Meta Keywords And Descriptions

[Wilexa]

I was reading on another (google-oriented) site that you should not use META keyword and description tags. The poster put forth the point that google will penalize you a bit for having them and that they just "weigh your pages down". This contradicts the advice here at TCH Rock Sign .

 

Any other opinions?

 

...Dave

[TCH-Andy]

A think this is a question for our resident expert, but I'll put my 2 cents in anyway

 

I can't see any reason why google would want to penalise anyone for well thought out and constructed META statements. If people put lots of repeat words in, and other poor techniques, then yes I can see why google would want to.

 

If you have used a sensible description and keywords, than I don't think it is much of a heavy load on your pages either. If you put lots of repeated words and other things in, then it will be.

 

Organise everything sensibly and I think it will be fine.

 

And

[musicfrisk]

I have them in my pages and I'm not terribly dissatisifed with my rankings, though they could be better.

 

My rankings clearly indicate that links are most important, as the artists with the most and strongest site link ins come up much higher than the ones that don't.

For example Something Corporate has the most link ins and a search on google for the term musicfrisk shows that band as most relevant.

 

Those links are even moderately difficult to me in a non-competitve environment with a collaborator. I must say that I don't how other people who sell things to peopel go about doing this, it must be difficult to get accomplished.

 

Buitin terms of when page ranks get updated - please don't ask I have no idea!

[SEO]

I was reading on another (google-oriented) site that you should not use META keyword and description tags.

False. You have to be very careful with 'different' advice online regarding optimization (or any other subject), there is a lot of false information out there. You can be penalized (or tags ignored) for misusing them (e.g. keyword stuffing, too many keywords, etc.).

 

[Good job Andy]

 

My rankings clearly indicate that links are most important ...

Not most, but very important... content (and how it is structured) is most important.

 

 

My rankings clearly indicate that links are most important, as the artists with the most and strongest site link ins come up much higher than the ones that don't.

Well there is a little more complexity to this then meets the eye. As you state, 'strongest site link', is very important. Meaning the quality of the link as defined by the linking page PageRank and the number of outbound links on that page. It is not a shear numbers game... although more is better. I can show you many examples of sites that are ranked higher that have lower PageRank and lower number of backlinks.... meaning 'more' is involved. We have discussed this in other threads.

 

 

But in terms of when page ranks get updated - please don't ask I have no idea!

It appears that today (Aug. 8) new backlinks are appearing ... however, it is not showing the typical movement that was associated with the infamous Google 'dance'. Things are (and have been) changing (with Google) and until we 'see' what is going on it is hard to discuss it. I will create a post when I feel comfortable sharing any knowledge/opinion I grasp.

[Wilexa]

Thanks very much for the replies.

 

I have left the tags in my site becauise I always follow TCH advice first. The time and care that the TCH family give to one another is truly amazing. I wish the rest of the internet was as informed and helpful. Rock Sign

 

...Dave

[musicfrisk]

My rankings clearly indicate that links are most important ...

Not most, but very important... content (and how it is structured) is most important.

you've hinted at this a bit and unless I've missed something, I've never seen a clear explanation.

 

right now some of my pages have a PR of 3, a few have PR 2 and the newer pages have PR of zero. I look forward to seeing this as well.