Is the META Description really important?

Keyword stuffing is not a good tactic to apply under any sircumstances

 

Agreed. If you apply this tactic, one of two things can happen: It will be ignored, which doesn't help you, or it will be penalized, which hurts you. Neither is really a desirable option.

Sam

 

If your description is crap then nobody will click on your site in the serps. This means the site will drop further and further down the rankings.

 

Are you infering some kind of click based boost in the rankings?

 

I always include both the keyword, title and description tags. If it doesn't hurt then it can only help in the long run. Some search engines still use the keyword tags even if the big boys don't.

 

But if these METAs are not important then why penalise??

Doesnt seem to make much sense!

 

But, how does Google find out that we have clicked here or there? Aren't the resultes just direct links??
This interested me always!!!

 

This is something I have always wondered too.
Yahoo clearly seems to take into consideration the clicks but does Google do? and if they do, how come?

Any info on this topic will be more than welcome

Cheers,
Ludo

 

No one really knows exactly what each SE's algorithm considers except those working for the SE. Generally speaking, "keyword stuffing" of any kind is frowned upon by the SEs. So you may want to consider asking the question, "Why would I want to do it?".

Sam

 

Not only I think METAs are necessary, but they should be well written.
Here's an article that gives you a good step by step guide:

http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2006/apr/7.html

I've had very good results with clients site after doing these changes

 

Any opportunity to add textual content to a site should be taken advantage of....
It is a good opportunity to "work in" phrases that accurately describe your site, that you may have not covered in the page content.

 

Uh hum................

Lets say hyperthetically of course that 'someone' DID stuff the META with keywords.

What could be the penalty?

 

AHAHAHAHAH, It is only useful when your webpages are missing text and search engines need a description for the SERPS listing ( i dont think this is because you see your meta tag description on google SERPS that it is part of the algo tho ).

And it is useful for TLD whois so youve got the title tag, description meta tag and keyword meta tag so you know what the website is about a little bit

Meta tags are all about accessibility content and not search engine optimization at all !! IMHO

 

Thats what it should look like. Keep it short so that you don't have to waste your time about meta tags!

 

All the links in the serps have a javascript onclick event to report when they are clicked. If a site in second place gets loads more clicks than the site in first place it makes sense for it to be moved up.

 

Well, I didn't know about the reports.
Thanks

 

Meta description tag is use to describe what's your site is about, it is used to make a relevancy, increase the density and users friendly, through it users can read and they can come to know the theme of the site. so it does not effect on page rank, but it is really important to make a relevancy in the SEs.

 

So, how many keywords is considred keyword stuffing? I have seen other SEO's say no more than 25!!

 

I don't know if there's an established number for this, but 25 seems like "stuffing" to me. For what it's worth, I try to stick to three or less per page.

Sam

 

Meta tags are not useless If META tags hurt you just ignore it. I would not do it

Why should you stuff keywords?? There are better ways you can get high rankings.