The Importance of META TAGS
(in terms of Search Engine Rank)
Simply put, there is no search engine rankings benefit in adding Meta Tags to your pages. In the past, Keyword Meta Tags were used by search engines to help rank pages for the given keywords. Since then, Keyword Meta Tags have been taken advantage of by optimizers and spammers. Search Engines have wised-up to this and don't use it in their algorithms. Meta Tag Descriptions are unnecessary too. If you have the given keywords in your content, your description will be pulled directly from there. Most of the time this is more relevant to the search than writing your own generic description for the entire page.
Wait! Why did my Webmaster tell me that Meta Tags are important?
Because they live in the Stone Age and should be nowhere near a computer. If your Webmaster or SEO is proclaiming the importance of Meta Tags, run in the other direction. They may still be a decent web designer, but they don't keep up with Search Engine Optimization. It's been known for quite sometime that Meta Tags have no benefit in rankings. If they truly believe that your site will benefit from them, make certain that a professional is in charge of your SEO and not that person.
When is it good to use Meta Tags?
Meta Tag Descriptions are good to use when you have no content on the page that is relevant to your target keyword. This is only good in the case that your content is unreadable by the spiders. If you have spiderable text and you're still not relevant to the keyword targeted, you may want to take a second look at whether a human visitor would find any value for your page by searching for the given keyword. If it isn't relevant, give up on the keyword, or find some content that makes your page relevant.
Meta Tag Keywords are really a waste of time. The only reason that I use them is to remind myself what keywords I'm targeting for that particular page. Other Metas can be helpful for their specific purpose, but not for helping you with your search engine results.
Can Meta Tags harm your Search Engine Results?
Yes! If your description has nothing to do with your content, it could hurt your rank for the given keywords, and rightly so. This can be tracked easily with user behavior by watching the rate of bounce from your page. A good rule of thumb is to keep your content relevant all the way around. If you're targeting 1 or 2 keywords for a page, make sure they relate in some way or another, and that the entire page is relevant to them as well.
