What are Meta tags? Meta tags are simply small pieces of information that can be attached to a web page. They are invisible to the user, but visible to the search engines.

Meta is the Greek word for "over", and the "meta-tags" were initially designed to carry all sort of meta-information, meaning "information-about". Using meta-tags for specifying keywords or a description for a webpage is not an HTML standard convention, but it is a widely accepted use of the meta-tags.

There are many meta-tag types, but from the search engines' perspective, the most important are the "keywords" meta-tag (carrying keywords associated with the content of the webpage) and the "description" meta-tag (that provides a brief description of the page).

In the beginning, search engines gave much weight to the "keyword" and the "description" meta-tags, because they helped to determine a webpage's relevancy related to a search query. There was a time when a "smart" use of meta-tags could make the difference between a good and a poor positioning in the search engines' listings. However, those times are over...

The misuse of meta-tags was the main reason for which search engines do not rely on them so heavily any more. Unscrupulous webmasters used meta-tags to mislead the search engines in "believing" that a webpage's content was related to a particular topic just to attract traffic. Indeed, nobody can guarantee that the keywords entered are describing the content of a webpage, and one can easily use popular keywords (like "sex", or "free pics") to artificially inflate the number of visitors.

However, being one of the few techniques capable of helping search engines to "understand" human-produced content, meta-tags are still used by many search engines. It is necessary to stress that no search engine relies heavily on them any more, while some search engines ignore them completely.

In the past, meta-tag optimization was the key-point in any search engine optimization strategy. Nowadays, meta-tags still matter, but other factors (like link popularity) are far more important.

Nowadays, search engine optimization techniques are artificially made blurry and confusing. Search engines want you to buy into the idea that the only way to optimize a page for search engine recognition and high ranking is to adhere to their paid programs. The key thing to remember here is that they want you to forget all those free techniques and start paying.

Big picture people (you know, the ones that refer to the common cellphone as a "mobile platform targeting the delivery of collaboration solutions") even coined a new acronym that deals with this concept, SEO.

Here is the definition of SEO, straight from Wikipedia (the free encyclopedia):

"Search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of methods aimed at improving the ranking of a website in search engine listings. The term also refers to an industry of consultants that carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients' sites.

Using search engines, visitors can find sites in a variety of ways: via paid-for advertisements in the search engine results pages (SERPs), via third parties who are listed in the search engines, or via "organic" listings, i.e. the results the search engines present users. SEO is primarily concerned with improving the visibility of a site in the organic search results."

In conclusion, while Meta tags are not completely dead, today, the primary mechanism of determining ranking seems to be link popularity. The search engines are increasingly secretive about their algorithms and since the search engine business became the playground of the rich and the corporate (remember the days when it all was cool, fun and free), it is now a big money making machine.

If you search the internet for articles on this, you will find people who say Meta tags are dead and a thing of the past, you will find people who say that these are just rumors spread by giants such as Google, to promote their paying SEO programs. Whatever the case, here are some scoops:

- It seems that MSN and Yahoo place some importance (very little-but some) on meta tags.

- The general consensus is that Google does not use meta keywords at all. They might still look at the Title tags, some say.

- Everyone agrees that Google is using Bayesian filtering, most likely to analyze your meta keywords for signs of spam. It looks like, as far as Google is concerned, keywords might actually drop your site's rankings. However, you will not upset Google by having a keyword tag providing you don't include words or phrase that are not present within the visible on page text.

- Some very recent studies performed on Google, however, reveal that Meta description has become hugely important to Google now as search results now often display the description when one exists, and that is enormously better than a ransom note.

- In Yahoo's case, Meta keywords is the place for related or misspelled words, stuff that would help the engine understand the context of the page, even though the words don't appear on the page.

So, should you use Meta tags or not?

I believe in well formatted pages, adhering to the W3 Consortium. A properly formatted page should at least have a Title tag and a Description tag. Please note that the Title tag is actually not a "Meta" tag. The Title tag is really important. You should always work your major phrases into the Title tags on your pages, and make sure that each page of your site uses a unique tag.

It is clear that linking techniques are what propel sites into search engine high rankings nowadays. As such, do your homework on the modern ways of optimizing your sites and definitely use the Title tag. You can also use Meta Description tags, as they will not hurt you, but might actually still help, as besides Google (hey, there is a web out there, besides Google), many engines still index them. Both of those tags should be relevant to the individual page and not overloaded with excess words/phrases.

How about the good old keywords?

The only place where people still typically use the Meta keywords tag is to include potential misspellings, technical synonyms, or if the page is geographic in nature, to list the names of towns and cities that the page applies to that are not already mentioned on the page itself. Other than that, be very careful with the keywords, or they might be considered "Spam".

About the author:

Andrei co-owns bsleek ( http://www.bsleek.com ) - a site that specializes in web hosting, design, promotional items, printing, CD Presentations and more. Andrei is on the Board of Consultants for Daterade.com and has amassed an extensive technical knowledge and experience through his career as the CIO for a major travel management company and through his past careers in military research, data acquisition and aerospace engineering.