My iste ranks #10 on Google for teh word bodyboarding , #1 on MSN, # 41 on Yahoo IT has NO META AT ALL anywhere Will it make a difference if I add it ? what do i need META CONTENT and META Description?
For google : No difference For yahoo : Will make a difference For msn: I don't know Meta Description: Needed for marketing purpose. For more info & elaboration on meta tags, scroll down to the bottom of this page and see those similar threads
It should not decrease your rankings. In Yahoo it will definitely help. Meta tags are useful for the SE that still display that in their listings.
Depending on the search term and the content of the description meta tag, Google will use the description tag as a snippet. If there is no description tag, it will find whatever it can to use as a snippet. Crusader is correct: Not having a description tag won't significantly affect your Google ranking but it may help to make your listing look more professional or enticing to prospective visitors.
Most can't hurt, you're right... as long as they're formatted correctly (hint: validate URL for missing tags, quotes, etc.).
My problem is it takes more time to fill in all the meta tags. I have so many sites that I want to promote now and I could be adding high quality articles and content instead of copying and pasting keywords into meta tags. This is how it hurts. Is there a quick way to do the meta tags thing? Brandon
Not really, unless you want to do something with some sort of dynamic script. If you don't think it's worth your time to add unique meta keyword tags, then don't. There won't be much impact at all on your rankings. You will see some impact if you don't optimize the page titles, however. And your listings will lack polish if you don't have a decent meta description tag. Eveything else you can ignore if you wish.