Help with Meta Tag placement

[malhyp]

Hi there, I have created a website, and in this site there are about 100 pages. Of these 100 pages there are about 30 that I would like to be found by people searching the net. I have placed different Meta Tag Keywords on every one of these pages. Each one relates to the individual page. Is this correct? Should I have just placed the same Keywords on all 30 pages?

Your suggestion or feedback is greatly appreciated..

Shane.

[Robert_Charlton]

Hi Shane - Welcome to the forums. Sounds like you did just the right thing. Roughly speaking, the unit of optimization is the page, and you broaden your optimizing possibilities by varying your search term focus on each page.

Much more important than the meta keywords, though, is the page title. The meta keywords really aren't going to help you rank on the major search engines. The engines tend to reward what's visible and prominent on a page. Meta keywords are too easily manipulated to be a trustworthy representation of content.

The title element, though, and how you focus your page content around the title for each page, is crucially important.

I generally use the meta keywords anyway, as you never know when a directory, eg, might decide to use them... but I never rely on them or believe they're going to have much effect on my rankings.

[vayapues]

Also, your page names should contain a keyword or two.

keyword=jupiter
page=jupiter.htm

Dont over do it though such as in:
page=jupiter_io_gas_giant_radiation_astronomy.htm
It is much better just to use a short to the point page name, such as the main concept for that particular page.

Make sure you than use the keywords, title, and page name a few times in the copy for the page, so long as it makes sense, and is in context.

[David Wallace]

The keyword meta tag has so little effect as to where your pages are going to rank so in my opinion, it is not really worth the effort to include unique ones on each page. We simply create one master one which is then repeated on all pages. Yahoo and Ask are the only engines that still seem to index this tag. Your page may rank well as a result of the contents of this tag only if it contains keywords that have little to no competition such as niche words, mis-spellings or just completely off the wall words.

[malhyp]

Thanks for your feedback guys. This has been very helpful.

Thanks.

Mally.