to a dozen or so at the most. It has never hindered my sites in any way and I'm confident it benefits them if anything. They are cached by SE's, so it's being seen somewhere, somehow.
They are really helping, and let me explain you why. Because all big search Engines are parsers... I mean they are parsing the file ! and even you if you add a keyowrd like < bluewhite123 > and search google after a while, for bluewhiete123 you will find it!!!! So yes, it helping ! For those who don't belive , just do it! Also you may add keywords like : redwhite171 ; onebluedog14 ... into the META tags and search google for it! you will always find them there! so it's helping!
I don't think it matters, but I don't see why somebody won't put it on their website, it doesn't take much time to di it.
I had tried putting meta description on my blog and it is the same for every page. What happened after that is that the big G came. Now, my site: status showed less pages, unless I choose to show the "omitted" results and the big G decides to hide because it thinks they are similar! Now, I make sure meta description is different for every page!
The meta keywords have no value in Google or Yahoo. That is to say, if the keyword in only in the meta keywords, the page will not rank for that keyword in either G or Y. (Anchor text is another thing.) Meta description is a different story. A webpage will rank for words in the meta description in Yahoo. Google displays a snippet from the meta description in the SERPs at times, but a webpage will not rank on Google for keywords for just in the meta description.
Meta keyword Tag's importance is decreased now. But it won't hurt, So why not to use it? It is helpful in some SEs.