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In the world of SEO, meta tags likely get more time on the debate stand than any other. You’ll hear from one SEO expert that Meta Data is critical to help the search engines in understanding what your page is about. You’ll hear from another that none of the engines pay attention to this anymore – it’s an archaic tag and shouldn’t be an area of focus.

This debate will undoubtedly continue, but in this post we’re hoping to clarify how best to use Meta Data on your site.

What is Meta Data

Wikipedia defines Meta Data as “data about data.” Not a very useful definition, but an accurate one. In the case of Web sites, Meta data is comprised of HTML elements within a page, used to provide structured information about that page. Meta Data on Web pages are used to describe several elements, typically the page’s description, keywords and content type.

How do engines use Meta Data

As stated above, there are mixed opinions on how the search engines use Meta Data. However, there is a definite consensus on a few things:

1. None of the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing) appear to use the meta keywords tag to understand what a page is about.
2. Though the search engines may not use the meta description tag as a primary way to understand a page’s relevancy, this tag remains an important element and is minimally analyzed to insure it is not duplicated across the site.

How do users use Meta Data

For the most part, Meta Data is hidden to the user, except in one important case – the Meta Description tag. The Meta Description tag is used on the search engines’ result pages – displaying text to the user on what the page is about.

meta description tag

So now what?

Meta keywords for the most part are not a useful area to focus on. However – that does not mean they should be ignored. The engines continually change their algorithm and making sure you use this standard tag as best as possible is important. Use this as an opportunity to embed 6-10 keywords related to the page.

Meta descriptions, however, are as important as ever. Your potential customers are using this to decide if they want to visit your Web site or not.

There are a few key guidelines when writing a Meta Description:

1. Remember, for the most part engines aren’t using this as a primary means to establish relevancy to your site or page. This is an opportunity for you to embed marketing-rich copy that may not be as keyword focused. That’s not to say you should neglect your keywords, we simply recommend balancing that keyword focus with copy that will make your prospective visitors want to come to your site.
2. Make sure your meta descriptions are unique on each page within your site. This helps the engines attribute quality to your site and the page – they view the Meta Description as a user element and making sure it describes what the page is about AND is unique is imperative.
3. Remember that your Meta Description will follow your page title in the search result pages. Make sure they interact well – this is your opportunity to have your prospective visitors choose your site over your competitors.