Using the META Title Tag and Other META Tags (Nick Halmond)
Dec 8, 2009
One of the most important elements of onsite SEO is the usage of the META title tag. While including keywords in your site's content and in a META keywords tag usually gains the most attention, the META title tag is certainly not something to be overlooked. Additionally, considering recent developments in the world of SEO it has actually grown in importance. Once you learn how to make use of the proper META tags then you will be able to give yourself an easy boost in the search engines.
First of all, the recent news that has everybody talking is that the major search engines have announced that they no longer use the META keywords tag. In fact, Google hasn't used the META keywords tag for years. This comes as a surprise to many people who have focused their SEO efforts on this, however everyone can now put the debate to rest. Neither Google nor Yahoo! use META keywords to determine a site's ranking in the results.
The META title and description tags still remain extremely valuable however in terms of your overall SEO. For your META title, it's the title that a browser sees when they make a search and see your page listed. It's also of the utmost importance for making your site be seen as important for a search in the eyes of the search engines themselves.
Therefore you should try to incorporate one or two of your keywords into your META title tag so you can improve your rankings for them. However, while you do this you have to keep the overall character length of your title limited. A good rule of thumb is to keep your title under 65 or 60 characters in length. Anything more and it will get cut off. So do your best to incorporate a few of your keywords while keeping the length down to ensure they get included and displayed.
Another important thing to remember with your SEO is that the META description tag is still used widely as well. This is another great place to include a few of your keywords as long as you don't keyword stuff. Here, the target length should be less than 160 characters, giving you more room to write a few sentences of a proper description that will get displayed when your website shows up in the results of a search engine.
Once again, anything more than this and your content will be cut off. Brevity is key, and remember to not try to just list your keywords one after the other. Work a few of your keywords into the text, but be sure to still make them legitimate, understandable descriptions.
As always, the world of SEO is fluid and is constantly changing. The META keywords tag is no longer in use, but the META title tag and META description tag are still very much a part of the game. Incorporate your keywords into them and give the search engines some help in classifying and ranking your site. Your SEO success will improve and you can quit wasting your time writing out lists of keywords separately in your META tags.
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