Meta Tags: Are they useful?

[grnidone]

I have a coworker who believes Meta tag optimization is VITAL to search engine optimization. I have tried to explain that meta tags don't really matter as they were so abused in the past search engines basically ignore them.

However, I'd like to get advice from others on this matter.

Do Meta Tags matter in an SEO campaign?

[Gerardism]

The Description tag is still important. With Yahoo for example, it pulls the description tag for description that is displayed in the results. As to it affecting rankings in the search engines, its not likely to make any difference, but you still want to have a good description to catch the users attention and make them want to click on your listing.

[David Wallace]

I certainly wouldn't say that meta tag optimization is VITAL but it is definitely a piece to the overall puzzle.

That being said, there are really only two meta tags that matter - the meta description tag, which as Gerardism said, is sometimes used to form the description you see in the SERPs such as in Yahoo and the keyword meta tag.

The keyword meta tag is the least important of the two. I typically develop one keyword meta tag that is then simply repeated throughout the various pages of a site but the meta description tag should be unique and relevant to each page.

[oilman]

Your Title tag is of utmost importance but keyword tag and description don't do jack for your ranking anymore. You should still include them for Yahoo and other engines as already mentioned but don't spend any real time on them from an SEO standpoint.

Your description tage is more of a marketing tool than an SEO tool - it's your first chance to 'sell' the surfer and get them to click your link.

[David Wallace]

Your Title tag is of utmost importance...
Just wanted to agree with oilman that the title tag is very important if not the most important thing that affects your ranking but also to clarify that the title tag is not a "meta tag".

[oilman]

David has as point - it's not a meta tag but I always include it when I talk about meta tags just cuz it's right up there the head of the document. :)

[dannysullivan]

As said, the title tag isn't a meta tag but right there with Oilman that this remains one of the most important on the page elements that you can use to influence ranking. Want to do well for a term? Having the term in your title tag is generally extremely helpful.

Meta description I always recommend doing, just because it's easy to take the first paragraph of a page, cut and paste, and there's a chance you might have a nicer description in doing so. You don't have completely control, as all the majors consider other things they might use to form a description, as well.

That's a display, not a ranking issue. I feel it might help a tiny, tiny bit if the terms you want to be found for are also in your meta description. So tiny I really hesitate mentioning it.

Meta keywords, last I looked, only Yahoo was actually saying and showing support for. My feeling has long been for the new person, don't bother. They just get confused, expect it to do miracles, worry about are they repeating too much, do I use commas, yada yada.

A little more advanced? Sure, shouldn't hurt, probably won't help with anyone other than Yahoo and then a tiny, tiny, tiny bit.

Doing paid inclusion with Yahoo? Grapevine I've heard is that meta keywords is more important if you're doing XML feeds. Why? XML feeds let you give a nice, clean breakdown of content. Suddenly, your meta keywords area isn't being drowned out by a ton of navigational elements. Still wouldn't count on it making a huge difference -- but if I knew that each page was targeted after a different set of two or three phrases, I'd have those phrases for each page, commas between them.